This whole wheel size debate is growing well and truly tired. Ford v Holden? Beetroot on your burgers or not? Tomato sauce or BBQ? Who gives a rats really? If you like one particular wheel size over another for whatever the reasons, fantastic! Whatever floats your boat, I really hope it keeps a smile on your face.
26 officially done?
- Thread starter Sic
- Start date
moorey
call me Mia
You're missing the point. IF 26" is fazed out by manufacturers, we wont have this choice you speak of.
Do I believe 26" is dead? No. Do I notice that some of the big manufacturers are trying to kill it? Yep. Do I think they're doing it for the good of the sport? No.
I love 29 for a few reasons. One is that it's helping cheapen the SH market for wheels, frames and forks on real bikes. Another, and my absolute favorite, is baiting 29er fanboys. They are so defensive in protesting the wrong choice they have made and feel the need to defend.
Ride what you want, hell, put beetroot and BBQ sauce on your bike if you really want to be fully wrong.
outtacontrol
Likes Bikes and Dirt
What bike do you ride? What style of riding?
I would love to see you have a ride on a 29ner appropriate to your riding preference, and then see if you still feel the same way. Dozer's post explains exactly my experience. The Satori was one of the choices I was looking at that suited my riding style. I still have my Slayer for DH duties, but I agree about the capability of a longer travel 29ner.
My Bandit feels like it climbs like my Trance (only better) and feels like it's as capable coming down as my Slayer (with the exception on full blown DH)
MARKL
Eats Squid
I agree with the choice of rubber as it is mostly break still in the 29er gravity market and non existant in 650b.
The thing I do get a laugh out of is the hatred still for 650b & 29ers, it is not as if that is the only area where there are multiple standards with even less demonstrable benefit - why the fuck do we need 50+ headset standards? Does anyone understand all the current bottom bracket/crank standards or are we all working on need to know cos' it will change next week anyhow? 67/73 & 83 was ok but the whole press fit thing is ridiculous. How would you like your hubs sir Front QR/15mm/20mm/25mm/lefty/maverick and don't forget the rear QR135/10x135/142/142+/150/157? What size is your seatpost 27.2, 28, 30, 30.9,31.6 or stupid scott genius? Shock mounting hardware 12mm or 1/2 inch. I had some hope for steerer tubes we went from 1 to 1&1/8 then we added 1.5 then we combined 1&1/8 to form taper which best of both worlds going really well then some moron at Giant decides we need overdrive.
Reality is wheel choices for 26" bikes will not disappear as rolling the rim at whatever diameter is easy and doesn't require any new tooling, Intense's 29er MTX just rolled a MTX 33/29" rim. Forks - 27.5 is so close to 26 they will work (as they work in reverse at the moment). Tires is the only issue and that will come down to supply and demand - but do we really need 17 variations of Nevegal?
I have 4 x 26 bikes and no 650b or 29er - doesn't bother me if other people do though
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The bike industry pushing it is a powerful thing, but not as powerful as this: http://mbaction.com/Mobile/News/Aaron_Gwin_Lets_A_Secret_Slip_At_SoCal_CycleFest_5916.aspx
One thing that's never convinced me about 29er's is that if they are so fast, (and everyone that rides one will tell you straight up that they two minutes of a ten minute section the first time they threw a leg over one) how come the people that need to go the fastest, i.e. downhillers, haven't been racing them? People always say that bigger wheels aren't strong enough for DH, but I don't buy it. Dher's have been racing lighter and lighter wheels for years now. They race rims that are so light, they bend before they get a pinch flat... Did anyone else notice that in the Intense 2951 video, Jeff Steber said the limiting factor was tyres? Does he not own a tyre company?
But if Gwin gets on the 650b bandwagon and doesn't go any slower than he does on 26", then I think 26" really will be fucked.
There's also a question that I want to ask about bigger wheels in general. People always say that they roll over things better, go faster, are smoother, are easier to ride, can do things on a 4" 29er that you'd need a 6" 26er for etc, etc, but how come XC racing has gotten so lame over the last few years? XC races are where most 29ers are being raced. If you look at club or state level downhill races over the last decade, tracks have gotten a lot harder and more intimidating as bikes and riders have gotten more capable. Now everyone is riding around on the most capable and easy to ride XC bikes we've ever seen and XC races are on tracks that are flat, smooth and 1m wide. Why is Downhill progressing so much while XC is becoming more lame? Maybe this is a seperate issue with many other factors, but it is something that bugs me when people talk about the benefits of bigger wheels.
One thing that's never convinced me about 29er's is that if they are so fast, (and everyone that rides one will tell you straight up that they two minutes of a ten minute section the first time they threw a leg over one) how come the people that need to go the fastest, i.e. downhillers, haven't been racing them? People always say that bigger wheels aren't strong enough for DH, but I don't buy it. Dher's have been racing lighter and lighter wheels for years now. They race rims that are so light, they bend before they get a pinch flat... Did anyone else notice that in the Intense 2951 video, Jeff Steber said the limiting factor was tyres? Does he not own a tyre company?
But if Gwin gets on the 650b bandwagon and doesn't go any slower than he does on 26", then I think 26" really will be fucked.
There's also a question that I want to ask about bigger wheels in general. People always say that they roll over things better, go faster, are smoother, are easier to ride, can do things on a 4" 29er that you'd need a 6" 26er for etc, etc, but how come XC racing has gotten so lame over the last few years? XC races are where most 29ers are being raced. If you look at club or state level downhill races over the last decade, tracks have gotten a lot harder and more intimidating as bikes and riders have gotten more capable. Now everyone is riding around on the most capable and easy to ride XC bikes we've ever seen and XC races are on tracks that are flat, smooth and 1m wide. Why is Downhill progressing so much while XC is becoming more lame? Maybe this is a seperate issue with many other factors, but it is something that bugs me when people talk about the benefits of bigger wheels.
moorey
call me Mia
Got an 8" dh bike, a 6" slope style/am bike, a 5.5" trail bike and a 4"+ xc bike.
Ive had a roll around on some 29ers ranging from ht to 5". I don't argue that they're faster, but I'll argue to the death that they are not as much fun on the trails I ride...and they eat dick
Turner_rider
Likes Bikes and Dirt
You missed out 1.25" 'Evolution' from the early 90s
MARKL
Eats Squid
yeah, missed out on 12x135 hub as well...I am sure i missed heaps of othersYou missed out 1.25" 'Evolution' from the early 90s
The stuff I've been racing in Victoria such as the inter winter series this year. The Castlemaine track was a massive let down. Castlemaine is a rad place with switchbacks rocks and plenty of up and down. But they made us race on the smoothest, flattest, un-Castlemaine like track in the whole place. The You Yangs was a footpath.
They still make some tracks for men here, Redesdale had some balls and Bendigo never apologises. I just feel that over the last five or six years we've been racing on more and more watered down tracks. At the same time we've been riding better, more capable bikes than ever before.
Capone
Likes Dirt
For the record both Holden and Ford are rubbish, Beetroot always and never BBQ sauce.
Norco Maniac
Is back!
and shortarses like me won't be riding MTB at all. there also goes a lot of women from the sport.
moorey
call me Mia
I'm going to play devils advocate here, CQP. Back when I used to be active in the running of races (xc and dh), we (clubMUD) ran a few really challenging xc tracks. Fuck, you Shooda heard the whining.
Like you, I prefer more of a challenging technical track, but I loved the interwinter series. Castlemaine was easy, but still fun. Redesdale was good, and definitely challenged a lot of riders, Youies time trial and XCO was a lot of fun, particularly the decents.
Missed the Ballarat round unfortunately.
If tracks ARE to challenging, a lot of people won't go. I'm thinking of some of the roadies I know that also ride a bit of xc. Sure, they're fit, but just don't have the bike skills for the more technical stuff. I don't want tracks watered down, but more riders turning up is surely better for the sport....even if they are on 29ers.
Like you, I prefer more of a challenging technical track, but I loved the interwinter series. Castlemaine was easy, but still fun. Redesdale was good, and definitely challenged a lot of riders, Youies time trial and XCO was a lot of fun, particularly the decents.
Missed the Ballarat round unfortunately.
If tracks ARE to challenging, a lot of people won't go. I'm thinking of some of the roadies I know that also ride a bit of xc. Sure, they're fit, but just don't have the bike skills for the more technical stuff. I don't want tracks watered down, but more riders turning up is surely better for the sport....even if they are on 29ers.
moorey
call me Mia
Pfft. Women. They're hardly going to stop the juggernaut of the bike industry from deciding. They can't even piss standing up properly.
Norco Maniac
Is back!
you obviously haven't seen a back-country raised woman in action, Moorey :love:
moorey
call me Mia
No, but I'll happily watch any woman pee, given the chance.
cleeshoy
Eats Squid
+1 on this - really enjoyed the Redesdale race and I was on a 29er
- the rockiness and tight singletrack was great (and I would rate myself pretty ordinary in the technical cornering stakes). It was a serious workout for sure.I though the YY race (the 3 stages) was a great concept. The TT stage was down Boulder (for B-Grade anyway) - surely riding the clam at the top of Boulder is techy for ya. Not sure I would call the "Rockwell Run" climb a total footpath - you still gotta put in to get up there quick. While it was smooth, hopefully you got some of your techy fix via Cressy descent.
Missed both the Castlemaine and Ballarat rounds.
Holy crap I am agreeing with you moorey
I think it's trying to find that balance - make it too hard and beginners won't come back. Make it too easy and roadies clean up. I thought Redesdale and the YY got it just about it right.
SummitFever
Eats Squid
The 26er will be dead from now until everyone has jumped on the 29er / 650B bandwagon and bike sales start to stagnate. Perhaps then there will be some miraculous re-discovery of 26er's. It'll start with some lame-arse article in some equally lame-arse MTB mag proclaiming some sort of rediscovery/epiphany.
In any event, 36er full-suspension one-handed mountain unicycling is the clear future.
In any event, 36er full-suspension one-handed mountain unicycling is the clear future.
floody
Wheel size expert
In reality we probably don't need 13 different 26" Nevegals but, that is what they're supplying because that is what the market demanded and would still appear to demand.
In many ways I think the wheel size imbroglio has a lot in common with the Hottest 100; most people only remember the latest thing even if its far from the greatest.
stinkytodamax
Likes Dirt
Trails where I ride are beginning to get wider and smoother lines since 29ers have become more popular to the point where I bought a Niner hardtail because its faster and suits the trails.
I'm finding the 29er experience pretty positive 18 months in, I'm only short at 167cm and was pretty put off by 29ers thinking they were for just for 6 foot + people. I bought a Scott Scale Expert 29er and didn't particularly like it so I bought a bottom of the line Niner. The Niner is so dialed in my opinion, maybe its the years of experience those guys apply to their frames or perhaps I've finally clicked with the larger wheel format. I feel confident and fast on the Niner probably moreso than I do on my 26in Anthem right now, don't know what it is but it just feels better even on downhill sections. I ride enduros and 24 hour races for the fun of it more than anything and am just about to buy my first dual suspension 29er after being on a 26 inchers for 12+ years. I cant argue with what feels right for the riding I mostly do at the moment.
However, once I'm sorted cross country wise with a 29er I'll get back to a 26 dually for AM merely because a 26 is still much more fun to jump and throw around for someone my height.
The only problem with all these wheel formats is not having enough money to have one or two of each.
I'm finding the 29er experience pretty positive 18 months in, I'm only short at 167cm and was pretty put off by 29ers thinking they were for just for 6 foot + people. I bought a Scott Scale Expert 29er and didn't particularly like it so I bought a bottom of the line Niner. The Niner is so dialed in my opinion, maybe its the years of experience those guys apply to their frames or perhaps I've finally clicked with the larger wheel format. I feel confident and fast on the Niner probably moreso than I do on my 26in Anthem right now, don't know what it is but it just feels better even on downhill sections. I ride enduros and 24 hour races for the fun of it more than anything and am just about to buy my first dual suspension 29er after being on a 26 inchers for 12+ years. I cant argue with what feels right for the riding I mostly do at the moment.
However, once I'm sorted cross country wise with a 29er I'll get back to a 26 dually for AM merely because a 26 is still much more fun to jump and throw around for someone my height.
The only problem with all these wheel formats is not having enough money to have one or two of each.
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