Interested in the 26 vs 29er debate and riding. Mainly do xc stuff, trail centre and longer offroad trips (3-4 hrs stuff). Has anyone taken the plunge and converted from 26 to 29 as their main bike choice offroad? Oh, I’m used to hardtails!

P

Yes, I feel strange on smaller wheels now and just about to sell my remaining 26″ wheeler.

I do similar riding to you and have never felt that I have brought the wrong bike, especially on longer rides.

Using a 29er for XC 😯
Are you mad ?

Love my F/S 29er for longer XC stuff but there is pros and cons to both tbh ! I’m lucky that i have a mix of 26 and 29 inch wheeled bikes and can chose the right tool for the job ! But I always pick the 29er for longer rides so much more comfortable and rolls so much better 🙂

SS 29er & a FS 26″ here, for short fire-road stuff/midweek night rides & trail centre fun stuff respectively. Sorry but for me, using either for both uses is a compromise. Love my 29er, but there’s stuff my FS 26″ does way way better & vice versa.

Despite their increasing popularity here, I bet you don’t see many HT 29er’s in the Alps.

Your riding sounds much the same as mine and am using the 29er most of the time.Feels more comfortable on longer rides and i aim to use it at mayhem and 24/12.The only downside for me is the slightly slower acceleration of the heavier wheels.I would say that if you go for one to get the best wheelset you can.

I’m the same as everyone else, use the 29er 90% of the time but there are still times when the 26 are better, that alps comment is about right IMO, tight switchbacks are not the 29er forte.

Also 2nd the above comment as get the lightest rims/tyres you can get away with, mine came with some really heavy wheels but a change has turned it into a different bike.

horses for courses 🙂

I have both. Both Hardtails as I dont need a FS. As said above its horses for courses. If you dont race bikes then I dont see any need to try and get things faster or better handling. It would simply come down to comfort for me. A 29er is a better fit IMO for a tall rider like me. So on longer runs a 29er is king. But there is no way it handles as good as 26 wheeled bike in some off road riding. There are bits where I ride where I would not want to ride a 29er due to it not feeling fun like the 26 wheeled hardtail. I’m not bothered about speed, I don’t race I just thrash about! Its still a bike with 28nch wheels and requires a good pair of lungs and some strong legs to get the best out of it. Have two bikes one a 29er set up for lighter trails and more long ditance and have the 26er set up more for shorter harder rides with more technical type of riding where you need to move about a lot on the bike and get off the saddle and pop the front wheel over things more.

I think if you ride on a lot of fire roads and do a bit of your riding on the road to get to the trails then the 29er is better but for pure off road proper mountain biking the 26 is better. Think more about which you do if it comes down to having just one bike,

29 at the front and 26 at the back but still can’t ride for jack!

Hi

I have a selection of 2 pretty much identically specced Salsa ti hartails. One is 26 one is 29. If I had to only have one, it’d be the 29. It’s smoother round trail centres, whoops etc and for general trail riding it’s more relaxing and comfortable. The bigger wheels also give me more confidence on drops etc. The 26″ bike is good when the race is smooth, requires frequent short sprints and is very fast, or where there are no big rocky sections. I’m probably going to race the 29er at Dalby in a couple of weeks due to the technical nature of the course, even though it’s a couple of pounds heavier. This difference is mainly in the forks as I have DT on the 26 and Fox on the 29. When the DT 29er forks are available (as fitted to the Merida on the STW front page) this will cut down the difference a lot. All the comments about 29ers being slow to turn are outdated with modern geometry forks.

GB

Oh – and my old 29er Mamasita has the most podiums of any bike I’ve had!!

29 all the way….can do everything the 26 did but faster 😈

29er now my only bike. Since getting it I’ve not ridden anything else, and just got rid of my other two bikes.

Ace.

Went 29 years ago and won’t even consider going back to 26.
At 6’2″ they fit me better.
They also ride better.
Check out the salsa range of 29er, there is so much variety. Also Niner bikes; their sir9 853 Hardtail is out of this world nice. Finest handling bike I have ever ridden.

To keep it all nimble go light on the wheels and tyres. We have 620g 2.4 tyres and stans complete wheels at 1575g a pair. And 130g innertubes.

I don’t know anyone over 5’10” who have regretted going 29er and have gone back to 26. Go on do it.

I had a 29er hardtail (Kula Deluxe) with a pretty light weight build and really enjoyed it. I’ve since splashed out on a Tallboy FS build and as I couldn’t see me taking the hardtail out in preference to the Tallboy, I’ve now split it. I had a great ride out in the Peak District around Macclesfield forrest area that was a reasonable distance, quite a lot of climbing and some pretty gnarly decents and it was ace!

With propedal on and forks locked (and Talas set to 95mm) it was very hardtail like anyway and a bit lighter than my (high specced) hardtail was even with a fairly robust build.