all bikes are a compromise of some kind

the important thing is to ride them, I agree with Brant

brant – Member
I still think its odd bike categories are divided according to wheel size or how much the wheels move.

Though sometimes they are divided by what subset of metal they are made out of.

Odd.

happy trails to everyone except unicyclists 😉

I’m assuming that the folk that bought 29’ers and didn’t like them so sold them on and didn’t try another are still riding the first 26’er they bought as obviously they would apply the same logic to a bike with that size of wheel? 🙄

I think you have to have sub groups of bikes
Let’s start big off road ,- road- then those in between

If you didn’t have these groups how could you go into a shop and describe what you want?

How would you know what the designer intended his bike to do

26 bikes have xc trail am dh whatever yet some of you lump all 29ers under one group a yelli screamy is not the same as a tall boy or a ragley td1 they were all intended by their designers to perform in different ways

Didn’t someone once say writing about music is like dancing about architecture , let’s stop the dancing and do more riding

ade ward – Member
I think you have to have sub groups of bikes…

I prefer to work on the principle any bike, anywhere, any time.

And seeing as small wheels are better, what could be better than this? 🙂

Or if big wheels are better, this?

(Fyrish Monument, bike Fuji Track)

Dirt have used Rippers, Raggers and Bombers etc to describe bikes by riding style regardless of spec detail.

Makes sense, but so many brands like market sectors and categorisation.. get those pie-charts out.

29ers look absolutely awful

For the size of bike I buy XL/XXL a 29er looks right in both hardtail and FS.

A bit like small ladies road bikes that use 650b you generally won’t notice unless its next to a 700c.

Epicylo – I had a similar Dahon, a SS Bullhead. Was fantastic!!

Singlespeed_Shep – Member
…Epicylo – I had a similar Dahon, a SS Bullhead. Was fantastic!!

It’s a brilliant climber. Still got it, and planning some “improvements” for next summer.

jameso – Member

Dirt have used Rippers, Raggers and Bombers etc to describe bikes by riding style regardless of spec detail.

There’s 3 sorts of bikes IMO- big bikes, little bikes, and shopping trolleys.

I really didn’t want to like 29ers… in the way that I never want to like any new band that NME put on the cover… but…

I’ve only ridden a handful of 29ers, hated a few, loved a few, and the few I loved I loved for very different reasons. Deciding whether you’ll enjoy riding a bike based on its wheel size (or tyre size) is obviously a bit simplistic: an argument both for and against the Dirt piece.

wagon wheels for shorter people and its metric

bring on the revolution

Fox Racing Shox: If you were worried about 29’ers complicating things then it’s time to bury your head now cos the rumours are that Fox will be making 650b (27.5”) forks for 2015 thanks to the demand from a major bike manufacturer.