[Closed] 29ers. Are they faster?

very fast on open bridleways but unless your 6ft 4 plus the whole idea falls apart on techy singletrack .it feels like your fighting the god damm thing.

Does anyone realy care if they're faster or not though.

The thread started off so well then fell apart when the man on a mission to conver the world to 29ers joined in. 🙄 😉

BUT:
Could a fairly compotent technical rider (eg, mid-pack senior/master DH racer) hustle a 29er down techy trail centre singletrack at a respectable pace? As in, not holding up all the middle management types on their Lapierre Spicys with Giro Switchblade helmets?

You know the sort I mean, it's not meant to be offensive or derogitory.

What like this you mean?

[url]

😉

Bikes are bikes - ride and enjoy! (obviously 29ers will give you more enjoyment though! 😆 )

Did no one see Willow Koeber at Dalby, 5' and a bit on a 29er?

While I realise that for the Pro's its very important to be riding whatever it is that your sponsor has to sell, but they wouldn't handicap themselves too much - as 'win on a Sunday, sell on a Monday'.

To an unscientific mind it feels that a 29er should roll better than a 26er, especially across 'broken' ground due to its shallower circumference. Whether this makes up for the increase 'force' exerted due to having weight further from the axle, I don't know.

Oh sorry, this is STW and we don't believe that weight makes any difference, do we 😉

Nice try Stu, and despite the good work, that's not really what I mean.

I had the tighter, techy, wooded, scrape-yer-elbows type of thing in mind. Can a 29er be pushed hard enough here that it doesn't negate the fast/open/pedally advantages?

I had the tighter, techy, wooded, scrape-yer-elbows type of thing in mind.

Thought you said trail center type riding. 😉

Can a 29er be pushed hard enough here that it doesn't negate the fast/open/pedally advantages?

Lets face it 95% of it's the rider not what bike they're on.

That's what i was hoping for... I might have to bite the bullet and find a Giant XTC 29er 1.

Next question: Can I justify a 29er as well as a Cyclocross bike? Will the TCX have to go...?

What has justification got to do with anything.

It's just an excuse to buy another bike. 8)

Is this now a "Oh Oh look at me I'm a race COCK" forum then. Some people need to get a #ucking life. Used to be good place this but the good guys are getting drowned out. 29 26 69 49 whatever its about the people not the techno shite. Yours the village idiot 8)

I take it you've not been here long then stumpynya12? It's always been like this - just these days it's the 29er fanbhoys where as it used to be singlespeeders trying to persuade the world that their way was the one true way.

And some of us ride singlespeed 29ers, geared 29ers, cross bikes, tandems and 26er freemince bikes but couldn't give a **** if anyone else does or not. 8)

A good few years and try my best to be nice but its hard, real hard. Old skool single speeders from way back when just ride their bikes and go out to have "simple fun" you know like being a kid again. They will ride with everybody and whatever they chose to ride, its all mtb'in for the fun of it.Sorry it must be I'm justing get to old or less tolerant ?

How well do they take square edged hits? ;0)

Surely Penny Farthing's are even faster with the super size front wheels.

Compared to an identical 26" equivalent a 29'er will be heavier, slower to accelerate, more flexible and have a higher centre of gravity. So of course they will be faster. 😉

By the way I really like 29'rs.

[i]have a higher centre of gravity[/i]

Doesn't this depend more on where the BB is in relation to the axles?

And on a 29er its probably lower, isn't it?

They will ride with everybody and whatever they chose to ride, its all mtb'in for the fun of it

At what point on this thread did anyone say anything to the contrary?

chalkstorm - Member
emac63 - you got one have you?

Porkstorm - Did have one until this morning where upon I gave it away as I found it too wide for the close together trees on the Monkey trail...... 8)

[b] I gave it away as I found it too wide for the close together trees on the Monkey trail......[/b]

lol

joe@brookscycles - Member
That's what i was hoping for... I might have to bite the bullet and find a Giant XTC 29er 1.

good luck with that, they sold out ages ago, as did
most of the fishers, the konas - I got a scandal pro xt in the end and very pleased so far

Well, did a different loop this morning. The best time I've managed on the 26" bike was just over 2 hours, on a day that was cool, dry and generally very fast (last year). Usually though it takes between 2h15 and 3h.

This morning the trails were a bit sticky from yesterday's rain, the grass/brambles/nettles were quite long and there was a reasonable breeze later on. Did it in just under 2 hours.

So I guess for some things, a 29er is quite a lot faster.

Set2Rise, lots and lots of techy singletrack.
Now, if I go uphill at the sort of speed you would expect for a 100kg fat beardy bloke on a 29er, and I do, yet I can finish 10th solo male, I must be making up time somewhere. 😉

That's not very scientific. Road bikes are faster on-road than mountain bikes, but does that make them faster off-road too?

If, in riding on the road, the 29er is always 1.5mph (or thereabouts) faster than the 26er, again ridden on the road, on the same route each time, with the same RRalf tyres (as stated in the previous post) then just how scientific does it need to be?! It’s simply a faster bike.

The OP asked a simple enough question, after all, & so all we're doing is taking the time to answer with real-world answers, it's no more complex than that. If, on the back of such anecdotes, people still don't really appreciate that there might be a speed difference, or simply accept the perceived wisdom circa >2008 (originally concluded by some of the bike magazines who are even now notoriously unsure of the whole 29er thang) then no amount of column inches are going to sway the way some people think.

TBH, there’s only one sure-fire way to find out for oneself if, on the trails you enjoy, a 29er would be quicker and that’s to get hold of one; unless you’re happy being told what to think and act, that is; it seems to me that enough riders & virtually every mainstream and independent manufacturer has voted with their design & production & also wallets for to me to conclude that there’s something in this big-wheeler evolution.

only place i've struggled to keep up with others on my 29er is pie run (or is it the mushroom one) at GT - fast and twisty through trees.

everywhere else its been perfect.

Is it just me that falls asleep halfway through Ti29ers posts.

Keep up the good work putting folks off even trying them. 😉

Get my 29er frame on tuesday, building up as SS, sold all my geary stuff now as I find contentment riding where I do on 1 gear.
Looking forward to 29er, going into it with a very open mind.

Is it just me that falls asleep halfway through Ti29ers posts.

As i am open minded I went out to ride in Dalby today on a 26" SS. I tried to find 29" SS riders ? I meet none !! Shit they must be so fast I couldn't catch one 8) Yours the village idiot.

I passed 100's(well a fair few anyway) of 26" wheeled bikes on my rigid SS 29er on the new trail at Cannock Saturday.As I ripped by them several of them said "golly I wish I had a 29er so I could ride that fast,he must be going 1.5mph faster than me"...... 8)

After todays ride i have to say that crossbikes are [b]shitloads[/b]** faster.* 😀

*but batter you to death. 😐

**at least 1.75mph

Yer but, no but, yer but I never saw any and I was out for 6 hrs and I was going 1.3 miles pr hour faster than last time I was out. Mr Wonka has informed me I am to small at 5'6" to ride a 29er anyway so I will stick with my slow 26er. While I'm on here is it correct to assume all single speed riders are gods sent down to earth ? yours the village idiot.

[url= http://fisherbikes.com/news/article/a_29er_leads_the_world_cup_for_the_first_time_ever_ ]5ft 2 rider on a 29er leads the World Championships.[/url]

Once a Village idiot, always a village idiot I guess & I wonder if SSStu (as always, the negative man on STW) manages his ADHAD to cope with this post?!

Anyhow, the OP asked if 29ers are quicker, so bringing the post back-on-track....

“We’re really excited about Willow’s accomplishments, and stoked that she’s proving the advantages of 29ers on the global circuit,” Remarked Travis Ott, Global Brand Manager at Fisher Bikes. “This successfully debunks any skepticism that 29ers are not suited for World Cup level racing. It also should clear up any confusion that 29ers are only for tall riders.”

Not particularly saying he's wrong but...

Global Brand Manager at Fisher Bikes

I love Ti29ers leap of logic.

His 29er is faster [i]on road[/i] so all 29er are faster [i]off road![/i]

You simply cannot extrapolate that - too many unadjusted factors and anyway the on road is a sample of one - so not significant. Are the tyres the same width and at the same pressure? Riding position the same? Gearing the same?

My tandem is significantly quicker than a solo on road and slower offroad - depending on the type of terrain.

Ti29er - Absalon described the course at the recent World Cup in Offenburg, Germany as being "tight, with very technical sections and good climbing". Koerber on her 29'er finished in 15th.

I like 29'ers, infact I like all bikes. It's a bit daft though to say that one wheel size will always be quicker than an other wheel size. When you look at all the evidence and reports it illustrates that both 26 and 29" wheel sizes both have their strengths, and each wheel size will be quicker than the other when the conditions suit them.

In the not to distant future I think you will see XC racers swapping between 26 and 29" wheel sizes depending on the course and conditions, in a manner similar to which they swap between full-suss and hardtails at the moment.

But, if we are going to fan the flames.

Road bikes have gone through loads of wheel size changes over the years, but they now seem to have settled at a 700c wheel size as being the optimum size for the average person. If you measure the diameter of a 700c wheel with a 23c tyre you'll see that it's smaller (or about the same size) than a 26" MTB wheel with a 2.2/2.3 tyre. Why then do roadies prefer a smaller wheel?

Why then do roadies prefer a smaller wheel?

Do they? My next door neighbour has a triathlon road bike he bought about ten years ago when 26" wheels were all the rage.

The smaller wheel size means that you accelerate faster, according to the hype. But now, all these bikes have gone back to 700c (much to his annoyance).

Anyway, I don't think TI29er's results should be treated quite so dismissively - there's clearly something going on. Perhaps the real question is how to judge when a 29er will shine, and when to stick to a 26er.

I said this in another thread, but with a 29er you have more stored energy in the flywheels that are the wheels. The more often you have to turn this energy back into heat (i.e. using the brakes) the more you are penalised for carrying this energy because every time you re-accelerate you have to put it back in. So as a 29er will have lower rolling resistance than a similar 26er the 29er will be faster on courses that require less braking whilst the 26er will be faster on courses with more changes of speed.

With road bikes a course would have to be very bendy for a wheel with higher rolling resistance but lower angular momentum to be advantageous.

I just felt myself nodding off again towards the end of page 2. 😉