Nah but I went 26 to 29. (I should say, I’m not a good enduro racer, IIRC I was 250th out of about 270 in elite men at the ews round I did… Though, that was on 26, I’m sure I’d gain about 200 places with my better rollover and kashima coatings and that)
And yeah, really like it. I had a BMC Trailfox 29 which is pretty well proven on the world level, but which I didn’t totally get on with, now I’ve got a Remedy 29 which people insist is more a trailbike than enduro bike, despite it being the most succesful enduro race bike ever made…
And it’s good. It’s fast, it grips, but the main thing for me is it’s just less tiring– by the end of a sustained stage I’m barely hanging on but with the clown whels that comes later and not so bad, so I’m riding better to the end. That’s a ridiculously massive difference, we’re not talking .01 seconds over a root or something, but big chunks of time, just by staying stronger and tidier and more committed (and sometimes more upright). Everything is just that little bit less effort and less thought and it keeps me fresher and in the right sort of zone without ever really feeling all that different from one moment to the next. And overall, it just suits my riding style really well.
OK, so I went 29er mostly out of petulance at the whole 650b bullshit, I figured if I got a new bike I wanted to be able to tell that it had bigger wheels without reading the labels. But it’s worked out.
@Tom, add to that Francois Bailly-Maittre, Lewis Buchanan, Greg Callaghan, Curtis Keene sometimes… I think Katy’s been more often on the 650b slash though?
