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And survived ?
Just wondering what it was like on a big wheeled bike?
Don't do it, you will die, remember those Specialized things with the 24" back wheel? well that's what you need!
One of our staff is riding a 29er Five. Doesn't seem to be holding him back. Suspect he'd be quicker than most people even if riding a Halfords special though.
The alps isn't aimed at 29er riding to be honest, you'll be disappointed. Bearing in mind most of it was designed long before the relatively recent change in wheel size.
I wouldnt risk a 29er in the Alps. best suited to kitty litter trail centres.
Why wouldn't you ??
You will actually be amazed at what some people come down hills very fast on
And stunned by how slow people in all the gear are ...
Peterfile - very funny sir. My congratulations!
I believe the wheels will explode at those altitudes
The Alps weren't designed for 29ers? I didn't realise Plate Techtonics had a view on this ridiculous debate too! A 29er will be fine, just as fine ad a 26er.
Taking one there this week, keep an eye south - you'll probably see the wheels explode from here 😉
I'm in the Les 2 Alpes right now with my Salsa Horsethief, some wide bars, short stem, 140mm forks and Hans Dampf tires and its great on the lift served resort downhill runs. Admittedly I haven't seen another 29er out on the trails this week.
Many have, none have returned
Only thing that comes to mind is that spares availability might be harder- I wouldn't take anything with wacky wheels on holiday, whether it's the stupid unobtainium spokes on my Fulcrums or beardy sizes. If you break it, you want to fix it easily. Less tyre choice too but that's not the issue it was, unless you want dualplies anyway.
But saying "what X for the alps" is always a bit like saying "what x for the british isles"- they're quite big.
We've just (literally, half an hour ago!) got back from our first week in the Alps, including the Pass'Portes du Soleil which two of our party did on 29ers - myself on a 120mm Salsa Horsethief and a mate on a 140mm Spec FSR.
Apart from the PPdS we spent days at Chattel and Les Gets doing the green/blue/red downhill trails. We're both reasonable riders with little downhill experience and neither of us felt out of our depth with our choice of bike. To be honest most of the DH trails we did I would have quite happily done on a HT - we were quite surprised at how smooth most stuff was, except for the monster braking bumps!
Maybe the blacks are another story but, even so, I'm sure a suitable 29er could be found to do the job..
[i]Residents of Chamonix were out in force tonight, to catch a glimpse of Coolhandluke's arrival at the Trail Addiction HQ. Coolhandlukes front wheel, pictured below, was said to be something of a novelty amongst local residents when it arrived ahead of his back wheel (naturally).[/i]
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[i]Meanwhile, the back wheel continues to cause long delays to traffic in North West Paris after it fell over. Engineers are trying to lift the wheel, so it can continue on its way to the Alps, but efforts are being hampered by strong winds & the risk of explosion.[/i]
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My god. People have ridden goats round the Alps. I don't think a bike will do you any harm, whatever the wheel size...
I took this picture just before the bigest wheel explosion you have ever heard.
It was so loud all the locals thought the large hadron collider had malfunctioned.
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by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/stu-b/ ]multispeedstu[/url], on Flickr
Watch out, put too much air in those large tyres and at high altitude a 29er tends to try to turn itself upside down:
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Shirley the larger wheel size will just roll over the pimple of the Alps rendering them inconsequential, or is that fat bikes?