Mrs back2basics considering new full sussers and a 29er small has come up,
knowing her riding style (stop, balance the bike, look, plummet, stop, look back, watch me fall off, laugh, continue & repeat)
most of the positives i know of on 29er’s is about keeping it rolling to get the best benefit, with someone of a small build and small size and above traits, feel any benefit?

or would it look like a clown bike 😉
….saying that its 38% off RRP.

Obligatory link to Emily Batty’s shoehorned 29er
http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/article/pro-bike-emily-battys-trek-superfly-elite-30569/

I’d suggest try before you buy for small 29ers

cheers for the link – i’m pretty sure Mrs b2b wont be getting something as high specced as that, and heavier, so its perhaps not quite a good idea when you cannot buy topend to get the lighter structures to compensate for a bigger overall wheel ratio and fork….

Get a bike to fit her

How upright is her riding position? As demonstrated by the bike above, a high saddle to a low bar can be difficult or impossible to accommodate even with a severe negative rise stem. Women generally have longer legs and shorter torso so the fit can be even more marginal on a small frame than for a man.

For me as a 5’7″ man I’ve always ridden medium frames around 17″ with my bars slightly higher than my saddle. I had no problem transitioning to a 29er fit wise.

As an aside, I rode my 26er for the 1st time in almost a year and it felt soooo slow despite the fact it’s 2-3lbs lighter with an inch less suspension either end. It felt more tiring too so I shortened my ride to my minimum 30km loop instead of 45km. If I do decide to race again I’ll ride my heavier bouncier 29er instead.

How tall is Mrs B2B, and what standover?

I have just been sourcing a bike for a friend who’s 5 ft 1 and 29 inches inside leg. She picked a Trek Cali in the end. It has a decently low standover for a 29er (26″), and is fairly upright in riding position. I think Specialized do a Myka HT 29er too that would have been suitable. The effective top tube lengths werent an issue, its the standover height, due to fitting the larger wheels.

A friend of mine got herself on a 29er XC bike recently and wrote about it here:

http://www.bikesoup.com/magazine/review-29-er-xc-mtb-bike-options-geometrically-gifted-shorter-rider/

She has a Niner Air 9 Carbon. Her old bike was a blingy carbon 26″ HT rocket (sub 20 lbs all in) and the 29er is heavier, adding almost 2 lbs to the bike’s weight, but she loves it and swears she goes faster. Next time we ride together, I am expecting to get a really hard time on the descents.

5’6″ but she has short legs and long body, fits a mens small (16″) most of the time but needs a more upright position, we have a beefy upright stem to help on current HT / road bikes.

we were looking at top tubes @malibu_babe_28 but perhaps its the standover height we need to be concerned about.

being so out of it in terms of decent bike shops it might be a trip to a city to try and try some out!

She sounds ideal for 27.5

I would say that standover is likely to be the biggest issue as you suggest, particularly if a higher front end isn’t a major problem for her.

It’s interesting the comments about being faster on a 29er. I do think that while say a rigid 29er is not inherently as fast as a front suspension 26″ bike, the confidence it seems to give, especially to less confident riders, may well mean it’s faster for many riders.

I don’t find that I’m faster to any significant or event recordable degree on my 29er than on my 26″ bikes but I ride it differently, doing sillier things on it because it’s more confidence inspiring.

On the other hand, I’d never give up my 26″ bikes as they offer something slightly different and fun in a different way.

rOcKeTdOg – Member
She sounds ideal for 27.5

He’s probably right, actually 😀

heheeheeee 27.5 ! thanks for putting that in the mix rocketdog!

admittedly we are not specifically going for 29er its just its heavily discounted. if i could find 26/27.5/55″ at 40% off we’d consider it 🙂 🙂

Forgot to say, the Niner has front suspension (100mm Sids)

back2basics – does the heavily discounted bike fit her? If not, keep looking. Finding bike that fits, suits how she rides is more important than whether its 26/29/650b surely?

Of course ladies do have a small advantage in the stand over height department. 🙂
At 5’6″ with a 30″ inside leg I’d like a rigid 29er but I think it would be tricky to find adequate standover,low enough stack and no toe overlap issues. I reckon standover and stack can be easily overcome by running 440mm forks but overlap may still be an issue. I’ve run one bike as a rigid 69er and stack and standover are fine but there is some overlap when my feet are forward on flat pedals. I reckon it all adds up to the perfect excuse for a custom frame build.

MrsbeanZ rides a small Salsa el Mariachi with no standover problems , she’s 5’2″ ish .

The key is shortest head tube/slackest head angle possible.

I’m 5’6 and have a 29er, my wife is 5’3 and also uses my bike on occasion (though a little big, her longer legs help and she prefers it for longer distance and hills)

I’m 5’7″ and have just built up a 16″ frame On One Inbred. It’s perfect for me and I’m sure would suit someone a bit smaller too – plenty standover height.

I’m 5’6″ (5’7″ on a good day) in my socks, and ride a 16″ Scandal with a 50mm stem and no spacers underneath on a 100mm Reba.

I can confirm it is awesome, and I’ve sold my lovely 26″ singlespeed and FS bikes, as I didn’t ride them any more. Next bike likely to be a 29er FS.

I have tried 650b (a superbly pimped out Bronson last summer) but it felt a bit dead and like hard work compared to both the 29er and the 26″ FS (an Orange Five).

I ride in the Surrey Hills, btw, and it’s pretty smoof over here.

HTH. Happy to give further advice / encouragement if needed. If Mrs B2B already has good bike handling skills, then this will make her much fasterer. I’ve been riding about 20 years now and tend to be respectably quick on most XCish stuff, and it certainly, according to Strava at least, helped my riding.

My wife 4’11” and I 5’3″ really love our specialized fate 15″. No toe overlap, plenty of standover. It does have very short headtube and only 80mm forks, and 52mm fork offset.
Its a sweet climber and very capable descender. I’m only faster on the trek fuel ex8 on very long downhills.

Skinwall ftw by Captainsideburns, on Flickr

@domino – of course it does, thats why i’m posting up on here 😉
it’s nice to gather opinion to narrow choice especially when it requires us a 2.5 hour drive to the nearest bike shops *if* they have a small.

@captainsideburns – thats a sweet pic….

a friend has just got her new race bike Rocky Mtn Vertex 29, she is 5’2/3 ish, the small rockys seem to come up fine.

B2b tell her to go for it. I recently upgraded from a canyon nerve (womens specific XS) 26′ to a specialized rumour 29er 15′ (both full suss) and I love my big wheels. At 5’2 all the (tall blokes) I spoke with said go 27.5 at your height but this is by far the best fit of a bike I’ve had to date. I feel so much more in the bike rather than on top and confidence is growing since I got it. I’m not one for jumping, I try but fail, so the 29er suits my rolling style of riding. It’s lighter than my canyon feels much much nippier up front and acceleration is awesome. All round I am way quicker both up and down. Am not at my fittest at present but smashing every strava segment since I got the new wheels. Two of my mates (both girls under 5’6) made the move to 29 shortly before me and we are all riding much better and much much faster. It tracks really nicely up the really short steep climbs, have had no issue with toe overlap after the first day and cornering seems better not worse as the big tyres just stick to the trail like glue. My only complaints about the bike is the Reba fork (just ok) and formula brakes (flaky) but no issues with the wheel size.

Most (all) of the recommendations made so far are for hardtails. Now I like 29ers but even at 5’7″ I reckon a FS 29er might be a bit of a compromise too far.

My good lady has just taken delivery of one of these, loves it she does!

http://www.tritoncycles.co.uk/mountain-bikes-c1/29ers-c14/salsa-spearfish-3-complete-bike-2013-p1065

We ordered the XS size for 5’3″ height. There’s a nice amount of seat post exposed so she could fit her dropper post without any trouble although the 60mm stem got ditched for one of mine (45mm) as she says she has short arms.