Frameset arrives on Monday and will initially be built with an old 29er wheel set whilst I consider what to go for. Tyres will be Chunky Monkeys. But, should I go the 29+ route or the 27.5+ route in the long term? What have you tried that worked (or didn’t). Yes, it’s a new thread and I have read the old one.

Cheers

David

Both work well

I prefer B+

An interesting fun combo was B+ (Trailblazer) rear and a Chronicle front

I’ve gone for 29er wheels (hope xc) with a maxxis ikon rear and ardent front. 2.0 and 2.35 if I remember correctly.
I wanted to keep it fairly fast rolling with an xc bias so I remember the limitations of the rigid frame.
I tend to use mine for local xc rides with a bit of road/gravel/Sustrans thrown in.
I have a full suss for anything more technical.

Chronicle looks good – EXO or non?

Hi David, the geometry of the current frame is designed around a 29×3 front, 29×2.3 rear set up, with those tyres you’ll have the geometry that’s on the geo chart on my website. I love this set up because its fast and comfortable, the fat front rubber does a fine job of getting rid of all the high frequency trail vibrations that normally kill your hands on a rigid bike, leaving your arms and legs to act as ruddy great big springs on the bigger stuff. That’s where it should end, but 27×3 front and rear does really nice, lively things to the handling. The gen2 frame was redesigned to accomodate these tyres, but in short, if you’re an ex-bmx type guy who loves flinging his bike around then B+ is the one, and in truth there aren’t any downsides for any type of riding. As you already have 29er wheels why not try a plus tyre on the front, they work fine with regular rims on the front

2 sets of wheels for me;
– 27+ with 3.0 tyres (a set for mud and a set for dust)
– 29” XC wheels with 38c tyres or 2.0 XC tyres.

Covers all the riding I could ever want. A set for hooligan fun and longer slow rides, and a set for faster road riding, country lane exploring and bike packing.

Make sure you get a set of Moto bars too- they make a huge difference.
Have fun! It’s a hell of a bike. It takes care of all the things my FS bike doesn’t do.