The 79er

[born-again-biker]

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[gillyske]

TLDW: Sticking 29" fork/wheel combo with 20mm less travel on a 27.5" bike which is based around geometry where the front travel is 20mm greater than the rear from factory makes it handle better. ie a 180F/160R 27.5 to a 160F 29" / 160R 27.5" as this wouldn't change the geometry of the bike, just allowing the bigger wheel to do its job at the front whilst the smaller wheel at the back can accelerate quicker and be stiffer.

They claim that this is different to sticking a 27.5" wheel into the back of a 29'er as the chainstay lengths, bb height etc would have been built around the size of the 29er.

It kinda makes sense.... and makes me curious to chuck a 27.5 on the back of my Meta 29 anyway haha.

 

[beeb]

I did it a while back on a Ripmo, and it handled beautifully - and the quick spin-up of the 27.5" rear wheel was bliss for my lazy legs - but flippen' heck it made the bike low. It was fine on flow trails and drops (better than fine - it was awesome), but forget anything properly chunky or techy climbs unless you're skills are very very good (mine aren't). Putting a 29er front wheel and shorter travel fork in a factory "overforked" 27.5 bike (a la @gillyske's suggestion) would be the ideal setup.

In reality I think in my case a lot of the handling improvement came from front-to-rear tyre imbalance (29er 2.5" DHF front, 27.5 2.3" Minion SS rear) and the fact the smaller wheel slackened the bike out roughly 1-degree, meaning the lower/slacker geo and front-end grip gave massive confidence in turns . Realistically, the rear wheel being smaller mostly just makes the bike feel more responsive to pedal inputs - and gives more butt-clearance if hanging off the back of the bike. I'll be having a second go on a Ripmo soon, and will be chucking an -1 angle headset in to see if I can keep the handling and the BB clearance.

 

[Paulie_AU]

I have been keen to try this for a while. I just need to find a 29 non boost lyrik lower.

 

[Coopz]

One thing about mtbs compared to motorbikes, especially dirt bikes is 90% of mtbs have the same front and back tyre. 99% of motorbikes run 2 completely different wheel sizes. Usually a larger diameter narrow front and and a thicker rear.

Wondering why more bike companies have not experimented with different sized wheels.

 

[safreek]

I always liked a 69r much more, they are much more fun

 

[rockmoose]

I always liked a 69r much more, they are much more fun

But that's usually big in the back, small in the front.

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[Scotty T]

The French appear to call it a mullet, but they're definitely confused because a mullet is also big in the back and small in the front. Unless they mean the fish, which is still confusing because a mullet seems fairly normal as far as fish go.

Source: https://www.pinkbike.com/news/bike-check-caminade-chill-easy.html

 

[beeb]

The French appear to call it a mullet, but they're definitely confused because a mullet is also big in the back and small in the front.

Stems more from the common description of the mullet AFAIK - "Business at the front, party at the back"

 

[Scotty T]

Stems more from the common description of the mullet AFAIK - "Business at the front, party at the back"

Ahhh makes sense now

 

[Chriso_29er]

The French appear to call it a mullet, but they're definitely confused because a mullet is also big in the back and small in the front. Unless they mean the fish, which is still confusing because a mullet seems fairly normal as far as fish go.

Source: https://www.pinkbike.com/news/bike-check-caminade-chill-easy.html

Its called the mullet because it makes the bike 'business up front, party out back'

 

[fatboyonabike]

Wondering why more bike companies have not experimented with different sized wheels.

There is quite a few new long travel Ebike's coming out with out in this format now, there must be something in it