I’ve tried a Ti Inbred 29er, GF rig and Niner SIR now. I have to say that the Ti Inbred felt ‘best’ to me but I just can’t escape the feeling of trundling along.
It’s quite reasonable to say that I do now expect them to feel sluggish but that is based on experience just as I expect crashes to hurt because experience suggests they do. That doesn’t mean that I can’t be objective and that they aren’t sluggish in comparison. Not to mention that a 29er actually cures one of the biggest issues I have with 26″ bikes namely that in my size, they tend to wheelie on steep climbs because the chainstays are too short (typically the same across the sizes). I’ve found 29ers don’t do that (bad at wheelieing as above!). If I could find a 29er that I enjoyed as much as a 26″ bike then I’d be really keen to get one so I’m definitely not anti-29er per se.
Besides, I certainly didn’t expect them to feel sluggish on the first few times I tried them when I figured that all the owners couldn’t be so evangelical as to not be willing to admit it at all. My bad 😉