Who's ridden a 29er and didn't like it?

Raging_Bulls":3ij793hs said:
.... street or real technical tracks with lots of short corners, 2 situations where any mediocre 26 will pummel even the best 29 money can buy.

Why am I less than totally convinced by that statement :?:

And anyway, I reckon that a lot of apocrypha always surrounds 29er's. Like the "exploding/self-destructing" wheels - I've ridden with lots of people on 29er's (some of them very fast and hard riders) and I've never seen a single wheel issue present itself.

And the "weird steep head angle" and "weird handling" ones - I have four bikes which have 29" front wheels and they all have perfectly normal, erring towards slack if anything, head angles. They don't steer and handle weirdly, rather the exact opposite. They handle like good handling bikes should.
The "steep head angle" bit comes from the early 29er days, before people started making longer offset forks specifically for them and were just using longer 26" forks but with the same offset and so steepened the head angle to counteract the resultant increase in trail caused by the larger wheel radius.
You can move on now, those days have gone.....

In fact, it's the front wheel that most benefits from being larger, in my opinion (the pushing the wheelbarrow versus pulling the wheelbarrow up a step analogy) although many people will cite increased rear traction as being a similar advantage.
So why do I have all these 69ers (two Hummingbirds, a Carver, and a Top Fuel) cluttering up my workshop and no 29ers? Simply because I've been riding one or another for the last four years, I've championed them to anyone who'd listen and I've grown to like them and know how to make them work well for me. Or so people tell me, anyway.

So would I have something like a Niner SIR 9? Yes, at the drop of a hat - green please and singlespeed of course. In my dreams though - I can't spend any more money on bikes in the foreseeable future.
 
Andy R":3vchlhr4 said:
So would I have something like a Niner SIR 9?

I've just looked that up.
smileyvault-drool.gif


Anyone want a kidney?
 
Nimble 9 is lovely. Its on the shortlist :) but favourite is the Cotic Solaris. I reckon I'll be replacing both of my Kona's with a Solaris soon. Seems to be just that bit better value than the Nimble when you figure in what importing adds to the basic price. ££££ no object I'd make room for a By:Stickel :cool:


RE the wheel weight thing. Is it an issue these days? Never had we had the diversity available to us, pick your wheel for its intended purpose not by its weight or size.
 
Very, very, nice yessir :cool:

I'd be using a shorter stem than you have on it but that's a personal thing, of course.
Something else that I wouldn't turn away from my door if it came looking for sanctuary.
 
Andy R":3j6oxuaj said:
Very, very, nice yessir :cool:

I'd be using a shorter stem than you have on it but that's a personal thing, of course.
Something else that I wouldn't turn away from my door if it came looking for sanctuary.

Thanks Andy,
agree on the stem, but I could grab this frame in size L (no patience to wait for XL :) )and now I need the longer stem to accomodate my big body.....makes it a good (but heavy) CC racer too ;)
Got her pretty dirty last Sunday

2012GMAEstafetteDeZeeleeuw-221.jpg
 
Might be functional but not really my cuppa.

If you get on with it though that's all good :D
 

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