Why 27.5

Most riders went right back to their 26ers after a demo ride on one of these early creations. There were, however, enough riders who rode in desert sandy , winter snow or wide-open fire road conditions to keep the glowing ember of the 29er alive. Today, 29ers are no longer an ember, but a forest fire. They enjoy plenty of wheel and suspension choices, and their geometry has been dialed to take full advantage of the inch format. There are even companies that only produce 29er bikes. Niner and Fisher Signature Bikes from Trek are only available with inch wheels.

The final proof that 29ers have arrived may be their growing acceptance by our European counterparts, who avoided 29ers like the bubonic plague. Riders who speak negatively of the larger wheels have not ridden one recently or prefer more than four-inches of rear wheel travel.

The MBA wrecking crew fields more questions about vs. With so much confusion and misunderstanding about the two wheel sizes, certain powers in the mountain bike universe have decided to make things even more confusing by offering a third wheel size, halfway between the 26er and the 29er wheel, the The advantage of the mid-sized format is that it is supposed to deliver the benefits of a inch wheel while making it easier to eke out clearance for rear suspension travel and for the action of the front derailleur.

Giant G l ory Think of the wheel as an inclined plane or a ramp. When the wheel contacts a bump, say, a two-inch block of wood, a triangle is formed from the top edge of the block to the ground and back to the point where the tire contacts the trail. The steeper the triangle, the harder it is to get the wheel up and over the block. The smaller the diameter of the wheel, the steeper the triangle becomes, until it reaches the point where the wheel is too small to get up and over and stops dead in its tracks.

The difference between the strike angle of a inch wheel and a inch wheel over the wooden block is only about 5 percent, but the cumulative effect of rolling up and over a 5-percent steeper angle thousands of times a mile adds up quickly. The larger-diameter inch wheel has noticeably less rolling resistance. Another benefit of a larger-diameter wheel is the relationship between the bottom bracket center and the wheel axles.

A lower bottom bracket lowers the center of gravity, and gives the chassis a more stable feel while cornering. The bottom bracket heights of , At Jamis Bikes covers their bases by offering steel-framed hardtails in the three wheel size formats. When they offered us three similarly priced bikes to try back to back, we jumped at the chance for the ultimate demo ride.

You can argue with hype, crunch all the numbers, and show up with years of bias, but when you ride bikes back to back, things become clear very quickly. Although all the Jamis frames measured 17 inches from the center of the bottom bracket to the top of the seat tube, the 26er felt like a minibike compared to the other two bikes. It was the easiest to straddle and had the nicest fork. Pros: Excellent on steep and stepped climbs. Easy to accelerate out of momentum sapping situations.

By far the most responsive to pumping the trail. A light-feeling that encourages the rider to hop over or around obstacles. Cons: Descending is intimidating, especially after spending time on the other two wheel sizes. This bike requires more rider input and a bigger commitment.

Rider position has a bigger effect on how the bike handles and responds. The rider has to work on looking ahead, as the 26er places the rider lower over the front. This bike looks and feels proportional. This was the only bike of the three that used a millimeter thru-axle, and there was no doubt this would give the bike an edge over a similarly equipped model with a 9-millimeter quick-release axle.

Your body position always feels neutral. You can pump the These wheels do a good job of staying on top of the rough stuff, and the front end goes where you want it to go. Only downside is the occasional 29" tire up the butt crack when getting far back over the rear on vert-near vert stuff. I'll learn hopefully.

Posted: Feb 17, at As stated above, I can't see them doing away with There are a lot of us shorter people out there that just don't feel good on 29ers. I also know a lot of tall people that still prefer how much more playful the And, while it seems like it was hard to find 26" tires for a little while there, they are making a resurgence in the form of youth bikes. I'm sure that there will be lots of years before the demand for MTB is becoming more and more diverse. Posted: Apr 19, at I believe Scott is going or has gone all 29 for all their mountain bikes.

In my opinion, nobody should. I'm relatively indifferent to the two wheel sizes, but I know several people who feel that 29 is just too big for their personal preference, and If I were in control of a bike brand, I would at least offer a mm Posted: Apr 20, at I got the Pitch in a Riding them back to back I can say that I'm not a fan of the 29 height.

Bike design and ride characteristics go well beyond wheel size. Posted: Apr 26, at I agree, I have both a My hard rock 29er and is pretty fast and rolls over everything. It is affected not just by overall static weight but also where the weight is distributed throughout the wheel. The farther the weight is from the center of the hub, the slower the acceleration. So a similarly constructed gram inch wheel is slower to accelerate than a gram inch wheel—because the larger diameter rim and longer spokes place weight farther from the hub.

The key to snappy acceleration is minimizing the weight of the outermost components rim, nipples, spokes, tire, tube. As you can see, a A larger tire contact patch, increased stiffness, and optimized frame geometry improve traction, braking and handling. The larger the diameter of a wheel, the greater the contact patch of the tire. A larger contact patch results in better traction, which leads to improved acceleration, deceleration and cornering. Lateral side-to-side frame stiffness can be affected by wheel size.

To accommodate larger wheels, frame dimensions must be elongated. Therefore, a size medium inch wheel frame has more lateral flex bottom bracket and headtube than a size medium Additional flex compromises handling under heavy pedaling or sharp cornering. The larger the wheel, the more difficult it is to optimize geometry, especially on smaller frames. As the frame size decreases, headtube heights become higher in relation to saddle height. On 26 or Your email address will not be published.