Hello Vital MTB Visitor,
We’re conducting a survey and would appreciate your input. Your answers will help Vital and the MTB industry better understand what riders like you want. Survey results will be used to recognize top brands. Make your voice heard!
Five lucky people will be selected at random to win a Vital MTB t-shirt.
Thanks in advance,
The Vital MTB Crew
That's all changed now, of course. I bet at least 3 more teams will be rocking 29er DH bikes before the season ends. Next year we'll probably see all the teams on it.
It's not hype. It really is faster.
Was it world-cup worthy? Nope -- that wasn't the intent, knowing that it'd be a long time until racers saw any merit to 29".
But -- more to the point -- it had 29" dual-ply WTB Dissent's in 2.5", either a White Brothers Groove 200 or 180, or a Dorado @ 180, better-than-Boost 20 x 120 up front and 12 x 150 out back, and we've been ripping on them since 2009.
One of them highlighted here: http://forums.mtbr.com/downhill-freeride/bike-check-skippys-pbj-651488-…
Shocker that the same 'DH roadie, can't be done, looks wrong' mentality was as prevalent then as it is now, just with fewer hashtags. Do amateur downhillers really never mature?!
Economically, this is terrible news for the DH segment of the industry, & it's going to cause harm that may take a very long time to recover from.
& if we're going to go down the "they should be able to run the best tech possible, period" argument, then the UCI needs to do away with the equal wheelsize rule. You know why that rule exists? because it's a real advantage. you get a lot of the cornering benefits of the smaller wheel, & the rollover benefits of the bigger one. & if we're going to go through this dance again, let's go to the best combo: 29" front, 27.5" rear.
For a lot of mountain biking parts and products, DH is the testing ground for new ideas which often trickle down to other facets of mountain biking including entry level bikes. Stifling innovation at the top will only hurt the entire industry.
After spending years and big resources making their current bikes and getting the geometry dialled and ending up with beautiful finished products,the likes of canyon Rocky Mountain yt and more will be taking angle grinders to forks and replacing carbon rears with tubular welded alloy.
Roll out the Frankenstein bikes! Pit bits at next round will look like something from mad max!
Good job making a perfect argument for why "Free Markets" don't work. Sometimes the hand that increases competition has to be visible, Ms. Rand.
I remember GM going on about how many other factors there were in a DH race when he was still riding a 26er V10 and the syndicate were winning races on those tiny wheels when most of the field were on 27.5. Now he's suddenly a 29er advocate after riding a High Tower at an EWS event that he didn't do especially well in.
There is no doubt in my mind that the hype has been a marketing bonanza for SC. What else matters to them than selling more, expensive bikes than their competitors?
But what if the UCI were to announce a rule that DH bikes would only be 650b (or even 26") only in 2018 onwards? I wonder how that would affect sales.
If you want to go faster, then lay off the brakes and increase your skill, not your wheels.
Dear Bike Industry,
I'm getting tired of this.
Sincerely,
26" Curmudgeon
I bet there were a lot of rigid curmudgeons at one point, and a rim brake curmudgeons, and bar end curmudgeons, and long stem curmudgeons.
This "29" wheels are faster" rhetoric will become mute when everyone is on them and then we will be back to more normalized. competitve racing. Just standardize the wheelsize and get on with it. BMX is 20", Cruiser is 24", Road is 700c, why is mtb 24",26", 650b, 29"?
Just like suspension travel and settings, I think the wheel thing is going to come down to taste more than anyone cares to admit. Again, as I keep noting (but nobody listens to), EWS racers often have the option of either and some prefer the smaller wheel. That says a lot to me.
So I say let it proliferate. If its too big, people will go back, just like they did with suspension forks and rear end travel.
Its expensive to bring a new wheel out, and there isn't enough money in DH for a company to pioneer some all-new wheel standard just to win some WCs (new tire molds, new rims, etc). 29" has been around for a decade +. Adopting it for DH isn't as revolutionary as we all are pretending.
The fear we are somehow going to over segmentize the market may already be true, but bringing a larger hoop to DH bikes is a drop in the bucket all things considered. We should be more concerned about ebikes ruining trail access than Minnaar going fractions of a second faster at the top level of the sport because his wheels are 1.7" bigger than the other guys...
Ben Walker (of Scott Bikes) has a 29" Gambler, so maybe we'll see some under the team at Ft. Bill?
Here's what he posted up on ridemonkey regarding the bike:
"I have one and it's real fast. My butt touches my rear tire sometimes and it's terrifying depending on the situation. Even though it's faster and has more grip I usually always ride the 27.5 bike. It's more fun for what I do. If I had flatter tracks then maybe I would ride it more often. It's not much of an advantage in Champery where your skills and ball size have a greater effect than wheelsize. I had to reduce the travel to 187mm in the rear to keep my seat where I want it.
I think drifting flat corners is easier on the 29DH bike. It takes a little more commitment when throwing the bike into corners but after you get used to the different timing it's not really an issue. "
If Santa Cruz had this rig last year we may have seen a very different Steve Peat as well.
So hi-hopes to see many more big wheeled super-sleds in the DH field quickly I for one have been waiting for this.
Perhaps this is all much ado about nothing? The only real takeaway from the weekend seems to be confirmation that Greg Minnaar is the king of Ft. William.
Post a reply to: Should There Be a 29er DH Class and 27.5 DH Class at World Cups?