Bit of a vague question but has anyone bought a 29er and decided it wasn’t as great as the marketing made out?
Just browsing through ebay (wife grinding her teeth next to me) and noticed there seem to be a lot of 29ers for sale – most very new. Or is this just the people with more money than sense and limited attention spans??

Or is this just the people with more money than sense and limited attention spans??

What round here!!

It’n not cool anymore it’s all about [insert new standard here]

compare it to the number of 26er mtbs nearly new and it’s only a small percentage. 😀

1). No.
2). Yes.

takisawa2 – Member
1). No.
2). Yes.

No chance of anyone answering 2, as it’s a bit emperors new clothes…

Still with 26 FWIW I don’t get new bikes that often. By the time I do there will be a new fadbest thing

YEs, I had a Unit 29er, the legendary steel ride was in fact tank-like. A GF Rig was great and same for my Big Kahuna.

For rigid bikes or hardtails they make sense, I guess I should try a ful suss one.

Mine’s drop-barred and works well as cross and touring bikes too.

It does make you wonder when you see something that was being praised as an awesome bike a few months earlier being sold almost new, but it’s not limited to 29ers. I’ve seen an Orange Gyro and a Cotic Rocket for sale recently. Both have only been on the market for a few months and both seem to garner a lot of praise. One is a 28er and the other 26″ but I doubt the wheel size has much to do with it.

Didn’t buy it, but tested one and it was terrible. Not because it was a 29er, it was just terrible.

Yes, I bought a 29er about six months back, and was expecting to get blown away by it’s all-round awsomeness and have my 26 up for sale within a week. But instead, I found myself gradually drifting back to my faithful 26 for about 80% of my rides, and the 29er now only comes out occasionally.

I haven’t sold it though, as for certain types of conditions – races and fast flowy trails mostly – it is definitely better/faster than the 26. Its just that most of my riding is on twisty, tight, techy trails, where the 26 still seems to have an advantage.

So, nothing against 29ers, I just think there’s no such thing as a do-it-all bike, all bikes are good at some things, and not so good at others. So, ‘horses for courses’ is my new mantra, as it’s nice to have the choice of different steeds to suit the different kinds of riding I do 😀

Roverpig – Gyro is a 29er.

I love my 29ers.

It is, as with anything possible to make a bad buying decision, bought on a whim, didn’t quite work as expected, fit issues etc. I nearly bought a Whyte 829 but test rode and hated it. A Fisher Ferrous was bought off the bay, bloody awful (now cracked and hanging from the garage ceiling), tastes and priorities change so some do get sold quickly. Great for the second hand bargain hunter.

A good comparison I think! I changed form a Scott Scale 26 full XTR, to a Scott Scale 29 full XTR and the 29er is faster over bumpy ground, more stable and has more grip so for me it’s a better bike.

I have a Salsa spearfish, first few rides it was ace, sold my 26″ bike and dismantled the other one (lack of space). After a while i started to have problems, it began to feel cumbersome, would never react how i wanted it to, felt slow etc.

I decided to persevere but it did reduce the amount of general riding i did over the summer (tho funnily i was still happy riding it on very long rides). Ive now spent a bit of money sorting it out, new cockpit, brakes, tyres etc. and im starting to love it again. Its very fast and i think thats part of the problem, the bike is a short travel XC bike and im hammering into stuff way faster than i would have on my old Yeti (ASR) and it gets out its depth pretty quickly. No crashes yet but im going to change to Fox shocks as the RS ones dont give much confidence.

I’ve got a 29er that I rarely use, I take it round Thetford occasionally but for anything twisty/airborne ill use a 26er, I’ve bought two more 26ers since I bought my 29er and wouldn’t buy another 29er.

oh, and regarding the 29ers on ebay, they all seem to be mediums or smalls, very few large or XL appear in comparison (IME).

bought a 29er scandal frame and manotou forks from my nephew who did not get on with 29ers at all………too big cumbersome and flexy but he is downhill orientated and 16st rugby playing young man. more into launching himself and bike off things

I rode to 29er for 3 months 3 or 4 times a week weekends usually 50 miles plus over mixed terrian often linking trails with road bashes.

so for me
pluses
stable
suprisingly good in the twisty stuff…Gisburn trail centre steamrolled
comfortable after changes to stems….makes a huge difference to handling but big wheel commfort
fatigue lessened on long smooth tracks trails and bridleways

minuses
not as fast as i thought….quick yes but not massively on offf road trails and climbs
Climbing smooth firetrack no problems but tech climbs I failed miserably on it
Flexy wheels….great some good strong light wheels I am 14.5 stone
downhills …..fast on steady downs but steep rocky stuff always felt like i was going over bars,ridden the same trails on 26er and did not feel the same at all, in real rocky places it struggled
steep angles……used to less steep angles.

Then rode my 26 Yeti asr 7 and that was just bloody great fun, fun fun…..sweepy, stable, bouncy and fun.
So mixed bag, I feel 29ers are Americian riders bikes long trails not mega twisty or UK driven in terms of riding, but have got awaiting my return to health a rocky mountain element 29er full suss which may work for me………less stepp angles mainly.

I see the point of the 29er and making the scandal a ‘trip bike’ for roads and bridleways for spring and summer also for most recreational riders yes 29ers are great, i just like 26ers with their slowing rolling wheels, making not as fast, their complete skill compensation in the rough stuff.

For this year I will have two wheel sizes in the shed 8)

Yes I’ve had a one that I wasn’t that keen on.

I’ve also had a couple of 26ers that I wasn’t keen on.

They were all the wrong bike for me not the wrong wheel size.

Surely the question could be rephrased as…

Has anybody bought a bike anything and didn’t like it?

The fact that somebody is selling a bike doen’t necessarily reflect on the fact that the bike has 29 inch wheels (or SRAM shifters 😉 ), but is more likely due to the fact that they just don’t like it. As usual, it’s all a bit subjective and very difficult to judge.

The ‘changing your bike because it’s muddy’ syndrome is possibly at play too 😉

For the record, I have a mix of 26, 29, singlespeed, geared and hybrid bikes – love em all (but what’s not to love about bikes?)

what’s not to love about bikes?

Cleaning them when you get back from a ride and it’s dark and raining. 😐

At the end of the day op, you just have to try it.

But as any bike, if you buy based you YOUR preferences and the riding YOU actually do and understand exactly where a particular bike (regardless of wheel size) excels and compromises, you won’t go too wrong.

I tried a 29 inbred and absolutely hated it. I hated its carbon forks and I hated its heavy wheels. My trial ride was called off half way round and that was that.
However I now have a 29 scandal with lovely light wheels and forks that go up and down. Love it to bits.
A big heavy 26 would have still been rubbish where as a nice light 26 would only have been a bit better. I know I have one as well.