Endless threads on here.

The best advice is try everything you can, preferably on your usual trails, not just round a car park. It’s your bike and your hard earned cash.

I tested 4 very different bikes for at least 2 days each, including a 29er, before I bought my 26er Cotic Rocket. For me a 29er didn’t add up, but there will be plenty along to tell you otherwise 😀

For me it’s one of a myriad of “features” about a bike that adds to the sum total of what it’s like to ride. But it’s no more significant than bar width, tyre type and pressure, gearing, stem length, saddle to bar drop, fork and fork setup, frame material, frame geometry etc etc etc. If you are the anal type (I think I might be!) that obsesses about what tyre pressure or bar width you are riding and if it’s wrong the ride is ruined you may well notice the difference. If you just get on and ride your bike you might not even notice, and if you do you will have forgotten about it again in 5mins.

I’ve ended up with one of each. Some might describe this as best of both worlds. I describe it as a pita with switching kit between bikes more difficult and would avoid getting myself in this position again in the future.

Go and ride one. See what you think.

HTH

This, plus most of them will mention;
“less manoeuvrable in tight, twisty stuff”, which will be followed by someone mentioning that most of the winning bikes at Bristol Bike Fest, a very tight, twisty course, were 29ers
“better suited to taller riders” which will be followed by someone mentioning Willow Koerber.

650C is the future. One letter bigger than 650B.

Agree with the others, it’s all about the kind of riding and/or racing you’ll be doing. I think for many XC racers 29ers are the way to go but if you’re riding for fun at trail centres the added suspension travel of 26″ bikes may have the edge in terms of the entertainment stakes.

I’d always read it was the 26″ bikes that were better in tighter situations but actually found my 29er (Canyon CF SLX) to be superior to my 26 full suspension bike (Zesty 514). It’s very nimble and responsive in the tight stuff with great balance.

I think it was Mountain Bike UK last month that ran a comparison between 26, 27.5 and 29 bikes. The 29″ bikes were the fastest over their test course with the 27.5″ bikes a close second. The 26″ were noticeably slower. As with all these decisions it’s best to test ride the bike in question on the terrain you plan to ride.

Get a demo ride on a 29, it is a better option for a lot of people, not all, but a lot.

I agree with mrmo.

There is a lot more to the bike than what wheels it happens to have. The 29er I got was slower over the riding I do than the equivalent 26er so I sold it. However speed is not everything. Fun is more important and my 29er was a lot less fun than my 26er…

there were two 26″ wheeled bikes in my local branch of Leisure Lakes. The rest were 29ers. I think 26″ bikes will become niche in a couple of years (once one of the major fork manufacturers gives up on 26″ that’ll be that.) 29ers are probably better for most UK rides and riders, and once someone sorts out a decent looking 29er full suss, it’ll be all over bar the shouting on the forums.

Which is why I ride a LT HT 26″….

Buy what you want, as long as it makes you smile, nothing else matters

Nicky, what height are you and where in Norn Irn?

If it wasn’t for the fact that mountain ‘650b’ aren’t actually 650b anyhow you might be on to something….

What type of riding do you do/are you going to be doing on it? No one can really answer unless we know that. I own a 26 and a 29 so can probably help you a bit.

Yes, a 29er might roll better, it may ride over small bumps and objects more easily, but, and it’s a big but – Nino Schurter has proven beyond any shadow of a doubt that any perceived benefit they may have can be more than negated by the rider. And for those of you who don’t know, that was in the arena of XC world cup and world champs.

Manufacturers are still banging on about trying to “replicate 26 inch geometry on 29 inch bikes”. Why bother. Until this whole fad happped no one ever rode a bike and then proclaimed “it’s good but it just needs bigger wheels”.

I’m sticking with 26 because the bikes have better geometry, and a much better selection and availability of key components, forks, wheels, tyres, rims. And if the industry does force me one day onto another wheel size I hope it’s 650b, not 29. I don’t need 29 inch wheels on my mountainbike thankyouverymuch Specialized and Trek.

Nino is the best XC racer in the world regardless of wheel size. He’d win on 26″ and 29″. The reason he went with 650b is because he didn’t like the ‘in the bike’ feel of the 29″ and Scott are pushing 650b.

650b will be the norm up to 130mm in the future but that is more about marketing than anything the 29″ marketeers have come up with. I mean, an inch and a quarter larger than 26″? If you’re going to go to the trouble of new components and frames you may aswell get some real world benefits and go 29″.

The NSMB test is the worst I’ve ever read. They didn’t do a single timed run and the only good rider in the test is quite short and rides a 26″ Evo. It’s obviously going to feel massively odd for him but I bet a million bucks that if they did a timed run he would be a LOT faster on the 29″ Evo.

I have a 26″ Evo and just spend a couple weeks on the 29″ Evo. The latter has about 20% more grip and feels like it has 10mm more travel than the 26″. Yet it easily outclimbs the 26″ and just demolishes it on the descents.

Nicky at 5’11” you shouldn’t even consider the 26″. A standard 29″ Stumpy would more or less be as quick on the descents as an Evo 26″ but it will easily outclimb it. Think tech root climbs, you can just sit on the 29″ and ride across diagonal roots and up small steps that would have the 26″ wheelspinning going light on the front etc.

Mine feels a tad slower in tight twisty forest sections, thats the only drawback I can find with mine, apart from the added weight. I’d stick with a 26 for your type of riding. I haven’t even used my 29 in Ireland yet, just been using my 26 bikes here.

He’s a pretty amazing rider. 100% agree. But I think his peers are close enough to him, skill and stamina wise, that if they had any mechanical advantage it would manifest itself in terms of results. The general consensus is that 29ers are considerably faster on XC terrain. Despite his competitors having bikes that, going by your estimation have 20% more grip, feel like they have 10mm more travel, and easily out climb their smaller wheeled counterparts; he dominated. How is that? The answer is there is nowhere near the amount of difference people bandy about. Nothing that can’t be easily negated.

Why? Why is it absurd ? If a larger wheel size has the massive benefits you speak of, but obvious drawbacks concerning weight and geometry on long travel full suspension bikes, then it stands to reason a middle size is a good compromise. It will have some of the benefits and less of the drawbacks. I LOVE how the quickest people to slate 650b are people who already ride 29ers and who sing their virtues from atop their virtual mountains of smugness.

Worst test you’ve ever read?. Perhaps you should write your own? I’d like to read it. I thought it was a good idea to get a mix of riders view points, which is close to all the real world views and info out there. Most opinions being spouted online are just that, opinions. Few people ever get the chance to do what that test did, identical bikes, different riders. More often the comparisons are conjecture based on 29er hardtails vs 140mm full sus 26er etc. Perhaps you didn’t like it because some of the opinions differed from your own? The article didn’t seem to have any agenda as such.

Nicky at 5’11” you shouldn’t even consider the 26″. A standard 29″ Stumpy would more or less be as quick on the descents as an Evo 26″ but it will easily outclimb it. Think tech root climbs, you can just sit on the 29″ and ride across diagonal roots and up small steps that would have the 26″ wheelspinning

He “shouldn’t even consider it”. Well that’s definitive. And yet you have no idea what terrain he rides on. What the Irish gravity enduro tracks are like. Whether his local shop keeps 29er tyres, or rims, or even tubes. Carry on.

That’s a total garbage myth pushed by the 26″ crew. I should know I used to be one! We’re talking 25mm longer wheelbase. Do you really think that will make such a huge difference? Most DH bikes have a 40mm+ longer wheelbase for size than a trail bike yet a DH bike will destroy any trail bike through tight stuff on a descent.

What it is is your center of mass or specifically roll center on the 29″ is lower so it doesn’t flip-flop left to right as quickly as a 26″ but once you get used to it you are just a little more aggressive with the bike in tighter stuff. The benefits of that lower COM is what really makes the biggest difference when you’re smashing it.

Like I say, I’m sure Scott being ahead of the market with 650b influenced the wheelsize choice for him. Again, he would probably win on any size as he’s unbelievable. The question is would Fontanna be as close on a 26″? I honestly doubt it.

I don’t own a 29″ I have a 26″ Evo that is currently up for sale. The thing with 650b is it isn’t in the middle, it;s a little over an inch bigger. Worth a total industry shake up? Hardly, that is a marketing ‘solution’ if ever there was one. I’ve ridden a couple 650b so I’m not being totally ignorant regarding them. I also think most 29’ers look crap. The Stumpy Evo 29″ with it’s ugly swoopy toptube etc doesn’t look half as nice as the 26″ but it’s night and day faster so I don’t have a lot of choice than to move on.

Tyres wise Specialized make all you need. Purgatory, Ground Control, Butcher’s. Quite amazing tires. The Schwalbe Hans Dampf is great also.