Mistress. Noun. Feminine of master.
Mountain bikes made to fit you.
Mistress Cycles is born from my frustration with modern mountain bike geometry. The current trend toward longer/slacker/gnarlier bikes makes it hard for many riders to find bikes that fit them properly. In addition, some of the trendy features make bikes more dangerous ride (do you feel like you’re being pulled over the bars, or that your front tire lacks grip?).
I got sick of hearing myself complain about mountain bike design, so I decided to design my own bike testing my ideas. From the first ride on the Pink Mistress (flying below) I knew I had to bring my ideas to the world.
Mistress Cycles use first principles of biomechanics and physics, laid over vast experience working with real riders in the real world. I know firsthand how actual humans move, ride, think and feel. I know what sensible riders need in a bike, and I’m creating that bike for you.
Warm Embrace geometry helps you ride with more comfort, confidence and fun.
- Prevents the most common crashes (over the bars and washing out in turns).
- Upright, comfortable pedaling position puts minimal strain on your hands, wrists, elbows, shoulders, back and knees.
- Classically slack seat tube angle opens up the cockpit, gets more power from your hips, and reduces strain on your knees.
- Balanced body position keeps the front wheel tracking in turns and reduces rear-wheel kick on bumps.
The result is a bike that feels mellow and easy to ride. The bike industry’s belief that bikes can either be 1) comfortable and safe to ride or be 2) sick and have high performance is misleading at best. When you feel comfortable and safe, you feel confident. From that confidence you can enjoy new trails, keep riding with an aging body, pursue PRs, win races or hit bigger and bigger jumps.
NoWukkas
NoWukkas means no effing worries in Aussie slang. This do-all hardtail converts your worries into stoke.
Warm Embrace geometry
Mistress Cycles hold you in their Warm Embrace. Compared with mainstream mountain bike geometry, Warm Embrace does these things for you:
Prevents you from getting catapulted over the handlebars. This is the most common type of crash that sends riders to the hospital. Raise your hand if this has happened to you (and you’re not wearing a sling right now). Warm Embrace geometry positions the bike’s grips so you have optimal range of motion and muscular recruitment to control your bike. To learn more about the indisputable logic, read my book Dialed v2.
Yes, I wrote a book (2 editions so far) about dynamic mountain bike fit that has helped thousands of riders get their bikes dialed. I’ve asked every major bike company about the logic behind their sizing. Not one company has any provable logic, much less a book. They are all following the same geometry trends because they fear lost sales. That’s the reality of business at that scale.
Prevents you from crashing in turns. This is the second most common cause of mountain-biker hospitalizations. Mainstream bikes shift your weight toward the back tire, which lightens the front tire and makes it tend to slide out in turns (I know you know what I’m talking about). Warm Embrace positions you closer to the middle of your bike so your front tire grips … and you rip!
Makes pedaling easier. Mistress bikes use long-proven “slacker” seat-tube angles that work best for most riders. These angles help you pedal with your powerful butt and hips rather than your weak quads and knees, which improves your power and endurance.
Is just plain more comfortable. The tradition that demands cycling must be painful or it doesn’t count is BS of the highest stink. If you want to suffer needlessly, do that on your own time. Bike time is sacred. The more comfortable you are, the more you ride, and the more fun you have. In its need to sell more models of bikes, the bike industry has determined that there are two kinds of bikes 1) the super cool performance bikes that badasses ride and 2) the boring and uncool comfort bikes that nerds ride. That’s even more stinky BS! Mistress bikes are both more comfortable and higher performing. And, yes, you can be both a nerd and a badass!
To sum it up, Warm Embrace is more comfortable and safer. This gives you the confidence to pursue your most audacious mountain bike dreams, whether they be riding to the corner store for ice cream or charging down world class enduro tracks.
Piloting the Pink Mistress to a personal best time down the local rock-gnar. The punchline: I was just cruising and having fun, knowing I was safe. Speed comes from that. Photo by Christian Smith.
Mistress bikes are for riders who don’t need to be trendy or cool by riding the same bike everyone else rides. Mistress bikes are for people who ride for themselves, for their own reasons.
We fit almost everyone. Right now, many mainstream trail and enduro bikes don’t properly fit anyone shorter than about 5’9? tall. That’s half of men and most women. Mistress bikes are designed to perfectly fit riders between 4’10” and 6’8?. We fit even shorter and taller riders with slight compromises.
If you’re a beginner, Mistress’ Warm Embrace geometry helps you ride with much lower risk of being thrown over the handlebars or washing out in a turn. Everything you do on the bike feels more pleasant and less stressful. This gives you confidence, which leads to fun, fitness and improvement.
When you’re an expert, that confidence allows you to explore your bounds as a rider. I rode the prototype Pink Mistress trail bike at the 2024 UCI Masters World Downhill Mountain Biking Championship on a rowdy course in a field of downhill hikes, and I finished in 9th place. Warm Embrace Geometry really works!
Right after my race run at masters DH wolds in Cairns, Queensland, Australia, 2 minutes before ice cream. Photo by E Meaney.
Questions? Email me at leelikesbikes@gmail.com.
Lee
