I quite fancy a 29er. Been looking at a few on line and the Canyon and Rose seem good value.
However I have only ever ridden a 26 wheeled MTB. I know about the pro’s (faster, roll easier) but are they much different to ride?
Managed to get a demo Station Sherpa booked for a test to see if I will actually like riding one.

but are they much different to ride?

Do all the 26″ bikes you have ridden feel the same?

there are XC bikes, long travel monsters, mid travel bikes, enduro bikes and all the rest all in 29″.

Pick the bike that works for you and the wheels are part of it

^^^^^^^^^^ Ignore that half sarcastic standard STW answer OP.

There are pros and cons to any wheel size. The cons of 29ers over 26″ are that by and large they are slower to accelerate and more difficult to handle on tight twisty trails. The pros are that they are easier to keep momentum and as you’ve said roll over trail obstacles easier. You’d really have to try one to see if you like the differences, some do some don’t, so the demo is a great idea.

Cheers psycorp. The bike will be used on a mixture of bridleways and road so the 29er appeals. Looking forward to the demo. 🙂

Personally I find 29er suits hardtails. I’ve had to go down to one bike and after lots of thought and messing around a steel 29er hardtail is where I’ve settled. Good for the occasional commute, epic all day rides, quick blasts and I’ve not yet come across anything unrideable. All in my experience and only in my opinion.

A lot will obviously depend on the type of riding you do. These days I’m 95% wheels on the ground, but still ride rough, technical and steep stuff. Hope that helps?

A 29er would be ideal for that sort of riding.

I was in the dislike camp for a while until I decided to get a hardtail for a mix of road and fireroad riding over Winter months and now have an FS 29er as well due to really getting on with the wheel size despite being around average height.

Ah the good old days of a wheel size debate!
I have bikes of all wheel sizes and the major difference when I get on them is that the bars are too wide/narrow/not bent enough.

I am lucky enough to have bikes with all three wheelsizes. They are all different and all good. I try and ride each of them at least once a month.
I have just had a quick mental adding of which I ride most and it is the 29er hardtail, followed by the 29er F/S then the 26″ bikes with the 650b last. This is partly because the latter is my long travel bike park/Alps bike but mostly because 29ers suit me best for the mixed riding I do.

Having moved to 29er from 26 ive concluded that wheelsize choice should follow frame size.

16″: 26″ wheels
18″: 650b
21″: 29er

(ish)

cant say i have any problem with maneuverability on my Five29. The only time i notice it is on switchback tight enough that the bike just doesn’t fit around the corner.

Find my wheels take maybe more effort to wind up to speed, but probably more significant that ive gone to soft compound 2.35″ tyres.
Increased ground clearance, and having my weight in the bike not over it, means i push it off drops blind much more often than i did on my Reign.

Less likely to flip over the front, and if its nasty the wheels look after the roll out better.

but are they much different to ride?

I presume you mean to 26″ bikes… so, yes and no.
They ride like bikes. But yes, they do roll better, they do climb better, and they are a little bit more awkward to manouvre round the tight stuff. But you get used to it all very quickly.
Well, I did, this is all (obviously) just my opinion.

What happened to me was, I was all like, huh, why the hell would I need bigger wheels on my bike? But there’s this area where I ride, which is all pretty flat and mostly gravel tracks where I take my dog round on a rigid ss bike. I was curious as to how a 29er would be for this, so bought a cheap ss 29er off ebay. It was great. Did a race on it, loved it. It made me want a proper one with gears an that, so I sold it and bought a Yeti Big Top off here for a great price… oh my its brilliant. I seriously think if I had to get rid of all my bikes except one, it would be the one I’d keep.

Oh, and I have demo’d a couple of 650b bikes and wheel size gave no advantage over 26″ that I could detect..

Having moved to 29er from 26 ive concluded that wheelsize choice should follow frame size.

16″: 26″ wheels
18″: 650b
21″: 29er

Personally I think as a generalisation that’s a load of rubbish. 😕

It Depends.

I’ll be honest, I don’t notice the “rolls over things better” thing in such a simple way- I’ve literally never ridden over a rock and thought “that feels bigger on the 26er”, even on rigids. But when I add it up over a ride or section it amounts to less effort- I arrive at the bottom of long rough descents on the 29er in much better condition, despite generally having ridden them faster. Obvious disclaimer, my old 26er and my new 29er differ in more ways than wheel, the 29er is a better package overall so it could be reach or stability that’s making more of a difference.

Climbing, I dunno… You’ve got more wheel and tyre weight so it’s non simple. (also more aero drag, but I doubt that makes any difference at the rate I climb…)

I suppose it depends on the climb too.

Psycorps (edit and northwind) +1

I have a 26″ 456, 26″ vintage proper light xc hardtail and a 120mm travel fs 29r.

The two 26″ bikes don’t ride the same but they (along with 26r fs I got rid of 3 years or so back) share an ease of chucking through narrow twisty stuff that the 29r could only dream of.

Don’t let this put you off though. The 29r will go but it wants more exaggerated inputs to comply and it needs a bit more shove to get going out of tight corners. However it’s got more contact patch so ime it’s quicker in all but the very tightest stuff.

For more open bridleway stuff and some road bashing I wouldn’t have any reservations about 29.

For regular really gnar techy stuff I think i’d possibly still go for smaller wheels.

Once you get used to the wheels randomly exploding they’re all meh.

For what you are going to use it for a 29er will eat up the miles. Are they a handful on the twisty bits? Just a bit but with a bit of effort it’s not a problem and anything else they are faster.

OK, took a Stanton Sherpa out today around the whinlatter trails. It really surprised me. The bike itself was a touch heavy, I would probably look at something a bit more XC orientated. But I was surprised at how fast the bike was on the swoopy dh sections. On some tight uphill switchbacks I struggled to handle the bike around, but with the momentum this was rarely an issue. Looking at demo’ing a few more before I buy.

Monkeysfeet I have a Canyon Grand Canyon for sale if you are interested? See my post on the for sale forum and drop me an email if you are.

I ride a lot of tech natural trails in the lakes, Scotland & locally on a specialised evo 29er fsr. I eats everything in its path, carries speed like mad. Super tight stuff is harder because of the long wheelbase (it’s a large) but you soon get used to that. Still taken back by the speed an grip. I had a demo on the 650b version, didn’t seam any faster than the pitch I had at the time.