I started with a s/h GF rig and didnt get on with it at all and convinced myself it was all hype.
Then tried a swift and blummin loved how well it rolled and how stable it felt – even on technical downhill stuff- only place it struggled is very tight switchback climbs compared with a 26er-
Now got a lovely ss lynskey pro29 and it’s probably going to become my only bike (gulp!) as its made my trek ex8 redundant

To the original question yes I do since about 2007 not that it makes me qualified to answer you’ll understand

I’m not over 5’10” and it’s no problem on sizing so that’s an outdated argument for me

Maybe big brand bandwagon 29er’s are not that good ? it’s probably better to try something from a specialist 29er outfit who understand biking rather than marketing

Oh and I regularly see niche brand bikes having the wheels ridden off them :-))

29er just suits me & how I like a bike to feel these days.
About all I can say really.

The evangelical proclamations of big wheels get tiring after a while. Its all biking right…

I rode a Flagstaff, it wasn’t very good. Heavy, too long, and made a lot of sacrifices for a fairly negligible amount of rear travel. But it didn’t half shift. All the flaws it had were flaws of the bike not the wheel size though.

I’m sure they’re great for some people, I just get sick of all the evangelists going ‘OMG THEY ARE AMAZING, HOW CAN ANYONE RIDE A 26ER THEY MUST BE IDIOTS, THIS IS THE FUTURE’ all the time. I would give one a go, but I suspect for the kind of riding I like, and being a shortarse, they probably wouldn’t be ideal.

Also, I really like my bike, and I’m not constantly on the lookout for something new/different like half the people on here seem to be.

I’m not an evangelist, i am open minded though, 29ers aren’t for every one clearly, but don’t dismiss it without trying it

At well over 6 foot i reckon at 29er would do me grand. I would like to try one but i’ll not be buying one for several reasons. Firstly, I already have a bike for going to the shops on (i.e i don’t think they’d suit my style of riding off-road). Secondly, if I was spending new bike amounts of cash, I couldn’t forgive myself for not getting new forks for the dh bike instead. Lastly, there’s the exploding wheels bit.

I already have a bike for going to the shops on (i.e i don’t think they’d suit my style of riding off-road)

your off road riding has shops? awesome!

Doesn’t everyones?

I’m not an evangelist, i am open minded though, 29ers aren’t for every one clearly, but don’t dismiss it without trying it

Wasn’t really talking about you Rocketdog. I will quite happily try one if the opportunity arises, but I’m not going to go out of my way. As above, I’m quite happy with my bike.

I just get sick of all the evangelists going ‘OMG THEY ARE AMAZING, HOW CAN ANYONE RIDE A 26ER THEY MUST BE IDIOTS, THIS IS THE FUTURE’

I’ve only ever seen one person on here that’s like that and he doesn’t seem to post any more.

26er riders who can’t wait to shout down the 29er on every thread seem quite common though.

I will quite happily try one if the opportunity arises

Tell you what grum.

I’ll quite happily let you try any of my bikes out.
Then you can form your own oppinion instead of going off second hand comments from people you don’t know.

ok I am only 5 ft 10 and was riding a 16″ ragley td-1 great bike but i felt it could have been a little more nimble,,

so i designed a 29er with 71 headangle 71.5 seat 417 chainstays and 1062 wheelbase ,,

now i seem to have a very nimble great climbing 29er it is real and made of titanium

ok I am only 5 ft 10 and was riding a 16″ ragley td-1 great bike but i felt it could have been a little more nimble,,

so i designed a 29er with 71 headangle 71.5 seat 417 chainstays and 1062 wheelbase ,,

now i seem to have a very nimble great climbing 29er it is real and made of titanium

How you getting on with that? Any more recent pics?

http://community.webshots.com/album/580895837XfwmuJ

this was it at sswc it’s currently running a 8 speed alfine

V2 is on it’s way lower chainstays bigger downtube narrower dropouts , tapered headtube and a bit more shaping on the tubes

chainstays go from 407-417 instead of 417-437 this change is so i can fit a belt drive then tension it and end up with about 417mm but there is enough clearance to run a 2.4 tyre at 407mm

but geometry the same ,,

That bike would look really nice with a fork on it or at least colour match that steel one.
Something quite offensive to the eye about that rear end at first glance, but after a little while it grows on you.
My ex-wife had a rear like that.

Hugor it’s a prototype for testing ,, the singlular fork replaced a pace carbon rigid fork which was too short and too stiff ,,
the singular fork is compliant but steers well

the geometry is ready for 80-100mm suspension fork just not felt the need yet, besides I have spent all my money getting the prototypes built ,,

My current 29er fleet; 140-130-120-90

Hopefully building up a YelliScreamy ‘guest bike’ this weekend and putting a set of Fox34’s on the RIP9

At 6’6″ 29ers are a bit of a revelation.

Had one for over 2 years………….It got used a lot at first,then the novelty wore off & it was only used now ‘n then…….Then I realised it was just hype & haven’t used it since this years DYFI…….
It will get used again but only for road stuff as I just can’t bring myself to buy a road bike…..

Had a few and I cant tell a great deal of difference, mainly hype IMO. 26 inch bike feels better to me on the sort of riding I do, mainly single track, XC and generally riding over rocks! I found the bottom brackets low on my 29ers compared to the 26inch bikes. Not sure if this is correct but it definitely felt like it when riding over high rocks for a long long period. I hate low bottom brackets! The 29er just felt harder to chuck about in general. It felt no faster on fire roads where I thought it would.

Basically there ok you get used to them and then its your new normal. Though when I jumped back on my 26er it just felt better.

Wunundreder!

It’s the future you know….

Fair play Ade. That’s a nice frame, and in a lot of ways.

I could see a 26″ longish, boingy forked version (with a few tweaks), working a treat.

Is that something you’ve had made or are you testing it for someone?

Euro – Member
Fair play Ade. That’s a nice frame, and in a lot of ways.

I could see a 26″ longish, boingy forked version (with a few tweaks), working a treat.

Is that something you’ve had made or are you testing it for someone?

it’s something i have been working on for a year or so,
I spent some time trying to get short chainstays ,big tyres and lots of clearance together,
this is the first version to try it out,, I have now refined it for the version 2 which is on it’s way (i hope)

i drew it up and had it made in China

Basically there ok you get used to them and then its your new normal. Though when I jumped back on my 26er it just felt better.

+1 – Nail on the head !

When I got back on my 26″ it felt horrible

I am assuming all pro 29ers have ridden one. If you are an anti it would help if you mention if you have ridden one and if it was more than a lap of a carpark.

Rode one for about 6 months mostly rigid geared, but also set up in semi-monstercross mode + for a bit with bouncy forks.

Allot of my local riding is very stop/start, sharp up + down, with the fun bits containing corners that are fine to get a 26″ and 69er round but frustratingly too tight for that 29er. If I was riding more open flowing trails, would have probly persevered.

At just under 6′ always found 69er’s a better option. Really like the long contact patch + rollability over roots / moderate rocks / cutup, hoofed, braking bumped dry mud up front. But then having acceleration + a tight rear end on the bike.

As ever not all 29ers, like 26″ bikes are the same. I would agree that older 29er probably not so good in tight stuff, but some of the newer frames are. Perhaps we need to forget the 26/29 thing and focus on individual bikes?

Sure you are right, be interested to ride Cy’s take on 29ers.

I had a 29er scandal which I ran for a year alongside my only other mtb a cotic soul. I didn’t really touch the soul for 6 months, but found myself neither over or under whelmed by the scandal and did try quite a few different set up to see if I could get it to really work for me. I just found myself enjoying the soul more when I did ride it, it just made me grin a bit more. Both bikes had their merits, so it term of ‘betterer’ I couldn’t really say. I would identify myself as a roadie in biking labels, so don’t really give a monkeys about 26v29er debate, I’m not really bothered what size wheels mtb’s use. Had I tried a different 29er things might have been different.

I’m pretty sure from reading this thread that any none 100% gushing things I found about my 29er, would not be shared by rocketdog 😉

Liking Ade Wards bike. It’s quite similar to something I drew up last winter when I had a bit of time on my hands. I went for quite similar geometry and elevated stays to get the back wheel tucked in tight behind the bottom bracket. The chain stays were lower on mine with just enough clearance for a 36T chainring and the seatstays were done like the GT ‘triple triangle’ to give the frame a bit of top to bottom symmetry. Shame I never had the money spare to get it made.

I’ve never tried one; in a very real sense, there was nothing to try …

The Peregrine had just come out, and it looked like the perfect frame for me, so that was that. Ordered, delivered, built and ridden, the Gryphon following on and built-up as a SS specific 29er, with my (700c) Fratello appearing in between them for long days ([almost] exclusively) on the road.

I’ve been riding 700c for years (and years 🙄 ) anyway, far more than on 26″, so there was no real change for me, other than being able to use tyres with more volume / more frame clearances. I’m a generally somewhat of a taxonomic lumper, so think of 700c & 29er as very much the same thing, they just have different adaptations to suit their environment, plus (stretching the biological analogy to breaking point 😛 ) they can ‘interbreed’ etc by happily mixing components…).

Over the next few months I am building another 29er, but this one will/should/could be a kinda conventional’ish MTB rather than a monster-crosser (hmm, at least in principle) – and this’ll directly replace my poor old unloved 853 Genesis 26″, (which hasn’t been out of the house in 14+ months). 🙁

That’ll leave me with just one 26″ bike, and that’s my old, and much loved Kona.

m pretty sure from reading this thread that any none er, would not29gushing things I found about my %100 be shared by rocketdog

Um…translation?

Forest Of Dean Enduro next weekend.
I’m just hoping there’s lots of 26ers there.
I rely on people handicapping themselves by riding unsuitable bikes to make me look good in the results.

Comparing my 29er to my Surly 26er, both fully rigid, I find you still feel the bumps on the 29er but they slow you down less. The Surly is easier on the wrists but that’s more down to the more upright riding position for ploughing through winter slop. The 29er’s definitely faster, particularly on soft sticky ground. The ‘Plasticine Woods’ at Mayhem was a good example of this, in fact one guy I passed commented that all the people he’d seen going fastest through that section were on 29ers. I’m looking forward to taking mine up to Thetford for the Dusk til Dawn next month. 29ers are harder work to lift the front wheel on though.

29ers are harder work to lift the front wheel on though.

not all,!with my short wheelbase and chainstays even i can get the front end up and it is well balenced for bunnyhops

29ers are harder work to lift the front wheel on though.

I’ve ridden 29ers with 17″+ chainstays that still hop and pop better than my 120mm forked, wide barred, 420mm stayed 26″. Sooo much more to it than wheel size or CS length.

this is what 29ers are best for, as seen on todays ride

The Bridge Tibberton by rOcKeTdOgUk, on Flickr

Mug Shot by rOcKeTdOgUk, on Flickr

ade – fair play for designing and getting a proto made; like what you’ve done there. First thought is that its a bit of an indirect load path from the bb to the rear axle; is it not a bit flexy?

Liking Ade Wards bike.

Me too – good work. I like the idea of shorter chainstays to get back some of the poppy ride feel. And on a geared version, the chainstays are clear of the chain so no slapping. The rear-end reminds me of a Whyte/Marin FS. I also wonder if you get noticeable lateral flex under pedalling – not necessarily a bad thing for an all-day riding bike IMO.