A brief history of MBR magazine’s opinion of 29ers in my own words. After being a subscriber for the last few years i’ve noticed their opinion on 29ers changing but what i find annoying is that their stance has gone from shouting them down as a ridiculous fad to acknowledging that they are actually pretty godd to ride & not just for people 7′ tall.

29ers appear on the scene sometime ago
MBR:-
’29ers are stoopid’
’29ers are poo’
’29ers are even more poo that the poo that a poo eating person would do after a year of eating poo’

MBR gets a long term test 29er & also does a back to back test with 26er & 29er from the same brand:-
’29ers are ok for some stuff but still pretty poo’

MBR does a group test of 29er FS bikes:-
‘yeah 29ers are good & pretty fast, buy one’

I had noticed this as well.
They recieved quite a few letters telling them to not be so blinkered so got off their pot and looked at them, surprise surprise they work!!
Or for a synic’s view they got paid a load of cash by Spesh to push them.
Fear not 650b is on the way so watch out!!

The anti-29er-ism from STW HQ was quite pungent for some time as well.

Personally, I find it admirable when people change their views due to experience and/or an alternative point of view is offered. It shows a certain flexibility and humility.

It’s the outright dogmatic a**e licking view of WMB that annoys the s**t outta me, who would probably tell us to buy products made from papier mache if that gets them a free pass to the next trade show VIP area.

And as previously stated, MBR are only guilty of being rather slow on the uptake and would probably be better off getting a fleet of 650’s to test 😕

It would be less annoying if they did not deride things before actually trying & testing them. What happened to the objective reporting of journalists? Off to buy a fatmag, I hear they handle better in the soft and smelly.

who are the biggest advertisers?

if the journos didnt poo-poo stuff, nobody would bother to buy their fanboi mag.

I found it was that they dismissed the 29ers out of hand that annoyed me. Once they actually got around to riding them, then the change began. I have no problem with anyone liking or not liking something – but the ‘it looks different – burn it’ approach was a little sad.

MBR did run an article (maybe part of a review) that basically said “Ok, hands up, we were wrong on the 29er thing.”. So fair play to them for that.

i tried to burn it, it was made of scandinavianinium (or sommat)

Yeah, if was the strength of their seemingly unfounded opinions that irked me tbh.

Dirt have had a few in recently, and seems to be evolving to include far more enduro bikes.

Good article about 26″ versus 29″ actually in this months Dirt, from two top enduro riders..

Journalists in changing their opinion shocker… So?

The bikes have evolved too….

It must be quite hard to properly test bikes though. Given most of a bike can be tweaked by just a few simple things (seat, tyres, bar, stem etc) and those tweaks will make it feel quite different.

Also, I bet most tests are not scientific – you and your journo mates get to ride some demo bikes for a bit and then your fed beer and grub while listening to the marketing powerpoint.

Then you have a deadline to file a readable report with pictures.

Its most likely to be made up.

Whereas if id test them id do timed laps of a trail, in set conditions and have to spend a few days testing, checking and calibrating and fiddling – all for the conclusion that most bikes are fun to ride.

sod the 29er tests….I’m in it 😉

(As a result today was the first time I’ve bought it for 5 years)

The anti-29er-ism from STW HQ was quite pungent for some time as well.

Really? I remember Chipps being pretty much joined at the saddle to his Karate Monkey, back when 29ers were far from “normal”.

29ers are rubbish, everyone knows that, stay away from them

if it was a changing of opinion over a several year period, could it not be due to the fact that 29ers were initially not very good , but now after a few years of development they’re not bad at all?

Not defending MBR (I;m not a reader), or 29er’s (I;ve never ridden one)

Now lets see.
When did Spech start pushing 29er?
When did MBR start liking 29ers?

Was it not around the same time. 😆

Still makes me laugh when people judge a bike on wheel size alone.
They do come in different flavour you know.

I won’t tell you what I heard, because no,good will come from sharing it publicly. but they certainly were not open minded. What no one needed that within the sport and industry. I don’t want media that I am expected to pay for to be so biased… Free your mind and your arse will follow.

But they are not the only ones. Many manufacturers have switched and joined the band wagon late. One uk frame brand stated (whilst launching their late to the party 29er) that they used to think that 29ers were no good for their style of riding, fast singletrack….. Eeer that is where they are best.

Anyway… I reckon it will be the new “29plus” category that will make me smile. After the surly krampus you will see the kona tonka, trek black mamba, and specialized stump ****er.

Was there a mahoosive specialized ad on the back for a 29’er – that normally correlates with MBR’s reviews.

Not saying biased or anything 😉

singlespeedstu – Member

Now lets see.
When did Spech start pushing 29er?
When did MBR start liking 29ers?

Was it not around the same time.

Actually not- they were later to the party than Specialized. OTOH it did pretty much coincide with the Orange Gyro.

MBR is a rubbish mag anyway, don’t buy it. End of problem.

I was chatting to a Triumph dealer the other day, he told me that the mags quite often return test bikes which have barely turned a wheel…

No doubt this applies to the whole magazine industry.

And we would be foolish to believe that the mags are impartial, they are in business to make money.

As for 29 v 26, I think the science of it sounds good but I really don’t care, 26 is good enough for me.

I like the idea of 29ers, the intense 29er hard tail is gorgeous but the tradionalist in me can’t get over it. MTBs should have a 26″ wheel. It’s the rules!

I fear change!

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

Oh God….the Spesh/MBR correlation thing that always pops up on here does my head in.

The Spesh ad is always on the back of MBR & they’ve been advertising their 29ers on their for ages.

And the Spesh in this months 29er test didn’t win it….I think the Norco Shinobi did. But, I don’t recall seeing a Norco ad anywhere (although perhaps I just haven’t noticed it).

But yes, you could see this change in opinion coming from sometime ago, really.

Oh, and I think one of the Big Picture photos from this month is of Duane who pops up on here.

I was chatting to a Triumph dealer the other day, he told me that the mags quite often return test bikes which have barely turned a wheel…

No doubt this applies to the whole magazine industry.

Actually MBR have been out to Whistler riding a load of bikes twice this year. Think what you want about the mag but the bike tests are way ahead of any other in the industry. Who else swaps tires, bars and stems in group tests so a simple thing like narrow bars or a long stem can’t ruin a solid bike.