I'm sure that is correct for experienced riders regardless of their fitness. However, I can vouch that for beginner riders such as my 12 year old son, riding a 29er will be very confidence inspiring as compared to a 26er when you're talking hardtails. He used to be very skittish and scared of mountain biking with me so when he outgrew his 24" bike, I went straight to a 29er hardtail for him. The big wheels have given him a sense of stability, the confidence to know that he can roll over pretty much anything that is still cross-country and has enabled him to acquire much better riding skills.
Maybe on a dual suspension 26er the experience would have been similar, but I wasn't going to purchase an expensive DS for a growing boy I wasn't sure would love it. I've been mountain biking since 1999, first with hardtails, then with DS bikes with progressively more travel, but my eyes were opened to the wonders of the larger wheels when I first mountain biked with my Bombadil. With the 29er wheels and fat tires, you really can do away without suspension and recover a lot of the pure fun that seems to have gotten lost with the super technical dual suspension bikes that call for higher speeds and/or gnarlier groomed trails to "have fun". Many of the trails where it's legal to mountain bike in the SF Bay Area are groomed and keep getting "sanitized" to make them easier and safer (and reduce liability) so they become boring to ride for expert riders. Riding them on the Hunqapillar or any other unsuspended 29er makes them a lot if fun to ride again. Rene Sent from my iPhone 4 On Aug 9, 2011, at 9:56 AM, Patrick in VT <swing4...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Aug 5, 6:51 pm, Jim Mather <mather...@gmail.com> wrote: >> Several successful women racers are on 29ers, including Willow >> Koerber, Katie Compton, and Georgia Gould. > > I get to race with Lea Davison (another World Cup level pro MTB racer > on a 29er) and some other elite/pro racers at my weekly local MTB > series. i haven't talked to Lea about it, but i know that some pros > have access to 29ers and 26ers and choose which to ride depending on > the course. Jaroslav Kulhavy won a world cup XC race on a 29er this > year - the first time that's happened. but that field of racers is > still loaded with 26ers. and WC races tend to be very technical. the > only conclusion i draw there is that it's still about the rider more > than the bike/wheel size. my own experience reinforces that - I'm > 100% positive that I'm not getting dropped because of 26 inch wheels. > > Personally, MTB, whether i'm racing or just enjoying some trails, is > "skills" intensive and i'm not convinced that wheel size is going to > do much in terms of how i choose my lines, tackle obstacles and > enhance my skill set in general. but the fact that so many super > skilled mountain bikers have adopted 29ers is certainly persuasive. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
