flash 29er or stick with what i have????

[badiejb]

i rode the new Bulls 29 er on wednesday in tokai with Karl Platt. he is riding one in the Absa Cape Epic next year. You can look at what the pros say and what they ride, but until you ride it yourself you will never know. All i know is that i was smiling the whole time i rode the 29er. it was and amazing bike to ride. Easy to climb. went brilliant over the rocks and roots. easy to go through the tighter sections. I am def getting one as soon as i can afford it.

Whatch out for Bulls bikes

www.bullsbikes.co.za

[Kiwi]

Here's some old links to get you started:

 

http://singletrack.c...6-hardtail_1904

http://velonews.comp...re-faster_97597

Edited November 8, 2010 by Kiwi

[splat]

Has anyone done back to back time trials with a 26" full susser and a 29" hard tail?

 

I remember when full sussers were becoming popular, a UK bike mag did a test to see if they were indeed better and faster etc (pretty much the way 29'ers are being marketed). They had a few riders doing laps on a course and swapping bikes bewteen laps (Cannondale hardtails and Scalpels). They each had HRMs to measure effort vs time etc.

 

At the end of it all, they did conclude that the full susser was faster. But only just.

 

Its one thing to say a bike feels faster, but someone needs to put numbers against thier impressions and come up with conclusive evidence.

[intern]

Oh, ya, I rode a 29 for a week. It felt like I had to learn how to ride a bike all over again. Ungainly, very poor on twisty, technical stuff, felt weird to lift the wheels off the ground. It's possible to relearn all that, and probably quickly, but why would you want to? 29 provides a further option, but the craze which is sweeping through the industry is just absurd.

[badiejb]

does the time trail thing not depend on your skill level for one, two the type of terrain and maybe your experience of rider? If you are a pro then a 29 might make a smaller difference in your time over a lap from the 26'. i felt alot faster on the 29 over the same course that ive ridden plenty with my 26'. My experience

[rouxtjie]

People. 29 is marketing. It will not make you faster. Burry did not come 3rd because he was on a 29er, he came 3rd because he is Burry. (It can even be argued, perhaps more cogently, that he came 3rd in spite of the 29er).

Think about it. The 26er market is saturated. Convince people that they will go faster on a different bike = whole new market. And us sheeple all fall for it. The bike shops can't keep up.

The pro riders (those riding for teams sponsored by bike makers) are REQUIRED to ride what they are told to...and to rave about it.

Does that mean the whole thing is bollocks? No, certainly not. But does it mean you should flog your 26er and go get a 29er, as it will somehow magically be better? Also no.

Cyclists are like golfers. We tend to fall for any kind of marketing schpiel that will convince us we will go faster (or hit further, in the case of the golfer). I mean, we even drain blood and reinfuse it. Mad, hey?

Me thinks you are breaking a few hearts here today mr intern

[Zeps]

You just burst my bubble, I thought having a 29'er would turn me in to a World Champ

 

So you not gonna try one 'sometime' as suggested to you in another thread?

 

Like "Trevor's" 4G thing it's NOT LIES, IT'S MARKETING

[Wyatt Earp]

the craze which is sweeping through the industry is just absurd.

I agree with you fully.

[stringbean]

I tend to agree with intern that it is just a hype to try and sell more bikes.I understand in certain situations it might be quicker but most of those are places you can probably ride your road bike .As for worlds i have watched that over and over and can't help thinking that Burry would have done soooo much better on his FS.He was NOT climbing well on the 29er and when Hermida accellerated he could not go with.The world champion is a OLD man on a 26" HT.

AM has won the epic on a HT,FS and a 29er.

I saw a article about a guy in OZ who did a 24hr race on a 26 FS bike and a 29er ht with a powertap on both and at the end he used MUCH MORE power on the 29er to go the same speed than on the 26 FS.He concluded that it was because of all the extra energy needed to accellerate the 29inch wheels all the time.

This is the first time i have seen someone with hard data.

Anyone who has just thrown a huge amount of money at a 29er is going to tell you how great it is.

Stick with your 26HT.

[Eldron]

Personally I think people are making too big a deal of this.

 

29er bikes do not represent a mind alteringly different market changing performance shift in mountain biking - they simply offer another alternative to the comsuner. Ultimately the wheels are 11.5% different - the other 95% of the bike is still the same.

 

My feeling is this: how can a 5 foot and a 6 foot 4 rider both use the same size wheels? The two riders use different frames, stem length, handlebar widths, crank lengths etc so why the same size wheel? In an ideal world each size bike would come with it's own size wheels but that would make manufacturing difficult and expensive. With 29er wheels you get a choice of two - which is one one more than we had before (if you exclude the 650C of course).

 

Performance wise there will never be a direct comparison that factually concludes that a 29er is "faster" or "better" - or duallie versus hardtail for that matter and that argument has been going on for a decade...

[Mellow]

Personally I think people are making too big a deal of this.

 

29er bikes do not represent a mind alteringly different market changing performance shift in mountain biking - they simply offer another alternative to the comsuner. Ultimately the wheels are 11.5% different - the other 95% of the bike is still the same.

 

My feeling is this: how can a 5 foot and a 6 foot 4 rider both use the same size wheels? The two riders use different frames, stem length, handlebar widths, crank lengths etc so why the same size wheel? In an ideal world each size bike would come with it's own size wheels but that would make manufacturing difficult and expensive. With 29er wheels you get a choice of two - which is one one more than we had before (if you exclude the 650C of course).

 

Performance wise there will never be a direct comparison that factually concludes that a 29er is "faster" or "better" - or duallie versus hardtail for that matter and that argument has been going on for a decade...

 

yeah, we should see from bmx right up to 29er in the epic. the Fluckiger brothers and the Rabobank guys on the bmx bikes and Bart Brentjens, Geoff Kabosh on 29ers

[Mackie]

snip, snip... that argument has been going on for a decade...

and will continue for decades more...

What ever blows your head back, we forget the placebo effect here, if your mind wishes that it is quicker, you will argue that it was.

[Cassie]

I don't think the 29er should be all about "being faster"...that might be a misconception!

BUT for the average Joe, I think the improved rider comfort - especially when upgrading from a 26er HT is vast...this is just my humble opinion after reading a heck of a lot and drawing my own conclusions on this topic...

[Eldron]

I saw a article about a guy in OZ who did a 24hr race on a 26 FS bike and a 29er ht with a powertap on both and at the end he used MUCH MORE power on the 29er to go the same speed than on the 26 FS.He concluded that it was because of all the extra energy needed to accellerate the 29inch wheels all the time.

 

This is a myth that needs to change.

 

AM Classic 29 All Mountain: WEIGHT Front 788gr Rear 892gr Pair 1680gr

AM Classic 26 All Mountain: WEIGHT Front 721gr Rear 825gr Pair 1546gr

Conti Race King 29x2.2: 650g

Conti Race King 26x2.2: 570g

 

The difference in wheel weights is 214g in total - 107g per wheel.

 

With the average rider at say 70kg with a 10kg bike that is a wheel weight increase of 0.265%

 

Please tell me how accelerating an extra 214g can make a meaningful difference to power? Would you even notice having to work 0.265% harder?

[Mellow]

This is a myth that needs to change.

 

AM Classic 29 All Mountain: WEIGHT Front 788gr Rear 892gr Pair 1680gr

AM Classic 26 All Mountain: WEIGHT Front 721gr Rear 825gr Pair 1546gr

Conti Race King 29x2.2: 650g

Conti Race King 26x2.2: 570g

 

The difference in wheel weights is 214g in total - 107g per wheel.

 

With the average rider at say 70kg with a 10kg bike that is a wheel weight increase of 0.265%

 

Please tell me how accelerating an extra 214g can make a meaningful difference to power? Would you even notice having to work 0.265% harder?

 

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/rotq.html

 

force = mass x acceleration(angular)

 

most of the mass sit further away from the centre on a 29er (r bigger) and the mass is more at that distance.

 

wonder what the numbers come to

[Eldron]

I don't think the 29er should be all about "being faster"...that might be a misconception!

BUT for the average Joe, I think the improved rider comfort - especially when upgrading from a 26er HT is vast...this is just my humble opinion after reading a heck of a lot and drawing my own conclusions on this topic...

 

This matches my experience exactly - I used to ride a 26" Spesh duallie and always felt beaten up after a race - sore shoulders, arms and neck. Moved to a Niner Air 9 hardtail and now feel more fresh at the end. Whether this equates to "faster" is of course debatable but I prefer it.