The Triumph of Conventional Wisdom: Vitus Mythique

For the better part of the last two decades, I've been chasing my slightly offbeat image of what a mountain bike should be. 29ers when everyone was on 26ers, single speeds, rigid bikes, Jones bikes, plus tires, funny handlebars and suspension seatposts... I've had them all. In the meantime, the mainstream trail bike has been coalescing around a pretty stable image: a 29er full suspension bike, 130-140mm travel, with an aluminum or carbon frame, a dropper post, slack geo, and a mild rise handlebar. Which basically describes my latest bike, a Vitus Mythique:

You know what? Sometimes conventional wisdom is conventional because it just works.

I ordered the Vitus from Chainreactioncycles. The order took a few days to process, but once it shipped, this massive box from Northern Ireland showed up on my front porch in Ohio the next day:

Everything was packed well, no scratches and nothing was bent:

They even included a pedal wrench, a multi tool, a bell, and some townie pedals:

The only change I made so far was to swap the stock bar for a carbon bar with a bit more rise, to help my aging back. No weird sweepiness here.

It's pretty amazing how well this bike works. The brakes are strong, the shifting is spot on, and the dropper drops.

It handles well, very neutrally, I don't even think about it. The 29x2.35 tires grip well and keep a pretty light feeling for the steering.

It weighs just about the same as my Marino, and only about two pounds more than my Ragley. That was a bit depressing.

I have some complaints:

- the bottom bracket is too low. I've never had so many pedal strikes. I ordered the 130mm travel version, but doing it over, I would have opted for the pricier 140mm travel version, just to get the increased bottom bracket height. I'll be swapping the 170mm cranks for something shorter, when I can find something in stock, but in the meantime, I'll be playing the stupid pedal ratchet game.

- the suspension quality isn't the best. The linkage design (a Horst four bar) is great, pretty supple and active, but it doesn't bob excessively when I stand up to put power down. But the fork is initially too soft, but rarely reaches full travel, while I have the shock set up firm (to keep the pedals off the ground), but it hits full stroke easily. Again, the more expensive versions of this bike would have better quality suspension bits, and these are inline with the price of the bike.

It's a bad sign for the Marino that I kept shopping even right after I got it. Another bad sign is that I'm already trying it in townie mode, with big slicks, a Jones bar, and a 38t front ring:

And a third strike is that I didn't really enjoy it all that much in this mode. My Bike Friday is a lot more fun to ride.

The conventional build of my Vitus is a better mountain bike than the Marino (excepting the Marino's higher bottom bracket). This has me now looking at an aluminum hybrid for my city bike. Wouldn't something like a Kona Dew work better than all my various old mountain bikes, cross bikes, vintage bikes, and folders? Maybe we'll see.