29er Mountain Bikes?

Easy Rider · #1 (**permalink**) 08-22-2008, 08:39 PM

I had some time to kill this beautiful Friday afternoon so I went into the local bike shop and saw a killer looking Mountain Bike but it looked bigger than a normal mountain bike. I took a glance at the tire size and saw it was sporting 29-inch mountain bike tires instead of the regular 26-inch tires. I'm now contemplating on making a 29er for my next bike. Does anyone have any pros and cons on using such large tires?

Andyinchville1 · #2 (**permalink**) 08-22-2008, 10:16 PM

HI EZ,

Only thing I can think of that may be a con is maybe not all shops carry 29" tires / tubes....Probably not a big issue in most cases BUT if it is your sole transportation and a tire gets trashed for whatever reason a replacement could take awhile to get (I live in a small town so no 29 ers around here.....)

Andrew

stude13 · #3 (**permalink**) 08-22-2008, 11:02 PM

i think it would smoooth out the bumps.

UncleKudzu · #4 (**permalink**) 08-23-2008, 12:00 AM

i saw some 29 inch bikes recently too. i guess you'd increase your speed with the bigger wheel?

Easy Rider · #5 (**permalink**) 08-23-2008, 12:01 AM

The guy at the bike shop told me it was the latest trend in single speed mountain biking.

Andyinchville1 · #6 (**permalink**) 08-23-2008, 02:37 AM

I did see a few pics of 29ers in a mountain bike mag that fit your single speed description but I have seen more pics of 29ers as down hill free ride bikes.....
Which were you thinking of building?

lennyharp · #7 (**permalink**) 08-23-2008, 04:15 AM

The gears will be taller or higher because of the larger diameter. A racer friend has a new 29er and says it works better on roads as the taller gears make it fun to ride the roads to the trails . I always did that with 26" but know what he was saying.

I used to race single speed and loved a 24 inch wheel because it was so light and strong (the smaller diameter the wheel the stronger it is against side forces.). The down side was the rough stuff got rougher. 26 was much smoother and 29 would be that much smoother again.