Right guys,this is coming from a “never ridden a 29er before” perspective so I might be stating the obvious to some of you, so forgive me. It was mega,I really, really like it. It feels so fast on the flat, there is a definite flywheel effect on the wheels. I didn’t really notice the wheels taking more getting up to speed unless you make a standing effort, but being a “twiddler” I didn’t notice it so much when seated. Once the wheels are up to speed it is alot easier to maintain it.
It also seems to roll quicker over bumpier ground too. The difference is like being reminded of when you first went from a rigid bike to front suspension.(if some of you are that old!) You find yourself suddenly getting away with more. Cornering wasn’t really any different. twisty singletrack wasn’t really any worse, just different.
On climbs, the flywheel effect seemed to help, it felt smoother and easier to stay on top of your gear. Descents were really fun, you get a bit carried away and have a bit of a feeling of invincibility!
I wouldn’t say it’s better or worse but I was surprised how engaging it was to ride, especially having never ridden 29″ before, but I didn’t feel I was having to learn to ride it. Put it this way, if I had demo ridden it, I’d have bought one there and then.
I would say that it definitely feels like a race bike compared to my Soda. I wouldn’t say that the carbon back end made it that forgiving, but on the flip side it feels like your effort is certainly being transfered very effectively.
The woods were a bit claggy in places but the “mud shelf” behind the BB didn’t seem to happen although the Maxxis Aspens are a roundish profile as opposed to squared off,and seem to fit through the chainstay area a bit better than a squarer one would. I think I’ll definitely be hunting down some Nobby Nics for winter though.
The only thing I didn’t like were the grips. I run Oury’s normally and found the Odi Yeti’s a tad skinny for me but I’ll stick with them for now. As it stands at the moment I could definitely become a convert to big wheels.
As a side note, The 10 speed Dyna sys seemed to work well. I couldn’t say whether it is any better or worse than the 9 speed stuff as I was trying to get my head round how the gearing translates to the bigger wheels. I seemed to spend more time on the big ring than I would on my 26″ and had a bit of a head fart trying to figure out if it was the bigger wheels, my giddiness at being on a new bike or the bike overall.
Interestingly, I had to tell nearly everyone it was a 29er most of them didn’t notice straight off.
