or the same Gary fisher that proclaimed he always wanted to use 29″ wheels but couldn’t find anyone to manufacture tyres for them for 30 years 🙄

no doubt trek will wheel the old fart again to try and push 650b.

Couldn’t find anything worth riding on a full susser in the uk. May as well have been on the road, no challenge. That was 15 years ago on an GT LTS with under 5 inches of travel. I’d hate to think what today’s skill compensators feel like and now with 29 inch wheels to smooth it further. No wonder every second thread on here is about road bikes.

watch out everyone, we have a badass in our midst. or someone who is so slow he doesn’t hit things hard enough to move the suspension on a bike.

could you do a pic without the bike? that monstrosity is spoiling the view of the wall.

un-sprung back ends are for the road, hardtails are peasants bikes for poor people.

write cotic or jones on it and a certain element on this forum will worship it like a god covered in chocolate sauce.

if it has crank bros written on it and has moving parts it’s generally problematic, although my joplin lasted pretty well.

the troll is strong in this thread.

should have bought elixirs, still the most reliable brakes i’ve ever had despite all the hate they get from ham fisted “mechanics”. the X0 trail brakes i currently have cold stop a truck with just 1 finger too.

my prediction is that once 650b becomes the norm all the niche product must have’ers will start bolting 26″ wheels to them followed by a full blown industry return to 26″ wheels. . . just so they can re-introduce the tweeners and wagon wheelers again a few years down the line.

some people will believe whatever the media tells them no matter how little data or common sense there is to back it up.

a trek with longer chainstays!!!! its not as if they don’t have a rep for snapping already.

not tried the e thirteen wheels but had a set of wheels with chubb hubs which are essentially what e thirteen wheels are i believe.

total and utter shite would be my honest review, never ever have i seen a hub with poorer sealing, bearing life was measurable in weeks rather than months, i hope they have improved espesially when the cost of the things is taken into consideration.

i’ve got one and so far its been faultless apart from the crappy sun ringle hubs which need lots of looking after.
can blow through its travel a bit if your over about 12 stone but this is more a problem with the ctd shock than the bike, it’s easily fixed with a volume reducer.
i’ve used mine for everything from uplift days to 40 mile natural rides and i’ve never felt like i was on the wrong bike.

Eh, Affy’s proto is a 650b, according to Pinkbike and Steve Jones anyway… The main differences are the geometry, he doesn’t like the production model. It’s his teammate that’s on the 26er.

GT themselves said he was on a 26″ prototype for the WES races in the new force launch article.

“Dan Atherton, the spear point of GT’s Enduro team, swore off 650B wheels at first, but after helping to dial in the geometry and ride of the new 150-millimeter-travel Force, he changed his mind. Atherton says, however, that he will continue to develop the 26-inch wheel prototype enduro GT he uses on the racing circuit.”

source: http://www.pinkbike.com/news/GT-2014-Four-models-of-the-new-Fury-DH-and-Two-Trailbikes-650B-S.html

http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/bbd/road-track-bike/ribble-r872?part=BB13RIBR872&sub=conf_BBRC&bike=1

just an example.

have a look on the ribble bike builder, you could spec a pretty awesome custom build for that money.

same here, although i’m really not a fan of 29ers.
the benefit can’t be as clear cut as the manufacturers would like us to believe, why else would dan atherton choose not to ride the new tweener GT force and instead ride a 26″ wheeled prototype?

so much for there being no difference between 26″ and 650b
You’re a marketing dept’s wet dream

so is 99% of the bike riding population of the USA, go read pinkbike, some of the stuff the yanks come up with is hilarious.

no idea what their returns department is like because i’ve never had any reason to return anything, everything i’ve had has been top notch.

i’d do CyB too, penmachno is alright but as has been mentioned there is a lack of decent DH sections as reward for all the climbing. oh and you’ll need your waterproof shoes at Pen.

Gareth this is singletrack world mate, a lot of folk here have a very different view to us as to what mountain biking is, there is a link to the taff trail from the visitor center i believe they can shred the gnarr on their rigid 29ers there lol.

common problem with santa cruz’s chocolate pivot bolts, i usd the hammer a torx wrench technique but make sure you can get the replacement pivot bolt first, santa cruz will try to sell you a £120+ “pro pack” for the sake of 1 bolt.. .

then sell the damn thing, my blur LTc was a creaking corroded mess after just 6 months of spring and summer use, the canyon i replaced it with is still silent and tight as a drum after 9 months of fairly heavy use through the winter and summer. yankie bling is no match for german design and engineering .

to be honest crundi if your mechanically inept enough to be unsure how to remove a shock it’s probably best you get a shop to take care of it for you.

lots of lapierre zesty’s around my neck of the woods.

foxy XR would be my choice, demo’ one at afan a while back and it was awesome.

if the black flags have the same level of sealing as the charger expert wheels get about 12 sets of bearings that way you may get through the year.

an almost identical crash, commitment and speed are everything when it comes to jumps/drops there is very little technique involved.

this fellow springs to mind.

you can’t, canyons are direct sale only, that’s ho they keep them half the price of trek specialized etc.

good, hippy crap like ­homeopathy has no place in the civilized world.

Dan Atherton, the spear point of GT’s Enduro team, swore off 650B wheels at first, but after helping to dial in the geometry and ride of the new 150-millimeter-travel Force, he changed his mind. Atherton says, however, that he will continue to develop the 26-inch wheel prototype enduro GT he uses on the racing circuit.

The words of GT bicycles themselves, looks like the claim that he races a 650b in dirt were more marketing guff.

source http://www.pinkbike.com/news/GT-2014-Four-models-of-the-new-Fury-DH-and-Two-Trailbikes-650B-S.html

some one should tell dan atherton about this second because he chooses to race on a 26″ wheeled prototype rather than the new 650b force.

@wwaswas

i know the MTBer think is a regular with the commentators but it’s true, i ride with a mixed group, some dedicated roadies and some who do both and the MTBers are generally the better descenders, its the same with road motorcyclists too riders who have years of moto x experience tend to be incedibly fast, i think its to do with your mind and body being more accepting of the bike weaving and moving around at speed.

cash generator monkeys .

never realized wheel sucking was regarded as a skill.

anyway back on topic, anyone who has done any amount of road riding will know that heavier riders tend to decent faster in a straight line, add corners and its more the rider with the biggest balls.
riders who ride mountain bikes a lot tend to be much better road descender’s too in my experience.

all these folk that shout over biked at anything that isn’t a rigid single speed are a supercilious bunch of ****, just because you can’t ride a bike hard enough to use more than 80mm of travel doesn’t mean other riders can’t 🙄

they must be enjoying them so much they never let them out of the shed because i’ve never seen one outside of a magazine.

never bothered bedding in pads in my life, and i manage to get a good 4-6 months of riding per set and i’ve never had to change a set of pads during week long alps trips either.

i live about 30 mins away and don’t think its worth the drive, its a horrible climb followed by a boring, featureless descent my 8 year old could ride it.

29″ bikes will stay around for the xc and beginner markets, i think it’s the push to try and get them accepted for more aggressive riding that has fallen flat.

out of interest the bikes bought by riding buddys over the last few months have been

intense carbine 26
specialized camber 29
ibis mojo 26
canyon strive x2 26
canyon nerve AL+ 26
zestys x3 (714,414 and 314) all 26
yeti asr 5 26
orange 5 26
specialized stumpy evo’s x2 26

29ers are a rare breed in my part of the world 😆

the cotic, hope and chris king evangelists must all be in bed dreaming of single speed jones monstrosities.

all the SS stuff ive had inc headsets has been just fine.