[Closed] Interesting opinion on 29ers

I've recently swapped from a 26er to a 29er and have never had any desire for 26ers to become obsolete but if it means bwaarp will p1ss off and buy a crosser then I'm all for it. Bloody hell man, every time this is mentioned you're all over it like a broken bloody record. You bleating on about it on internet forums isn't going to change anything so get over it would you?

Lol just spat my brandy all over the keyboard.

I'm actually a bit worried about pussywillow, he's gone very quiet.

It's a reasonable hypothesis that bwaaaaarp is pussywillow, except that bwaaaaaaaarp writes in coherent English, pussywillow doesn't.

Unless he's very good at writing in different voices, like the guy who wrote Cloud Atlas.

NO it doesn't, YOU have YOUR riding style, YOU spend YOUR money. Plenty of reasons why in certain applications 29" wheels work better than 26".

Yep...round-eyed and froth-flecked. Probably quite shouty too I expect 😆

And I'm questioning the behaviour of the market, not the actual bikes.

I recently acquired a 20 year old mx5, it's way more fun to drive than my passat, though it's actually not as fast. Speed does not equal enjoyment.

Though when it comes to bikes, despite not having done any scientific testing, I'm fairly certain I'm faster on the big wheels.

On the subject of crossers, would you go 2 or 4 stroke

At least if you owned a two stroke you could keep it for spare parts. Eg wheels, forks, brakes etc when you invariably bend your chassis and destroy your engine racing.

Would you really do that? Could you not try and have fun on a big wheeler? I've never ridden one but i think if I did, i could have fun on it.

Okay, spend AT LEAST 3k to get a 29 bike to the current spec of my
Mega, then spend another grand on a 29er hardtail. Mountain biking is expensive but the nice thing was that before you could upgrade part by part.

Based on that I'm already 4/7ths of the way to buying a KTM 6 days 450. Might as well go the last 3 grand.

I've just gone 24' because of the weather and it's the only SS we have in the house. Good fun but a bit panicky in the woods. The MX5 idea above. Enjoyable fun but cant rationally recommend it.
I also enjoy the looks from the 'serious' mountain bikers we have in the SE.

Based on that I'm already 4/7ths of the way to buying a KTM 6 days 450.

I've no idea what this bloke's on about.

Not further up north on the shore though. They're popular in parts of the States that involve riding up and down fireroads.

Wrong. Way more people are buying 29" in BC than 26".

4/7ths, is that a tool for something?

I definitely don't think 29ers will be the all that is on offer in the future:

* They don't suit smaller riders

* They don't suit long travel applications especially when that rider is less than 6 foot tall.

* They're still losing XC events to 26 and 650b.

They'll have to keep lots of 26 frames available for youngsters, short people, women and long travel applications. Privateers will also want 26 inch frames so whoever still makes them will make a small fortune.

This will increase the costs of production of frames, wheels and forks and will see to it that we pay even more for MTB's.

Why don't they work with small riders? A friend of mine is 5'5" and he's okay on the 29". He just runs a flat instead of 20mm rise bar and he gets the same position. Obviously he's way quicker on he 29".

They're loosing a few World Cup XC races but look at the lower levels, everyone is on a 29". Nino won't ride 29" because Scott are pushing 650b. Marco and Jaro etc do quite well on 29".

26" is gone. All DH bikes will be 650b in a year or so. All the proto's doing the rounds are all 650b. The 29" to 650b cross over will be 160mm. It'll be interesting to see how Curtis does on the 29" Enduro. People who have ridden it say its total monster.

Why don't they work with small riders? A friend of mine is 5'5" and he's okay on the 29". He just runs a flat instead of 20mm rise bar and he gets the same position. Obviously he's way quicker on he 29".

The idea that something will die off/killed off due to Spec/Giant not bothering is rubbish. The number of smaller bike companies that are still making 26 quite happily is great. Maybe the bigger companies will loose out on some sales?
Also all this talk of this for x that for y is crap too. If you want rules get a road bike. Ride what is comfortable and enjoy it.

As the only 29er rider in the 7/8 folk I ride with around the Lakes, I don't understand the fuss. The 29er isn't as good once the speed drops i.e. steep climbing. Most bikes in shops here are 26.
We're all still friends and no mouth frothing.

A friend is 5' she can't ride a 29" she races and beats a hell of a lot of guys on most kind of bikes.

Willow Koerber is 5'2" and she does okay. I bet she could ride a Specialized Fate. The thing is with the 29" is that even if it feels odd in the carpark test once you ride it on trails worrying about position goes out the window.

The 29er isn't as good once the speed drops i.e. steep climbing.

Willow Koerber is 5'2" and she does okay. I bet she could ride a Specialized Fate. The thing is with the 29" is that even if it feels odd in the carpark test once you ride it on trails worrying about position goes out the window.

Rocky Mtn would be a little p*ssed if she was riding a specialized and she has tried a few. Like I say it's not denting her performance really...

I don't understand why mountain bikers won't accept 29 as the new standard, it just works, end of story.

If you've not ridden both then you can't appreciate the benefits of a 29er.

Anthem 29, best bike I've ever ridden.

29ers can clean steep loose and technical climbs quicker and even clean stuff that 26 can't.

Ride harder.

26" is gone. All DH bikes will be 650b in a year or so. All the proto's doing the rounds are all 650b. The 29" to 650b cross over will be 160mm. It'll be interesting to see how Curtis does on the 29" Enduro. People who have ridden it say its total monster.

650B is just pure marketing to sell more frames, forks and wheels. No timed run decreases wider rims and lower pressures could have got you. Enjoy spending another 3/4 thousand pounds on setups that you can't swap major parts over, I could deal with 1.5/tapered headsets but this really is taking MTBing away from it's roots. When I was visiting the DH race scene to watch my younger brother race and to ride with him, a good competitive bike would set a privateer back maybe 2.5 grand? All those parts could be swapped over from 1 season to the next - now a competitive bike costs 4 grand at the bottom range all the way up to 8000. The sports becoming ridiculous, it was the poor mans MX/Enduro before. HAH!

Honest to god, I would love to see British Cycling ban them like the Germans have done for nationals (I think).

Anthem 29, best bike I've ever ridden.

The one I rode was horribly flexy, but yeah....big wheels make people feel safer so I guess it might work for you.

Here's Brendog on the matter of 650b.

I don’t even notice the difference, apart from it rolls a bit better maybe.

And on that bombshell, I conclude my feelings on this matter.

You're right tazzy - what would I know about how my 26 and 29 bikes ride, with me aboard.
Harder to keep big wheel moving at slow speeds and steering is slower. Going a bitter faster, I agree - which is why I ride one.

[img] [/img]

The one I rode was horribly flexy, but yeah....big wheels make people feel safer so I guess it might work for you.

I bow down to your (obviously) superior skills...

Happily on 26" for the moment although did give a 29'r a go recently and quite enjoyed it - nothing too special but a little different. what I am getting sick of however is going into bikeshops to look for bits and being assailed by the shopfloor staff who want to evangelise about bigger wheels and persuade me that rather than buying that 26 inch mud tyre I should buy a whole new bike which will magically roll faster, float over rocks and wipe itself clean at the end of the ride.*

29'r marketing is probably the most overhyped nonsense in a field pretty full of overhyped nonsense, it makes the claimed year on year increases in 'lateral stiffness' and 'small bump compliance' seem reasonable.

Do quite fancy an inbred 29" in teal however 🙂

* Not all bike shops of course - just some recent annoying experiences

+1 MrSynthpop

the more they push 29er the more it will backfire

this is a really stupid thread based on guess what a specialised employee talking up 29ers - well no sh1t!

singlespeed shep - that record wouldn't play in the first place......

bwaarp said:

 a good competitive bike would set a privateer back maybe 2.5 grand? All those parts could be swapped over from 1 season to the next - now a competitive bike costs 4 grand at the bottom range all the way up to 8000

Hate to piss on your chips, but;
-Kona Operator £2400
-Specialized Status £2500
-Nukeproof Scalp £2200
-Scott Gambler £2600
-Norco Aurum £2100
-GT Fury £2300
-Canyon Torque £1700

Competitive enough for most 'privateers' i would reckon

Personally, I'm waiting for 'on the fly' adjustment before I change from 26"
😀

CALM DOWN DEARS ITS ONLY BIKES 😀

Based on that I'm already 4/7ths of the way to buying a KTM 6 days 450.

Do you plan on riding the ISDE then? 😆

Or is it for the image of thinking you're a sixdays rider. 😉

There should be a ban on 26" riders starting these threads.

GET OVER IT.

MrSynthpop - Member
Happily on 26" for the moment although did give a 29'r a go recently and quite enjoyed it - nothing too special but a little different. what I am getting sick of however is going into bikeshops to look for bits and being assailed by the shopfloor staff who want to evangelise about bigger wheels and persuade me that rather than buying that 26 inch mud tyre I should buy a whole new bike which will magically roll faster, float over rocks and wipe itself clean at the end of the ride.*
29'r marketing is probably the most overhyped nonsense in a field pretty full of overhyped nonsense, it makes the claimed year on year increases in 'lateral stiffness' and 'small bump compliance' seem reasonable.
Do quite fancy an inbred 29" in teal however
* Not all bike shops of course - just some recent annoying experiences
POSTED 1 HOUR AGO #
asterix - Member
+1 MrSynthpop
the more they push 29er the more it will backfire
this is a really stupid thread based on guess what a specialised employee talking up 29ers - well no sh1t!
POSTED 1 HOUR AGO #
boxelder - Member
singlespeed shep - that record wouldn't play in the first place......
POSTED 52 MINUTES AGO #

+3

Trotted this out on another thread, but it's more relevant here. Great music and, well, isn't this sort of thing exactly what Singleteack Magazine is all about?

Hmm, at 5ft 5 and with a 27 inch inside leg I have problems with 26ers. It all soudns great but I just cannot see them fitting me. In fact I asked Cy about this on the 29er video thread and he told me to stick with my BFe.
I guess my only worry is lack of tyres/rims to keep me in 26ers..

Was that before or after he had an epiphany and decided that a small sized Solaris was a worthwhile proposition?

I think we can assume that XC races are not won or lost on wheel size

It use to be that XC racers road FS bikes as that was what the sponsor were selling. I assume that at the moment riders wheel size is mainly chosen by the marketing team.

Races are probably won on skill and fitness?

I'm looking forward to the 29er backlash threads

We use to get

"Just bought my first FS bike I love the way it rolls over things, haven't touched my hard tail in weeks"

then we got

"Just bought a hard tail and haven't touched my FS since. I like the extra challenge and the way it doesn't roll over things"

now we have

"Just bought a 29er I love the way it roles over things, haven't touched my 26er for weeks"

soon we'll have

"Just bought a new 26er. I love the way challenge and the way it doesn't role over things. Haven't touched my 29er in weeks"

conclusion

we are all bored

Bored of this discussion? (yes) or

conclusion

we are all bored

? : )

Edit: I just can't be bothered - this topic has had it's day.

I can't wait to see what the new 26 v 29 topic will be.

It's funny how our perspectives change. When 29ers came out, they just looked wrong. But now that they're becoming more common, I've got used to the look, and 26" wheels are starting to look like kiddies wheels.

Giant have the same attitude too. I don't think 650 will ever catch on.

What I don't understand is why everybody seems to feel the need to be so absolutist about this. All bikes are a compromise and changing the wheel size just gives you a different set of compromises. Personally I've not ridden a 29er I like yet, but I still think that, in theory, a larger wheel would suit me better. It should be possible (using a larger wheel) to make a bike that rolls over things a bit better and gives a bit more confidence on the descents than my current 26" bike. Of course there will be downsides and so far they have always outweighed the advantages for me. But I'm keeping an open mind.

Big wheel bikes tend to look more natural when ridden by taller riders. One of my friends is so tall I had to be told he was riding a 29er as I never noticed. Tall riders riding 26er bikes look odd - the wheels look like castors on an XL frame.

So here is a radical idea.....

Currently bike manufacturers are making a 26er bike in all sizes a 29er bike in all sizes and a 650b bike in all sizes.......Why not take a frame design and make the small size out of 26in wheels, the medium and large out 650b wheels and the extra large out of 29er wheels.

This would mean a much better fit for different size riders as all the geometry increases proportionally - not just the frame.

This would also potentially solve the long travel issue with 29ers. Take your 160mm frame design... On a medium or small size frame this totally wouldn't work with 29er wheels - it would be way to tall. But on an xl frame where all the dimensions are increased proportionally it would probably look normal. And normal looking things tend to work well

Woadayathink??

I swapped over to a 29'er HT in October 2011, purely cos I fancied giving one a go. I went for a 100mm alloy HT with a reasonable build, the bike I swapped it for was a 115mm forked Cove Handjob with a basically identical build. The 29'er took a couple of weeks to get used to, but once I was I was sold, it was just plain downright faster than my Cove in every situation I rode it in.

I the upgraded the frame to a rather nice FF29, lighter, nimbler and faster again. This bike was the death of my 26" Nicolai CC FS, after I bought the FF29 in June last year the Nic got ridden a grand total of 10 times and covered a whole 220km, just didnt have the need or want for it. At this point a couple of my mates who were proper sceptics had a go and came to the same conclusion, the FF29 was just plain fast and handles tight twisty, rooty & muddy single track far better than their 26" wheeled bikes. One of them is a realities short arse too at 5'8".

A couple of weeks ago, the Nic went and was replaced by an Anthem X1 29'er, pretty much on the recommendation of a mate and a failure to find a bad review anywhere! This thing just blows the HT out if the water, the traction it generates is immense and it just feels like riding a HT bit with more comfort

For me, covering ground, ripping single track and basically riding as fast as I can are what it's all about and I firmly believe that the 29'er in both HT & FS guise are ideally suited to that & I've never been quicker.

I don’t even notice the difference, apart from it rolls a bit better maybe.

Eh?
"I didn't notice any differences, apart from this (positive) difference."

Aside from stimulating the market for the sale of bikes, 29ers provide the double whammy of increased maintenance, with additional leverage acting on fork bushings, pivot + hub bearings, frame fatigue from flex and the increased need for wheel maintenance.

Of course, to prevent this from being too obvious from the word go, manufacturers introduce XC bikes to start with, before ramping up the abuse bikes with 29" wheels will take to really reap the profits as bikes and components have to be replaced with greater frequency.

And yes, I am the marketing guru who devised this scheme, but my conscience is getting the better of me after reading this thread.

So here is a radical idea.....

Bored of this discussion? (yes) or

conclusion

we are all bored

as in, people like change and product often gets in the way of just enjoying riding because we think product is more important than it really is

? : )

Oh I love the debate. Doesn't matter much as I have no new bike plans.

I mean tha people crave change. So new is better. Not because its better but just because its different

I'm not even cynical about this its just a reality.

I don't like how 29ers feel. I've tried, I don't like it. At all. Sorry.

I suspect my next bike may be 650b, not because I want it particularly, but because it sounds like it will feel how I like bikes to.

No new bike plans here but trying to buy a 26" tyre in a Spesh concept store recently proved difficult, had to order it.

The only 26" bikes on show were FR / DH rigs.

It was just weird to be honest. I like the 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' analogy.

Interestingly, the staff appeared to be somewhat ambivalent towards 29ers. I may be wrong but they appeared to have learned the mantra by rote about rolling over / confidence / traction blah.... Orders from above.

Anyone looking to get into MTBing going to that particular shop would think that 29er was the ONLY way. Can't say I like that TBH. Not worth getting ranty about though.