Hello,

My wife is looking for a new MTB and was considering a 27.5 hardtail. She is currently riding a 26er short travel full sus but doesn’t like how it climbs. Riding is generally big climbs, rough descents medium technical and occasional trail centre rides. No super gnar or jumping.

We spoke to a guy at Mudock in Bristol and he was 100% behind her riding a 29er despite her being 5ft3. She had a few car park tests of some Trek’s with a 51mm fork offset (IIRC) and was *amazed* how they handled.

She’s still going to have a sweet 1996 Kona rigid singlespeed 26er for short blasts in the woods. This bike is more the “long day out” bike.

So what are your thoughts?
Does a 29er work for short people these days?

Any recommendations? Frame only or full bike. Ta!

Willow Korber (sp?) seems to cope but has a stem with a lot of drop on it to get the front end of the bike back to a reasonable level.

I saw a Felt 29er on Twitter yesterday where someone had done the same.

My wife is similar in height and rides a rocky mountain element. Loves it.

Willow Korber (sp?) seems to cope but has a stem with a lot of drop on it to get the front end of the bike back to a reasonable level.

Koeber, but yes. See also Emily Batty. The trouble is that most XC racers are seeking fairly extreme positions anyway. Look at the majority of XC racers (irrespective of height) and they’ll have an inverted stem and minimal spacers. This is not necessarily representative of what your average rider would want. Most people have a few spacers under their stem after all. Don’t assume that because they’re running -17 degree stems she’d have to do the same to get a ‘good’ position.

In short, it’ll be fine, she may have a bit of toe overlap, but that’s as likely to manifest itself in a slow speed car park test as it ever is out on the trails.

njee20 – It seems that with the slack head angle on the Trek and fairly large offset of 51mm on the Rockshox fork, there is no toe overlap – not even close actually.

Wasn’t the original selling point of 29er that they were perfect for the taller rider? Get her to test ride a load before she’s happy.

njee20 – It seems that with the slack head angle on the Trek and fairly large offset of 51mm on the Rockshox fork, there is no toe overlap – not even close actually.

Sorted then!

Herself has a XS niner emd9 at 5’3″.
Seems to work ok for her.

Couple of friends of mine ride an xs Niner Air9 (5’2″) and medium Specialized Fate Expert (5’3″). They both love ’em but be aware that the Niner is very stiff, probably suited for a short stocky bloke to hammer into everything, whereas the Fate is designed for women from the ground up.

Not as I recall

iolo » Wasn’t the original selling point of 29er that they were perfect for the taller rider?
Not as I recall

Thought I would find out, and found a really good read:

http://g-tedproductions.blogspot.co.uk/p/beginnings-of-modern-29er-history.html?m=1

5’3″ loving my 15″ specialized fate!
http://instagram.com/p/nfIbcmy0xn/