Just thinking aloud really.

650b is becoming a bit less common but surely it can’t just be discarded as there has to be a limit on how short a rider can actually be accommodated in a 29er?

Thoughts?

My OH is 5 foot 2″ and rides an 2018 XS Santa Cruz Tallboy.

Fits her well with a 120mm dropper and a 35mm stem.

My wife is 1.58m tall and rides a Stooge running 29ers with no problem.

That’s interesting guys.

The limit must, in theory anyway, be higher than a 650b though?

Or can good frame design really make the 29er a “one size fits all” do you think?

Go to a National XC race and more than 90% of the youth / juvenile race (12-16 yrs male and female) is riding 29ers. None of them look like the wheel size is a hindrance.

That’s in an XC race with not much travel or really technical stuff, which is not the same as on a downhill or enduro bike with much more travel and more going on.

There’s a reason Troy Brosnan is using a 27.5 bike and Danny Hart is using a mullet – the big rear wheel is a hindrance if you’re not that tall.

JP

4 foot 3 and a bit

No they aren’t racing downhill, but they aren’t exactly lacking in skills… They can ride more tech than most people on STW 🙂

Doesn’t seem to stop Pete Scullion who is 5ft 3in

(8:30 for the descent)

Isn’t Emily Batty tiny?

Niner used to sell a negative rise bar to help lower the front end for smaller people.

Most of the shorter EWS women riders are on 29ers and don’t seem to have a problem.

Syncros do one too

mick_r

Subscriber

No they aren’t racing downhill, but they aren’t exactly lacking in skills… They can ride more tech than most people on STW 🙂

So, they go beyond blue trails, then?

JP

Despite being around 5’9″, I prefer a low front end (find I get backache on longer rides if too upright) and Ive found that the stack height of 29ers too high for me and there’s only so far you can get the front down with flat bars & flipped stems…I prefer sub 600mm stack and that’s actually pretty rare on 29ers aside the XC hardtails and short travel 29ers (like Anthem 29er). Been happy on my Scandal 29er hardtail but then that does have 470mm rigid forks so front is fairly low

I’m 5’9 but have a very short inside leg, found my arse buzzed the back wheel on a 29er, now I’m going to give another a go next bike as things have moved on in terms of geometry.  But I never had that problem on a 650b.  Which I can’t see being discarded.

Interesting how small some of you are and can ride a 29er. What frame size? & how much dropper can you accommodate?

Hmmm, I’m kinda 29er curious, especially for long XC rides…. I’m 5’7 with a 30″ inside leg, on my current 650b HT 15.5″ frame I can only run a 125mm dropper (maybe a bit more with a OneUp).

On REALLY steep stuff I can get a tyre buzz, but that may be down to my position, which when it’s that steep is usually hanging on and preying!!!

With a 110mm head tube, 120mm fork & 20mm rise bars I wouldn’t want my front end any higher, that’s for sure, but maybe a short head tube and flat bar could accommodate that on a 29er, I don’t know.

My (window shopping) challenge is finding a 15.5″ frame with a reasonable ETT & reach, currently have a 605mm ETT (40mm stem) and reach around 430mm on my bike, so it’s kinda like a small frame size with medium length.

I’d love to try out a fully pimped* full carbon 29er XC l/ trail bike out, but finding one to fit is tricky.

*I am skint

They can ride more tech than most people on STW

I suspect most 12 year old children could.

29er frames are designed so that the bottom bracket is the same height as it would be on a smaller-wheeled bike. The seat tube is also in front of the rear wheel, not on top of it – you sit between the wheels not on top of them, so rider height isn’t a problem.

The only unavoidable factor with bigger wheels is that if you have a long-travel fork the front end will be high, but if you want a long-travel fork you maybe want a high front end anyway.

EWS champ Isabeau Cordurier is a smidge over 5ft IIRC.

She won every round last year.

There’s a reason Troy Brosnan is using a 27.5 bike and Danny Hart is using a mullet – the big rear wheel is a hindrance if you’re not that tall.

Dunno about that. Might be that they just prefer the cornering dynamic of the smaller rear wheel, a mullet can carve a bit better IME.

Danny’s about my size or bigger, and I’m 29er ’til I die. FWIW.

I’m 5’6″ 30″ I. Side leg on a medium pace rc529 with 170mm dropper.
When I go down the steep stuff and drop the saddle. It’s about level with the top of the wheel.

Beaten to it but Isabeau Courdurier raced most of last season on a 29er and won every round of the EWS. She’s one of the smallest in the series, if not the smallest

I’m 5ft 4″ with a 27.5″ inside leg and ride 3 of them (2 x HT and 1 x FS)

Emily Batty if ircc 5’2″ But recenty read a commnet she made that she hoped they would do a 27.5 Trek SuperCaliber but looks like 27.5 wheels days are done in XC.

Syncros do one too

They did a really low profile negative rise stem (Flatforce?) but also did a negative rise bar.

Niner do (did….) an XS size, which was about 13”. An odd looking thing but one of their team riders did ok on it,

Hmmm, I’m kinda 29er curious, especially for long XC rides…. I’m 5’7 with a 30″ inside leg, on my current 650b HT 15.5″ frame I can only run a 125mm dropper (maybe a bit more with a OneUp).

That’s me, too. I ride a size M Kona Process 111 and A size 17.5″ Trek Stache. I’m currently running a 150mm dropper on both, could go for a 200mm drop on the Process of I needed to and could spare the dosh.

I’m pretty sure a smaller rider would be absolutely fine on a 29er. I think there’s probably a lot of bad press still going round from the early days of 29ers. I started riding clown wheels on a 16″ Scandal, but you can get down a load of stuff on a 29er of you’re a shortarse like me.

Interesting question as I’m going through the “do I, don’t I?” thing about buying a longish travel 29er.

I’m 5’10” and whilst not struggling per se, I borrowed the proposed purchase (a Rocketmax) over the weekend and did find manhandling the bike a lot harder than the various smaller wheeled variants I’ve tried. To an extent, you don’t need to chuck the bike around as much, because it does so much of the work for you, but I enjoy playing with the bike, so its important for me to be able to pick it up easily. Even running the suspension pretty fast, it took a lot of effort to get the bike up onto the back wheel. Riding Wharncliffe yesterday also led to a good few moments of getting my arse polished on the back tyre, and I can easily see how that would be a proper problem for someone shorter than me on a DH bike with 3″ or 4″ more travel. I’m also struggling with my limited jumping skills to manage the inertia created by big wheels and tyres that are substantial enough to cope with the speeds the bike can generate. Sick whips just ain’t happening…! There’s a large element of adaptation here, I’ll be the first to admit; and I’ve still been riding a 26″ full sus until 6 months ago, so its a bit change.

As an XC/general riding around, just sit there and pedal, bike, I see no reason why height should make a difference. More aggressive stuff, its probably down to rider preference and style – that vid of Petey S above was largely just point and hang on, which 29ers seem ace for (especially when your c-of-g is that low!). I’d be interested to know how easily Emily Batty can manual her bikes, and also how her technical descending pace compares to, say, Jolanda Neff who’s 4″ taller. Obviously they’re both faster on the 29ers or they wouldn’t be riding them, but it’s where they can put the time differences in.

Jon – aren’t a lot of those characteristics more to do with the length of the bike, rather than the wheel size as such? I know a lot of people have the same issues when they first go to a long bike, and it takes a bit of adjustment to get the most out of them.

aren’t a lot of those characteristics more to do with the length of the bike, rather than the wheel size as such?

Yes, but the length of the bike is partly dictated by the packaging required by the big wheels. To get 150mm of rear wheel travel on a bike with a 3″ bigger diameter wheel is going to necessitate longer stays, balanced with a longer front end. BB height being lower relative to the axles will also make the bike more stable (and better cornering) but harder to pick up. However the cockpit setup is dictated by the rider size, so a short rider will end up with a bike that has short middle and relatively out of proportion long ends, where a tall rider will have long middle and identical long ends (that may well be far better proportioned for them than old skool 26″ setups ever were).

Pretty sure the bloke who started Niner bikes is only 5’6″

I’m 5ft 9” with a 29” inside leg and have owned a couple of 29ers and currently ride a Stooge Speedball in 29+ mode. No problems whatsoever to be honest. Actually prefer 29 to other options.

I wonder about this as well. Standing at 5″7 I’ve always thought it would be pretty borderline and as I’m scrawny as well the extra rotational weight isn’t exactly appealing. MY main concern would always be buzzing my arse on the rear tyre on the steeps, but I did speak to a bloke about my size in Cwmcarn car park the other day who said he was fine on his Bird AM9.

The mullet seems a safer bet all round, but I guess I’d need a bunch of test rides to figure it out properly.

I’m 5ft 8in on a good day and haven’t buzzed my bum since bike geometry got longer, allowing me to stay more central on steep trails.

Do demo some full 29ers before splashing out to go mullet. I’m not saying they’re a gimmick, but I do think the case for them gets over-stated.

I’m 5’2 and struggle with height and reach on a small 650b. I find it quite restrictive and much prefer the scale of the 26″, I’ve not tried a 29er yet though

im 5ft6 on a good day standing on a step.

i ride a 29er lt stumpy. Its great but when you get to the slow steep stuff i end up using my (admitable sizable) arse on the rear tyre. Its had my shorts off more than once!