Mountain bikes with 29″ wheels have been out for some time now, they are no longer just marketing hype by bicycle manufacturers to sell more bikes, 29ers are being ridden by some of the best mountain bike racers in the world to World Cup and Olympic podiums. It’s hard to get an idea how a bike will ride by taking one for a spin around the bike shop parking lot, so the opportunity to demo a 29er on some of the best trails in the United States in Oakridge, Oregon during the August Mountain Bike Oregon was a perfect time to see what the 29er phenomenon is all about.
The bike I rode was a Cannondale Scalpel 29er Carbon 1, a full suspension, all carbon racing bike. Although the Scalpel had rear suspension, it has pivotless seat/chain stays and it didn’t really do much to soak up the bumps, maybe take a little of the edge off them, but this bike rode a lot like a rigid frame. The distinctive “Lefty” suspension fork did a good job up front, it takes a little getting used to when you look down and only see one fork leg!
No matter what size the wheels were, the Scalpel is a full on race bike. Everything on the bike was carbon and the bike was extremely light. Even the wheels were carbon fiber. Heck, the wheels alone probably cost as much as my bike. Probably a lot of the way the bike handled was due to the very light weight, so how much of the ride was due to expensive carbon fiber and how much was because of the 29″ wheels?
The Scalpel climbed extremely well, no doubt because of the light weight of the bike, but also because of the 29″ wheels. Where the 29″ wheels really showed their advantage was rolling over small and medium hills in a much larger gear than you could do with a 26″ bike. The 29er seemed to be a little harder to get going from a dead stop, but once you were rolling, it is much easier to ramp up the speed than with 26″ wheels. No wonder cross country racers like 29ers, it’s easy to keep them rolling and easy to accelerate should you decide to attack during a race, just what you would want out of a race bike.
On flat and uphill terrain, the 29er easily gets the nod over a traditional 26″ bike. How about the downhills? To be honest, I couldn’t feel any advantage or disadvantage the 29er had over a 26″ bike when the trail turned downhill. The brakes on the Scalpel demo I was riding were not working that well so I was going a little faster than I would have liked. Along with the geometry and minimal rear suspension, this XC oriented race bike was a handful on the longer, steep downhills, especially when the trails were rocky and rooty. Once again, the Scalpel handled a lot like a rigid bike on trails that would be best with at least a few inches of rear suspension. 26 or 29 on the downhills? I would say either one would be fine.
Did the 29er do anything worse than a 26″ bike? The only thing I could tell was that in tight, twisty singletrack, the handling of the 29er was a little slow compared to a standard 26″ wheeled bike. Not a deal breaker, you would probably get used to it after awhile and change your riding style to accommodate the 29er handling.
One other observation; I’ve always had Shimano XT components on my mountain bikes, the Scalpel had a SRAM XO drivetrain. The shifting was much better than my XT, even though the “push-push” shifters took a little getting used to. I was not as happy with the Avid Elixir brakes.
My first exposure to a 29er was a positive experience, if I were buying a new bike, I would definitely consider one. My everyday bike is a Giant Trance X2, a great full suspension trail bike.
The thing that it doesn’t do all that well is climbing, I’m thinking a 29er version of the Trance might take care of that to some degree. All in all, if I was buying another bike, I think the Giant Trance 29er might be what I would choose.
OK, got the 26″ and 29″ bikes covered, what’s next? How about the 27.5″/650?