Having said that I am loving the big wheels at the moment they maintain speed better and don’t seem to have any significant downsides!

Complete drivel! 😉

I can’t understand how the extra materials involved in longer tubes, fork legs, rims, tyres, tubes, spokes add 10% to the shop floor price, given that the non-marterial costs for building, transporting, storage and sale are largely of not entirely the same.

You never mentioned designing and R&D, the 29er is new, therefore more R&D needed. Add tot hat the number sold is less. Bigger development cost divided by smaller number of units = increaced price.

Also the building cost isn’t the same, to hydroform a tube you need a mould for each tube in each size, less 29ers sold means less frames to spread the cost of moulds, jigs, other tooling accross.

On-One manage it by not doing anything fancy, so a steel framed 29er based on their steel framed 26er is just the same with longer tubes, maybe going up a tubing size and tweeking the butting profile, but as long as they hit the minimum required for a run of tubing they’re OK, thus the frames can be made quickly and cheeply regardless of size.

I’ve gone 29er and won’t go back, 26″ XC bikes just feel a bit mehhhhhhh now, like they take lots of effort to keep moving and are just trying to shake you to pieces.

like they take lots of effort to keep moving and are just trying to shake you to pieces.

😆

haha, it was meant (at least slightly) tongue in cheek.

But I have just sold my 26″ XC bike after buying a Swift on a whim and deciding the 26″ bike was now redundant for out the door singletrack type riding.

Still got the Pitch though, although I’ve a complete lack of desire to ride if after it broke my arm in Spain :*(

Loving my 29er now, it covers distance easily and I wouldn’t race on anything else.

BUT

Also loving my 26er for playing in the woods and less serious rides.

NO I DON’T WANT A 27.5er………………

I have recently gone 29er (yeti big top)
Since building it up I haven’t got my 575 out of the shed other than to move the mower.
On super gnarly stuff I would say a 26″ wheel is probably better peaks, lakes etc etc but for general XC stuff the bigger wheel rolls better has higher levels of traction and takes bumps out a treat.
It does look a bit out of proportion I agree a bit like bambi TBH.
On the basis I have a bike to ride not to just look at, and I am according to my mates quicker up and down on a 29″ wheel
Try it whats the worst that can happen?

Try it whats the worst that can happen?

Shrapnel from the exploding wheels rips your knackers off.

It’s true. It happened to a mate of mine. Twice.

On-One manage it by not doing anything fancy, so a steel framed 29er based on their steel framed 26er is just the same with longer tubes, maybe going up a tubing size and tweeking the butting profile, but as long as they hit the minimum required for a run of tubing they’re OK, thus the frames can be made quickly and cheeply regardless of size.

On-one managed it with the competitively-lightweight alloy scandal 29er for same cost too. With their economies of scale (for worldwide, actually probably just in the US, Spesh will sell many times more 29ers than on-one will sell of all their bikes put together) how do Specialized still need £1-200 more per bike for the same thing? The addidional r&d, hdrofirming different size tubes and so on do not manage to add any price to spesh’s women’s bikes for identical model/spec yet their blurb talks extensively about tubes and geometry, many of which are hydroformed on both male and femal versions of the same frame. The two examples of spesh 26/29er I referred to have frames as similar/dissimilar to each other as a 29-er scandal is to a 26-er, with the same engineering challenges as on-one had (lightweight alloy 100mm-ish bike) only with the financial advantage to spesh and to the customer of many many more ‘units shifted’ to offset the r&d costs through. They are also marketed better though. 😉 (no offence on-one!)

I like bikes and I like the way the bike industry comes up with new bikes and designs. It means my lovely friends still have jobs in bike shops, I don’t get bored with them (bikes not my friends!) and can keep on liking bikes. Imagine if we all only had one type of bike available to us….

variation and choice is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

…and I am according to my mates quicker up and down…

So am I after I’ve bought something new and shiny, dont worry it’ll soon wear off…

Think about it most upgrades can be added to a bike but changing to 29 means a new frame, forks, wheels

So a bit like when we went from v brakes to disc brakes then. 😉
Thinking back there were quite a few people that thought discs were un needed too. 😆

The only time I’ve seen a 29er out and about is when I’ve look down at what I’m riding (err, so quite often then really I guess, as that’s what I ride).

It’s been at least 18 months since I bumped into a MTB in the lanes (and that was a pal who’s since bought a CX bike anyway). Virtually verything I see is either some kinda road / touring / commuter bike, or BMX’s.

An’ I wouldn’t use wireless networking if you paid me to – I like the security of a hard-wired network (not to mention not having to worry about the localised effects of the non-ionizing radiation at ‘wifi’ frequencies (and no, I don’t use a cellular phone either unless it’s absolutely unavoidable)).

😉

I’ve just gone from this:

to this:

TBH I’ve been sold on the technical merits for a while, but cash flow and timing have been the limiting factors for trading out to the 29er.

I’ve literally only just got the Solaris built up after selling the Ti before christmas, and the most obvious thing I’ve noticed is that its nice to have a hardtail again…

I might have to get one of these 29ers, rode some trails today really really fast. Then I remembered it was only visceral speed.

Gutted cos I can’t afford to like them at the moment.

29er’s are definitely over rated, over priced and very dull compared to a nice 26er.
Don’t bother! 😉

scienceofficer – report needed on differences PLEASE !

my nicolai ac 29er will be joined by a 29?” HT and my Ti456 relegated at some point too,,,,,,,,,,,

Will be building up a 26er HT from my parts bin when I get time, firstly because the parts are all there but mainly so that I can compare a 26er again to my 3 month old 29er…going to try to keep an open mind, despite already anticipating the result 😀

Edit chainslap, your head is massively disproportionate to the rest of your body 😯

Slapper!

Not as much as the football!

Nothing new to read here then ,

A friend has a 29er that seems good and looks sensible because he is tall but he says it is hopeless in the mud because the long contact area gets bogged down and then the wheels also weigh a ton. He uses it when it is not too wet and seems pretty fast but he is pretty fast and I suspect that is the truth. The problem with mud seems logical but has never been raised on line as far as I have noticed despite the huge amounts written. Just wondered if anyone else had noticed.

hopeless in the mud because the long contact area gets bogged down and then the wheels also weigh a ton.

😆 thats a good one, thats not true mate

how do *insert big brand name here* still need £1-200 more per bike for the same thing?

I could give you the cynical answer. TINAS as right in theory but in practice / mainly, only new carbon frames have that kind of R+D vs units calcs applied. No-one really opens molds for HF tubes in each size, maybe Giant since they own all their HF kit. Most HF stuff is done by 2 companies here and it’s open molds.
I’d expect the higher cost is just a ‘re-balancing of rrp oppportunity’ in the face of rising costs in the far east and something new ‘withstanding’ it. A bit of it new stuff and a bit more materials too, but maybe not that much. Maybe.

Anyway. 29ers. hmm isn’t it wasn’t it. I was talking to a colleague from an earlier job last night and we were reminiscing about all the chats about the 29er negatives raised (including a few by me, I wasn’t an early adopter personally) about the 29ers that we had out in ~2005. Seems a long time ago now.

Science Officer hanging out at the Swan again i see ! 😆

Fenred, irrespective of my disproportionate head, please acknowledge the fact that I can operate a lap top computer before the age of 1. 😀

hopeless in the mud because the long contact area gets bogged down and then the wheels also weigh a ton.

thats a good one, thats not true mate

Well, it’s probably true that a 29″ tire can have more mud stuck to it than a 26″.

… hopeless in the mud because the long contact area gets bogged down…

Ah, that’ll explain why tractors have got such small wheels.

I have to say, that ‘Hopeless in the mud thing’ is just plain wrong. He must be weak or something. Maybe he had the trots that day, or was wearing his sisters pants? ;o)

TLR.

Difficult to say at the moment. I’ve put so many hours on the Ti I knew it inside out, and thats not the case with the Solaris.

I’ve also changed the emphasis on the build a little. – I’ve gone up a size on the 29er so its longer, with a shorter fork.

So far, its a bit less ‘pop-and-hop’ that the Ti and a little slower to turn – These are not massive differences though – easily stuff that I will adjust my riding style to.

Biggest factors for me are rolling speed on rough ground and grip.

Huge; I mean huge levels of grip.

In the schlocky Mendips I’ve been using a Racing Ralph on the rear and its gripping comparably with a Bonty Mud-x in 26 on the ti, but with the extra rolling speed everywhere else. Add that to the whole ‘not-hooking-up-on bumps’ thing that 29er are famed for, it makes for a likeable combination. Oddly, I notice this the most on some of the local DH runs, where the braking bumps and G-out holes seem to be quite a bit smaller, and on climbs, where it just keeps on rolling, resulting in less situations where one loses momentum on some kind of tech feature, like a step up – obviously running a singlespeed, this is a helpful attribute to keep momentum.

It carries speed very well and is very composed. Cy makes specific reference to this being quick over the ground and he’s not wrong. With a geared setup this will be a serious mile muncher if you chose to build it that way.

My other bike is a 2011 turner 5spot that I’ve had for about 6months and its quite an agile ‘pop-and-hop’ bike for me, so I’ve built this up to be as different as possible from that, for variety’s sake and to increase the differences between that and the SS 29er.