I’m quite interested in a 29″ wheeled full suss bike as a replacement for my 26″ wheeled full suss bike at some point in the future, (same goes for the hardtail). I’m 6’3 and for a number of bike fit reasons that a 29″er could be better
I understand that the bigger wheels mean the bike rolls over things much better, so surely in order to not dullen the ride you can get away with less travel which beneficially reduces brake dive/see-sawing/uphill squat issues somewhat from a longer travel bike
Thats all very well, but where I find the travel of my full-wuss bike the most useful is on drops and the odd jump and such.
With less travel on a 29″er surely I’d be loosing out a little in its safety-net capability on drops
Okay, so get a 29″er with the same sort of travel. A niner Rip 9 or turner sultan are around 4.7″ rear travel and theres a fair few 120mm forks about, (or niner are introducing a 6″ frameset and manitou a 140mm 29″er fork sometime in the future?), but surely then the extra rolling for the same travel is going to start taking away some of the interest of less demanding terrain?
Am I being a bit paranoid or is it the case a bit that the extra rolling ability of 29″er wheels don’t help out anymore on drops, but can take away some of the interest of the terrain (especially the tamer ones?)