I had my stache with both 27.5+ and 29+ wheels. Preferred it with the 27.5+ (as you can shorten the wheelbase with Trek’s clever dropouts) . I really like my solaris in 27.5+ format as well.  It’s the bike I always choose to blat about in the local woods. Can’t say I miss the 29+

5ft11 in old money. Long back, short legs. My stache was the L which Trek call 18.5 virtual/19.5 actual and I just got a 150mm dropper in there. It was still quite short (new ones are longer, mine was a 2015). It was fab fun tho, like a mini fat bike on the 29+ and a monster truck hardtail on teh 27.5+

A mate still has one in 29+ and he loves it.

My Solaris is a M which is a bit small but I share it with my daughter and she’s 5ft9. For riding in the local woods for a couple of hours tho, I actually prefer it a bit small. Still quite rangy and extremely chuckable.  I did like my Stache but the Solaris is just a bit more fun.

29+

[url=https://flic.kr/p/V5F31a]Fat Stache[/url] by Alex Leigh, on Flickr

27.5+

[url=https://flic.kr/p/Kbf9Jn]Enlongened Chubby![/url] by Alex Leigh, on Flickr

Solaris 27.5+

[url=https://flic.kr/p/WwcVV4]Last ride of my 40s![/url] by Alex Leigh, on Flickr

My Santa cruz Chameleon has shortish stays when wound all the way in using 27.5+

It’s more  flickable than th Solaris Max when launching off stuff if that helps.

I’ve ridden my Solaris Max a lot with 27.5+ and 29 inch wheels, and it handles better with 27.5+ because they are smaller in diameter.

Second the Stache.  I’m on my second and like you, love a chuckable bike with short stays.  The Stache in 29+ is the bike I always wanted to replace my granite hard Chameleon back in 2009.  It’s awsome and makes me giggle every time I use it.  I used to have a Puffin and have ridden a mates Rooster,  but both felt dead and cumbersome to me.

Im 6’ and 33” inseam and again ride a large.

Does it have to be a hardtail?

I had a Stache on  both wheel sizes and loved it. It was the fastest hardtail id ever had on 29+ and a very playful one on 27.5+. I thought I preferred the smaller wheels so sold it and got a Cannondale BOTE 27.5+ but miss the Stache . So for me I think the bigger wheels are my fav.

Without wishing to derail the OP’s thread, the Mojo 3 is the best bike I’ve had. And I’ve had a lot 🙂 Doesn’t get ridden in the winter as those short chain stays/linkages are not compatible with the FOD Mudfest between December and March. Also while I’m a big fan of the Rekon, it’s not a inter tyre!

I’ve ridden it about 1500km since this time last year. It definitely brought my riding up – and that’s being said as an old bloke who should know better. It’s definitely ‘Californian’ in design but for 3 season a year I absolutely love it.

Really looking forward to getting back riding it when it dries up a bit. How do you get on with yours?

Gratuitous arty pic 😉

[url=https://flic.kr/p/UPqnWj]Mojo3 with carbon wheels. It's finished now. Honest.[/url] by Alex Leigh, on Flickr

Two words people.
Pipedream moxie
And that’s all she wrote😁

Stache owner here too. Are you running the plus tyres tubed? The tubes weigh as much as a small planet and I did notice the gyroscopic effect of the big wheels on the trail. Found the bike hard to pitch over. Going tubeless helped a lot in this respect.

Biggest transformation was getting squish forks up front (originally ran the carbon bowie forks supplied on the oem stache 5).

Tried the bike with 29 x 2.35s from the solaris and didn’t seem to work that well to be honest.

Bonz, the bowie forks are pretty good, nice and light but very stiff. Problem I found was with the undamped nature of the plus tyres bouncing all over the place and throwing me offline. Great on smooth stuff but hit any rough terrain and if the hits were timed badly the front end would bounce uncontrollably.

The squish forks took a while to dial in as you are always fighting a bit of undamped squish from the tyres but they work well. I prefer the stache front end higher so the 120mm magnums even with 30% sag sit about 10mm higher than the bowie forks.

Bowie forks are great -Infact I moved them over to my solaris and seem to work much better on that bike.

I’m more than happy with the rigid Bowie forks on the old 5.

Yes they can be harsh but find the sweet spot of tyre pressure and terrain and the bike flys along. Only ever used the Chupabracadabras which are light, fast and grippy in the dry and certain mud conditions. Swapped to 2.3″ Mud tyres on normal 29er wheels over winter which has also been fine but can’t wait to get back on the big tyres again in a few weeks. I’d like to try more aggressive 3″ tyres but I’d probably get annoyed by them being slower generally. Really rough and rocky trails probably aren’t the place for it though with the standard tyres and rigid.

Had a similar ish line of thought. I’ve laid my hands on a Kingdom Vendetta which takes 27.5 / 2.8 and 29 / 2.35.

I’m going for 2.6 tubeless first to keep it nimble with enough bounce at the back to save my back.  Purpose is hooning around the woods on the Cotswolds escarpment.  I like the idea of having 29 as an option for long distance Ridgeway type outings.

I do have a long travel full bounce as a complement.