How did it all start, who were the first to promote it? I seem to remember it has a long history. Interested in reading up.

Looking at that ritchey p29 I have a very wrong longing for one 🙂

Geoff Apps was probably the first to use 700c and 650b fat tyres off-road, in the 80s. Look him up.. the 29er was invented in the Chilterns!

Wikipedia agrees

http://twentynineinches.com/2010/02/11/a-historical-perspective-an-editorial/

When I used to race CX in Santa Cruz in the early 90s there were several people running flat barred CX bikes… what’s the difference?

The marketing men needed to sell something else thats the difference Is a 29er really a pricey hybrid?

All our ‘tracker ‘ bikes as kids in the 70s were racers with cow horns and knobblies.
If off road cycling had evolved without American influence we would all be riding 29ers.
Would anyone feel the need to invent smaller wheels?

I think the history of 29ers really started when riders used bigger wheels for bikes capable of riding terrain that was previously thought of as only rideable on a normal/26″ bike. Until then they were flat-barred CX or ‘trackers’, bikes that would fold a wheel or fork if ridden flat out down a rooty or rocky trail. So i’d still say it started with Geoff Apps and then got a false-start in the 90s with production flat-bar monster-x type bikes. If WTB had made a 2.3″ tyre back then things could have been very different. Or, if Geoff Apps’ bikes had been a little more mainstream and not quite as radical compared to the US-inspired trends of the late 80s.

Much like 650b might turn out, with 29ers niche manufacturers wanted something “different”. The mainstream then caught on as a way of selling “more”.

Marketing Hype!
700c road and cx – great.
26″ MTB great – thank you to the repack crew on their clunkers.
29ers waste of effing time and money – you’ve been sucked in by the corporate big boys!
Only surpassed in stupidity by 69ers.

I love the way the 29er haters come out early in a thread and yet I know of no one who has tried a 29er for a decent period of time and then gone back to purely 26″ bikes, they all have at least 1 big wheel in the collection. 😀

you’ve been sucked in by the corporate big boys!

massive fail there I’m afraid coleman, the big boys are miles behind as they didn’t want to touch it at all and it was the smaller and more odd ball guys that have developed it into something decent the corps are just trying to cash in now its popular.

Just look at charge bikes…they hated 29ers until their overseas client base showed a keen interest…..then actually tried them……then decided they were being nobbers and started selling them and riding them to the point where nick has been quoted as saying he prefers his steel big wheel for riding over his Ti hardtail.

just try it with an open mind and loose all the MBR baggage 😆

650B may turn out to be the best all round size, but it takes a while to persuade people to try things when a bike with new standards like that is a major investment. If we all had access to multiple test bikes with different bars, wheel sizes, suspension or lack of, these ideas would catch on or a clear leader would emerge a lot faster. Luckily the good bike companies have plenty of staff with access to many test bikes and different kit, things are tried out and experimented with, so good ideas get pushed forward. (I think this idea that bike companies just market stuff that has no basis in riding enjoyment is simply untrue. Easy to accuse, but not how it really works.)

Tazzy, I’ve tried plenty of 29ers. In fact, whenever there was one to test, I took it. Still don’t want one, though.

29ers waste of effing time and money – you’ve been sucked in by the corporate big boys!

tell that to a TD racer..

But anyway, aren’t we on the history of 29ers, not the usual pro-con debate?

CFH that’s because you’re a fool and a buffoon, but we won’t hold that against you 😉

I know a certain MBR FS trail-bke die-hard has been seen having a lot of fun and really liking a US-brand 9er recently.. even MBR are dropping the baggage as the bikes mature. A key point in 29er history maybe?!

that mr fisher had a lot do with it taking off and WTB for making the first 29er tyres that were more than a beefy CX tyre

IT’S THEIR FAULT!

I remember stepping in to Willits Bikes in CB when Wes Williams was selling 29er’s (hand crafted in titanium if I recall) for a mere $3k a pop for a frame back in ’98. Still got his business card somewhere.

He was an evangelist for them back then.

So its not that new.

It’s just another kind of bike, no one is forcing anyone to ride one.
I love them and can’t find a single drawback.
Let’s all pick on fixies instead. £ 600 for a rigid bike with no gears and one brake, how does that work?

Let’s all pick on fixies instead. £ 600 for a rigid bike with no gears and one brake, how does that work?

Bike companies want to jump on the latest bandwagon and sell more. Shocking, huh?

I love fixies – I ride them on the track, and on the way to work. I ride 26″ mtb’s offroad, 700c on road, race 700c cx, and just don’t feel the need for a 29er or a 69er.

Cars and clothes and most products in life are sold by companies that need to follow trends that consumers get all frothed up about.. blame the company or the consumer?

Or, instead of following the market demands, a company avoids all fashions and bandwagons and exclusively sells what it believes in. It struggles with high prices/low volumes and gets accused of nichism. Geoff Apps would be a good example there, of Jeff Jones.

Sometimes you can’t win )

Does anyone know why road wheels are the size they are?
What other wheel sizes are available, seem to remember as a kid having a 24er(!) then going onto a 27 when I was tall enough.
Have 26 inch wheels only ever been on U. S cruiser things previously?

Where did 26″ wheels come from?

I mean before mountain bikes what were they used on?

While I think about it didn’t Specialized make a bike with a 24 rear and 26 front a few years back?

26″ wheels came from American clunker or utility bikes popular from the thirties to the fifties.

29ers niche manufacturers wanted something “different”. The mainstream then caught on as a way of selling “more”.

A bit like most things in life then. A small manufacturer developes something because of how it works not how marketable it is. Then once it becomes more acceptable the bandwaggon jumpers try to make money from it.

Next thing you know the big S will be trying to sue the small guys for using the “29er ” tag. 😐

There’s a 29er test in singletrack this month. Quite an interesting read.

I think somehow they look wrong…but then thats probably wrong

I think I still have some 650 rims from when that fad failed,Makes you wonder if they missed a trick by not getting behind 650 for a few years,milking that then finally getting round to 29 inchers.

This is how we ended up (arbitarily) with 26″ wheels
http://www.klunkerz.com/

I like them – they do some things better than a 26″ and nothing worse that I notice

29ers waste of effing time and money – you’ve been sucked in by the corporate big boys!
Only surpassed in stupidity by 69ers.

cripes, that’s me told, i’ll sell my 29ers and 69er straight away just on the strength of this, i mean he must have rigorusly tested all the genres to have this amount of knowledge

2retro4u
Marin County, Cali

Where did 26″ wheels come from?

I mean before mountain bikes what were they used on?

The size originated in Germany in the ‘thirties, and was brought to the US by Ignatz Schwinn, who put them onto bikes modeled after the motorcycles of the day, with false “tank,” light, chainguard, horn, etc. At that time the high-pressure tyres used on original automobiles (think Ford Model T) were giving way to lower pressure tyres with more volume.

The bikes that originally used these tyres were hardly high-performance. In fact, balloon tyres started life as a marketing gimmick.

As it developed, by the ‘seventies the bike market had moved on, 26″ was associated with kids’ bikes, and you could have one of these low performance antiques for next to nothing. OTOH, those old wheels and huge, heavy tyres were virtually indestructible. If your hobby involved smashing cheap bikes in the woods, the bikes and their associated tyre size made perfect sense.

Mountain bikes appeared out of the same crowd that had been using 26″ all along on “klunker” bikes, and they saw no reason to re-design the wheel if it already worked.

I agree with another poster that Wes Williams in Crested Butte was the first American advocate of 29″ wheels, but Gary Fisher made them fashionable.

Gary Fisher sponsors me for my bikes and they are 29ers, so that’s what I ride. They work fine. Wheel size is somewhat arbitrary, but within reason bigger is better as long as it does not compromise steering. I would not care to take on a gnarly trail on 20″ wheels.

2retro4u
Marin County, Cali

didn’t Specialized make a bike with a 24 rear and 26 front a few years back?

Cannondale

Original Specialized Bighit had 24 inch back wheel if I remember.

I quite fancy a 29er but also fancy a full sus too and just need more time to ride then I can justify either.