I’ve spent 12 years testing mountain bikes, and for a large portion of those, I’ve had to include the words “a geometry flip chip enables you to alter the bike’s geo” in an ever-increasing number of reviews.
The reality is that, save for being thorough in my testing, I have never used a flip chip in anger.
So why does the bike industry keep putting these fiddly ovals of metal in its frames?
I believe these chips should be thrown in the deep fat frier, never to be seen again.
What is a geometry flip chip?
Geometry chips are usually stadium-shaped inserts (that’s the technical term for a rectangle with rounded-off ends, apparently) at either a full-suspension frame’s pivot or shock-mounting point, with an offset hole for the pivot or shock hardware.
By flipping the orientation of the chip, the geometry of the bike – usually the head and seat angles and bottom bracket height – can be altered.
Some brands may offer independent chainstay-length or head-angle adjustment with chips in the chainstays or headset, respectively.
These are user-adjustable and can often be altered on the trail, should you wish.
What benefits do they bring?
The bike industry will tell you flip chips are there to offer you the chance to fine-tune the feeling of your bike, to ensure its geometry best matches the terrain and your riding preferences.
After all, more choice is a good thing, right?
Usually, you get two options – high (steep) or low (slack), but Rocky Mountain went seven further, by offering nine geometry options with the Ride-9 (although it’s a mere four on the brand's current bikes).
Adjustments are usually in the range of half a degree or a few millimetres here and there – hardly groundbreaking stuff.
The consensus is that riders who value climbing performance will opt for the steeper or higher setting.
A steep seat angle is better for pedalling, a higher BB adds ground clearance on technical ascents and a steep head angle is better for… well, we’re rarely sure to be honest.
Those who prefer descending will benefit from a longer front centre, thanks to the slacker head angle, as well as calm steering. The lower BB will help keep weight low for improved cornering too.
The reality is, all of these things can be achieved in one frame.
The chips are down
As I mentioned earlier, I’ve never used a geometry flip chip in anger, and I’ve never known any riding pal of mine to use theirs either.
In all but one case (a ridiculously low Specialized Stumpjumper EVO from 2018), the chip is set to the slackest or lowest setting as soon as the bike is pulled from the box, and left there forever.
In the UK, at the very least, on everything from trail bikes to enduro bikes, riders want slack, low angles, in my experience.
They will pick this option almost exclusively.
Goldilocks geometry?
So why not just build a bike with one perfect geometry?
A few years ago, Canyon sort of did this.
While the carbon Spectrals had a flip chip in their frame, the alloy versions of the same bike had the slack head angle and low BB height of the CF models in the slack setting, and the steep seat angle of the CF’s steep setting.
It seemed to me to give the best of both worlds.
Are all flip chips bad?
I’ll finish this micro-gripe by saying that not all chips are built equal.
Straight-cut, chunky, and sweet potato all have their benefits on the plate, and this is also the case with flip chips.
Trek's (and other brands’) progression chips make a noticeable and worthwhile alteration to how a bike rides, and I have swapped these around depending on the ride.
The more progressive setting suited bike-park days, with bottom-out protection and plenty of pop, while the less progressive setting was great when I wanted fluttery comfort.
Likewise, I’m no mullet-bike hater, and so the option to swap from full 29in wheels to mixed-wheel setups without compromising the geometry of the bike is a clear use case for the flip chip or alternative link.
So, I’ll leave it there.
Bike brands – save your manufacturing resources and just give us optimally shaped bikes from the get-go.
Slack head angles, low BBs and steep seat angles do the job just fine.
