falling off bikes since 1975

…Never The Bride

Seems like my 29er findings have been rather like throwing an angry cat into the middle of a flock of headless pigeons and my effigy is probably even now being burned wherever 29er advocates gather.

I was disappointed that many of the 29er faithful could find no better way to dismiss my unwelcome findings than by resorting to playground insults and cries that I was being too vague, and wouldn’t reveal the bike involved. I on the other hand don’t want to make it easy for them to dismiss it’s problems with a wave of a hand and a cry that “oh, Brand X 29ers all have that problem”.

When debate degenerates into name calling I generally take it as a sign that I’m up against an idiot. Any fool hiding from behind their 29er singlespeed niche who wants to accuse me of not being open-minded about bikes can, politely, fuck off. Over the years I’ve ridden and enjoyed trials bikes, BMX bikes, mountain bikes, racers, tourers, track bikes, tandems and recumbents. I ride fixed, singlespeed and gears, in turn worked by gripshift, RF+, thumbies and bar end shifters. I ride hardtail, full suspension and rigid. I’ve raced on the road, in time trials, XC, DH, uphill, trials and mountain bike orienteering. I had an idea about 69ers and I didn’t write it off with corny remarks about Stingrays and Choppers, but I followed it through. Words will follow. I at least followed up my curiosity about 29ers. Doesn’t sound particularly narrow-minded to me.

The cold shouldering and insults I’ve got from the 29er uber alles crowd has rather reinforced my opinion that one of the biggest problems facing 29er advocacy is 29er advocates themselves.

Anyway, back to the bike.

On Saturday, after some tweaking to make the cockpit less cramped, I took it out for a few hours, on less singletracky trails. The trails I’d ridden a couple weeks ago on a regular hardtail. Ah, here it started to make more sense. On trails where I didn’t have to do so much steering it handled fine. On firm, gravel and cinder tracks it rolled along without too much resistance. It was a great bike for getting me along the less-interesting/technical sections and to the fun bits.

The first section of fun was muddy singletrack, and I got annoyed at it’s barge like qualities again. Then I did some rocky downhills, and it was noticeably smoother than my regular hardtail, though no better than a short travel full-susser set up firm for racing.

29er hiding in shame

Eventually the trails turned up and the rear wheel started to drag me back. On the penultimate climb of the trail, a series of rocky switchbacks, I made a concerted effort to see how far up the trail I could get it. It got a couple yards further than my 26er hardtail. But not as far as the full-susser, which can clean it all the way to the top. On the very final gravelly section it got as far as my regular hardtail.

Back down the trail and it was actually very good on the technical down. The 29er rear wheel did an excellent job of smoothing the trail. Frankly, it had too. There was no way I could pick a line and it’s lack of manoeuvrability underneath me was disconcerting.

By the time I was riding home I knew where the 29er would sit in that all too large stable of bikes I have.

Imagine if you will, a triangle of capabilities formed by a regular hardtail, a short travel full susser, and a fat-tyred (>35mm) cross bike. Each bike has it’s own strengths and weaknesses. The 29er sits somewhere in the middle of this triangle, never being quite the worst at anything, but never being the best either. With all three of those bikes already to choose from a 29er would always be the bridesmaid and never the bride. I can’t think of any trails I ride where it’s sheer averageness would make it my weapon of choice.

Of course not everyone has been so unhelpful as the MTBR 29er forum regulars. One frame builder suggested that the forks might be to blame. He reckons that they are nothing more than lengthened regular forks, so the rake/trail might be better suited to 26″ wheels, causing a ponderousness when used with 29er wheels.

Well, there was only one way to find out if that was right, and it involved the ultimate normalised 26er versus 29er test. So it was into the shed to fix up a pair of 26″ wheels for it…