Are 26ers a dying breed?

Cleared every jump on my FS 29er this morning in our local woods and had great fun in the twisty singletrack mudfest.

Would also have loved it on my 26er. No more no less as I just love riding.

If you can’t do jumps on a 29er then go on a skills course, it’s you that’s lacking not the bike.

I’m the opposite. You can’t beat the control you have of a 20″ wheel in the air. You move onto 24″ and you notice the difference. When I moved back and forth between 20″ and the new found 26″ wheelsize (for me)around 89 it felt awful. It was a different game. I didn’t take the mtb down the bmx track and consider doing what I was doing on the bmx.I would give it a spin around the track with the seat right down in the frame and not much was attempted. Just a waste of time as the bike was in control of YOU. It’s the complete opposite on a 20″ wheel on the track.

Back then I remember looking down at this huge panaracer smoke when I got my mtb and although it was another type of cycling, I enjoyed it. Then you get on a 29er and it’s another step away from the agility of the 20″ wheel yet again. Going back and forth between 26 & 20 was hard going for me. I would take about 4 days to get back into the 20″ wheel. More recently over the past 3 or 4 years I found myself going from the fully rigid 29er onto the 20″ wheeled bmx and it was near impossible but that’s not what we’re on about. It’s the control of a 26″ wheel bike over a 29″ wheel. If anyone says they feel as confident in the air on a 29er as much as they do on a 20″ wheel,or even a 26inch wheel,they’re talking out of their ass. The only reason you might feel they are so similar is because of the level you are taking them to when you leave the ground.

i.e. not throwing or tweaking the bike around much at all.

It’s the control of a 26″ wheel bike over a 29″ wheel. If anyone says they feel as confident in the air on a 29er as much as they do on a 20″ wheel,

I disagree,

On my 29er as I leave the lip and move my weight backwards to engage a back flip. I feel the greater inertia of the larger wheels helps with a smoother transition from right way up to upside down and then the return to rubber side down.

Thus leading to to crisper more precise flips. Also due to larger wheels I don’t have to worry about braking bumps from all the 20er’s who chicken out and slam their brakes on.

Good point. I find performance on all the backflips I’ve done on my 29er to be identical to the ones I did on my 26ers.

Same for gap jumps, and that aerial move where you hold on to the bars and the bike swings around underneath you. Identical performance on every one I’ve done.

I rode BMX as a kid then moved onto MTB in my teens 25yrs ago so my memory of 20″ wheels is now pretty vague 😆

I’m also the sort of rider who likes your typical trail centre or local woods jumps, but certainly wouldn’t go looking for bigger stuff or gap jumps etc. On the jumps I do there’s little difference between 26 and 29″ wheels as I don’t think I’m in the air long enough for it to make much difference! But then I also don’t buy bikes based on their jumping ability.

26er ain’t dead yet, that’s for sure.

I’m hoping 26 and 29 survive as I like the option both give me.

650b feels like ‘late to the party’ marketing to me.

as well as the 10 riders riding there there were about 20 XC guys come through, all on 26″ the only exception was one guy riding solo on a CX bike.

And two people on fatbikes. 8)

Oh and can I just add. Kinver Freeride?? WTF OMGZ ROFLCOPTERS. 😉

Same as the posters above, i think the 29er revolution is going on in the magazines and not on the trail….i’ve never seen one of these mystical beasts when out on a ride, spent last year riding the Surrey Hills, Swinley, Ceasars Camp and the FoD….maybe its the just the days i ride?….likewise when i was in the LBS buying tyres recently i didnt notice any 29er stuff, it was probably present but there was so much choice for 26 inch wheels i cant say i noticed.

It will take a few more years yet for big wheels to catch on in Enduro and DH, thats if designers dont think its too much hassle and opt for 650b instead….i’ll just let the dust settle and buy another bike when the argument has been won either way.

One factor is how often do mtb’ers change bikes? Ever 2-3 years?? So the 29er won’t be common place for at least another 12 months, and then howmany of us just upgrade to get more life out of the bike, by the time they are common 26ers will be back!

My LBS Leisure Lakes has pretty much all 29ers (they sell a lot of spesh, and cannondale though) now, on 26, there were some full sussers and maybe 1 or 2 26″ hardtails.

but I’ve only seen two 29ers used in anger one bloke on a SS 29er*, and one bloke on a niche bling thing (can’t remember the make) at Cannock, thats pretty much it.

* TBF to him, he was going effing fast! 😆

Average speed on the 26er is 11 mph on a 20 mile odd loop lots of climbs, same loop on the 29er is 12.8 mph it does’nt seem any faster but obviously is. I love riding bikes what ever the wheel size