There seems to be an oft-spouted phase in friendly arguments about 29ers: ‘now that the geometry is sorted’

Had my Titus X stolen just as the last of the frames in my size (huge) sold out. I’m a triggers-broom bike builder, I’ve not bought a whole bike since I was in primary school, I’ve always been a collector and bodger togetherer of bits. (it actually leaves me quite unexcited by the prospect of getting a whole, complete replacement bike)

Its meant I’ve never given thought to 29ers as theres not really a way to evolve to them from 26″

Now that I’ve got a clean slate I’m giving 29 a thought but I’ve not really followed the discussion up til now. Now that I am that phrase keeps popping up.

So which are the bikes for which geometry is now ‘sorted’, or, if its a shorter list – which are/where the bikes that didn’t have the geometry sorted?

‘now that the geometry is sorted’

This would be why the magic figures quoted for 26″ bikes evolves like the sport does to suit the awesomeness of the riders changes every year. I would take a small guess that the geometry of all bikes will continue to change over the years to come

I think, one of the funny things that happened when 29ers were developing was that 29er designers tried to make 29er bikes handle the same as 26in bikes, right before the point when 26in bikes were getting slacker and more relaxed.

One problem with the early 29ers was that fork manufacturers didn’t want to make a whole new fork for a wheel size that might not take off, so just put longer lowers on their existing models, which meant that the offset was wrong. The work around was to steepen the head angle to compensate, but that caused other problems. Now that fork manufacturers have cast new crowns for their 29er forks and the offset is right, the head angles are getting closer to those of 26″ bikes and handling has improved.

That’s what I take the expression “now that the geometry is sorted” to mean anyway.

More realistically the geometry is exactly how it was 5 years ago, but the mags don’t want egg on their faces for doing an u-turn?

thisisnotaspoon – Member

More realistically the geometry is exactly how it was 5 years ago, but the mags don’t want egg on their faces for doing an u-turn?

Exactly what I was going to say .

It’s cobblers, innit. Depends what you want from your bike.

I have two 29er hardtails with v different geometry and I love them both – a rigid Inbred that rolls over, across and through everything and a Singular Buzzard that’s poppy and playful and fun. And they’re both perfectly capable of getting a serious wiggle on through twisty singletrack. I think the mags and the industry have, as usual, done a fine job of talking nonsense about 29ers (and 26 and 650b).

Depends on your riding doesn’t it. The most sorted XC bike in the world will be less than sorted for trail centre hooliganning.

What we have now is much more refined than the first 29ers.
But as folk above say… There are many types of 29er for different applications. I have a really broad mix of 29ers.
Niner sir 9, nimble XC
Surly krampus, wide tyre 29er
Salsa dos Niner, old soft tail
Salsa spearfish modern short travel 29er
Jones
Salsa Fargo adventure tour 29er.
… And they are all entirely different to each other.

Choose the right style of bike, ideally from a company that has a few years of 29er history (to refine and iron out the bumps) and you will be fine.

Funny enough there are 29’ers with good and crap geo just like 26″.

Who would’ve thought….

Depends on your riding doesn’t it. The most sorted XC bike in the world will be less than sorted for trail centre hooliganning.

I’d say they’re way more suited than the more common 140mm-150mm travel 26″ bikes you see. Nothing to do with the false-fact that 29ers are more suited to smooth wide (read: man made) trails. Just that people are far to quick to dismiss XC bikes as usesless for all but riding uphill. They’re less forgiving or errors, but that’s a reflection on the rider, not the bike.

Is that not often shorthand for “Now they feel less odd when you first jump on, after decades of riding 26 inch wheels”? I don’t think my first 29er was actually any good but maybe I’d have got on with it better if it’d been more familiar. Whereas the most recent 29ers I’ve ridden, they just felt normal.

Which is weird, I suppose, because the whole point of bigger wheels is to create a different riding bike, and then loads of effort goes into making them feel less different.

The fact that after market forks and tyres are now sorted and readily available is probably of more relevance.