October 18th, 2006
29 v 26. Again.
James Huang over at Cycling News has been forced to amend his original 29er v 26er test after all the indoctrinated 29er zealots got all fundamental on his ass. Some of the changes make sense, others don’t.
For instance 29ers can’t get such low gears as 26ers using the 104/64mm bolt circle diamtere popular on modern chainsets. So the 26er has been handicapped with higher gears. Good for normalisation of the test, but hardly representative of the real world, where less racy 26er riders can stick two fingers up to high-geared 29ers and gear down as they please.
It’s like the argument that you can make 29er wheels as light or as strong as 26er wheels. Well, yes you can make an expensive 29er wheel as light/strong as a cheaper, 26er wheel. Until you apply the same expense and technology to the 26er wheel, when the difference reappears.
Balancing normalisation versus a level playing field is always going to be tricky, though it will be hard to claim at the end of the tests that the best 29er that was put together was better than a 26er if the 26er was prevented from being the best it could be.
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