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Then I get another 29er (yeti sb5,5) and it fits like a glove, I feel really confortable and I know really appreciate the extra mellowness/stability and safety and the bit of agression I have to put in the turns. I sometimes would like to try again a 27.5 to feel the difference and I don't think I will ever go back.
My dh bike is still a 27.5 and I can't wait to put my hands on a 29er dh, i'm a strong believer that it would be a great application for this platform.
The 29er Mega I put together specifically to try the very same concept as Transition later brought to market labelled SBG and it was really pretty horrible in corners. If you’re riding bike park with huge arc corners then yeah you get a more stable ride (less effected by rider input or other inputs in terrain etc) but we don’t really have much of that in the UK. We have a lot of tight corners. I found the wheel flop was just too pronounced to provide a consistently cornering bike. Once you hit the torque from the wheel flop the stability is flipped upside down and you’re fighting the bike. It’s super stable until all of a sudden it’s not at all.
The one way in which the Mega differed from the Sentinel design was that Transition have short chainstays and the Mega has long meaning there’s more weight on the front axle and therefore more pronounced wheel flop. It could be the short chainstays on the Sentinel mitigate the effects of wheel flop. I doubt it though to be perfectly honest. But I’m just one guy that doesn’t like huge trail figures on 29” wheels - ymmv.
I haven’t messed around with this sort of thing on 27.5” but in theory you can go farther with a slacker HA and reduced offset before you create the same issue. My guess would have been that the SBG Scout handles really well as you point out.
Sold the e29 to get a nomad v3
Sold the nomad to get a switchblade
Sold my switchblade to get a mach 5.5... sold the 5.5 and now i am back on a switchblade... 27 is not as stable as 29 in the rough stuff.lesson learned
I went from 26 a while ago to try 27.5 on XC, then 29 few years later and at every step with lighter wheels (I guess the wallet grew up as well) so the feeling was always a big improvement between capability and agility.
So I didn't see any point of going back to 27.5 and even made that choice on my DH.
But I think it depends of what the rider needs as well, agility, speed, confidence, stiffness...
Roughly I did those changes :
- from 26 to 24 on my dirt/park because of the agility, it feels like riding a bmx on pumptracks, small wheels 'pump' easier!
- from 26 to 27.5 on my 4X hardtail, grip, speed and stability are precious.
- from 26 to 27.5 to 29 on my DH, because of the grip, stability and more confidence in rough sections.
- new enduro in 29 because I felt good in DH on 29 and I want the same feeling when I descend everything I climbed
I’m 6,2” and so my bikes are pretty big (c1250 WB on the AM and almost 1300 on DH) with the HT a bit shorter due to frame size and adjustable CS length.
I’m based in the U.K. where trails are often very tight on the way up and down, but I’ve also done a lot of european and more open area riding in the last 2 seasons. While my Mega has been awesome on the bigger, more open and much faster tracks, and even some sections where it shouldn’t have handled them as well, after testing some others Bikes I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s a case of horses for courses.
I have tried a couple of good 275 AM/Enduro Bikes down some tracks that I just can’t see the Mega slicing through in the same way. I’ve also tried a Switchblade and found it very nimble for a 29er, but still not the same as a 275. The SB CS are very short so the trade off is that climbing is harder work.
I haven’t been able to lay my hands on a 29er with short offset fork (Sentinel) yet so have no idea if this is really going to change the feel of 29ers. The length of CS definitely changes the character of a bike but the almost default industry standard of 430mm (it’s that common IMO) is too short for guys my size if you are having to do some material climbing.
The bottom line is that the 29ers just feel more proportionate, if a little less nimble and it also takes me a lot more bottle to jump them. The 275 feels weird when the trails open up and even on the DH the wheels feel tiny sometimes after jumping off the 29.
So what am I likely to do? The answer is bike 4.....a 275 AM/Enduro bike that I can use for the tight twisty stuff, for some Enduro racing and when I go back to Finale and adventure riding. I will still have an FS 29er for the trail riding and big mountain stuff.
5'9" Have some pounds to lose as well :D
One thing though, the 27.5 did not have an area where it felt wrong, the climbing was not as good, but again, it was not bad either. Everything else worked for me. I picked up a 2018 Specialized Stumpjumper Expert, and am very happy I did. It is a good bike that I can take to a bike park, ride around the rec areas here like Marsh Creek or trail ride with my son once Wrestling season is finished. I think either the Trek or the Giant would have suited me fine as well, but the 27.5 just worked all around.
Honestly my biggest question I go back on forth on is to stick with my clips (clipless) pedals or throw on flats. Thanks to VitalMTB I picked up a nice set of flats, though I have not used them yet. I figure for most of my trail riding I will use clips and for any downhill parks or enduro type rides the flats.
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