29r or MX??

Why not get a bike that can run both sizes and an extra wheelset?  I’m also 5’8” and prefer a mullet for longer travel bikes but I ride full 29” for XC/trail.  If I was getting a single bike to ride trail/enduro I’d look for something that could run both and have a light 29” wheelset and a heavier duty mullet set.  Off the top of my head something like a Reign or a SJ Evo have the necessary adjustments but I’m sure there are others.

 
If I couldn’t do 2 wheelset I’d probably go 150mm full 29 given your location.

Every bike is different and people have different experiences on them.  "Playful" is different to everyone.  I highly recommend demo'ing some bikes out there.  I've read reviews and demo'd and had completely different experiences than the reviewer.  Get a bike that is the most fun for what you want to get out of it.  Races are such a small part of the overall ride time.  I think a 29er vs MX would be negligible in a race personally.  Most pros who do videos and test find its 1% difference from what I've seen.  

One thing that I think gets overlooked with 27 rear wheel is how much easier it is to wind up at slow speeds on steep climbs.  Think 1st and 2nd gear.  In those situations, I feel that the 27 is faster climbing.  When you are in 3rd+ gear, the 29er will hold momentum easier.  

For me and my idea to swap out the 29er is based on amount of times I buzz my butt.  When I'm riding blues and blacks it rarely happens.  But double blacks it comes up every once an a while but I think of it as a reminder to get over the front.  I never buzz with 27.  So if you buzz your butt now with 27 often, I would probably stick with it.  

Personally at 5'6" for 1 bike I would have a 27 rear wheel, as I like riding black and double as much as possible and would take those benefits.  If I was on pedally blues and blacks most, I would gravitate to 29 for the efficiency.  I thought the Druid on paper looks great as the rearward axle path lets the 27 get hung up less.  

RAAW Madonna V3 looks like a good bike for the reasons posted above. It will probably last forever, not feel all that dated in a few years and be a good chassis to build on with all the extra bits they have to tweak stuff.

I am 5'8" as well and have gone back and forth with this for about 3-4 years maybe longer. I'm still not sure if I am settled on which is better still. If I was going with a DH bike it would be MX for sure but with shorter travel bike I don't have as much of an issue with getting hit and for the most part I've felt like a full 29 just holds better speed most places and on most of the trails I ride. I've also felt like on my full 29 setup I weight the front of the bike more naturally and feel a bit more on top of the bike and not so much behind the bars which to me helps me corner better in most situations. If all I rode were steep skitters then I would prefer the MX set, but average trails to bike park berms I feel better on the 29.

I would just prioritize what would work best for your trails or like others have said get a bike you can run both.

My GF just got a MX Druid and its a damn good looking bike but she's shorter than me and just came off a full 27.5 bike.

‘Playful’ is a state of mind.

If you’re worried about the Druid not being playful enough, go watch some of Dylan Siggers’ edits.

It sounds a little like you want to have your cake and eat it. A longer bike will, as a general rule of thumb, be faster in a straight line but at the expense of playfulness and manouverability. This gets more nuanced when you start comparing front to rear centre ratios though, I would personally pay attention to chainstay lengths more than reach. I'm about the same size as you and I also like bikes with reach around the 450-460 mark and would put 460 at the upper limit for me - my last bike was 466 and was ever so slightly too long for me.

I recently bought a medium forbidden dreadnought and have run it both full 29 and mx. It's playful (by my definition anyway) in both setups but absolutely rips sharper/steeper turns in mx format, which is more of what I tend to ride these days. In full 29, it feels slightly more settled and carries more speed through the rough but requires a little more body language to get it round tighter turns. I love it because I have the option of full 29 for racing faster/rougher/straighter tracks and mx for the tighter stuff.

I imagine the druid is similar but even more playful and better suited as an all-rounder. The dreadnought feels like a mini-dh bike that you can pedal up to the top, but with a 170mm fork it's slightly too much bike for most trail centres or proper all-mountain riding. A 160mm fork may be a different story.

I am very similar to you - live in northern east coast, 5'9", and have raced some ESCs and will probably do them this year. I actually have owned a Rocky Mountain Altitude for the past 2 years.

So far I have run it in the full 29 but I just bought the MX mount and will be trying it this season. My motivation for trying that is I hope it will help me be able to use more leg movement without buzzing my rear, and because I hope it will help speed up cornering in the super tight twisty trails we have up here. 

The cool thing about the Altitude is it has a 2-position chainstay. I have been told by the Santa Cruz guys that MX bikes actually benefit from having a longer chainstay, so I'm going to be testing that theory out this season. 

Also I have a medium and I'm definitely glad I did not size up to a large, as it felt way too stretched out. However, I have pretty short arms compared to my legs so I need a short reach for my height. I have a -1 degree angleset installed as well. 

I will probably be keeping this bike for a long time as it's proven awesome for any of the riding I do, and with a lighter set of tires it does very well at all-day epics. The only thing that I've been eyeing has been a shorter travel high pivot bike like the Forbidden Druid V2 or the upcoming Norco Sight, but honestly that's more fantasizing than actual planning as I don't think either of this will make me significantly happier over the Altitude for a while.

MX for sure, if possible ride the bikes and see what fits, if your buying online flip a coin and don't think to hard about it.

Funny you mention the stem, I'm not sure if it was the fork offset but I initially started with a 40mm stem and hated it as the steering was far too quick and twitchy and moved up to a 50mm. I don't think stem length adjustment was enough to fundamentally affect the ride characteristics though - the longer reach/top tube combined with a longer chainstay (442mm at top of travel but growing to 474mm at bottom out as it was a Deviate which also has a HP/rearward axle path) made it great at carrying speed but was just too much for me to get it turned in tighter stuff.

The suggested setup for the dreadnought is 170 fork with 155 at the back but the geometry and the high pivot make it feel like a more downhill-oriented bike. It is very versatile though and I've wondered if a 160 fork would steepen the headangle enough to make it feel snappier on flat stuff.

Re your local trails, that's tricky. It definitely sounds like a druid would suit that stuff better. Maybe you could run a 160 fork like you say and buy a cascade link for when you go racing to bump up the rear travel/progressiveness for rougher trails.

Ha enjoy the cake!

Go for the mixed wheel, medium, low-pivot bike. I am a similar height, and ride a lot of pumptrack and jump bike these days. Switching to a 27.5 rear wheel has allowed me to transfer those jump bike skills more directly to my enduro bike because of the additional clearance/range of motion. 

For someone our height, unless you've got weirdly long limbs, you'll likely be too stretched out on a large and feel you have to actively lean forwards to weight the front wheel in turns. I recently rode a large Bronson (475 reach vs. my normal 455 setup) and I really struggled on it. If you want a playful bike, and want to do some racing, go for the medium as I suspect you will have more cornering confidence and be able to throw the bike around more. 

After riding two high pivot bikes in recent years (Norco Range and Dreadnought) I'd say the cons outweigh the pros. Both can be really good bikes in the right scenario, but I had a problems with chains jamming/dropping, braking idler/guide parts, and general reliability issues with both. Idler bikes are also more energy to pedal over long days and harder to pump/pop/generate speed with. This isn't to say its not possible to do big days or jump these bikes, its just harder. I think in most cases, a low-pivot bike that has a touch more travel than whatever high pivot bike you're considering is probably going to be the better option. There's less to go wrong, it will be more efficient, and unless you're getting an absolute monster truck like the Range or the Nicolai, the benefits in the rough aren't actually that big compared to a bike with 10-15mm more travel. I went from a Dreadnought to an Ibis HD6 and the Dreadnought was sightly better in the fast and rough, but not by a ton. The Ibis is a lot faster to generate speed both pedalling and pumping, less energy to pedal, and easier to pick up and move on the trail.  

For the bikes you suggested, I think both the Rocky and the Bronson are great options. Based on what I've seen in my area, the Rocky is probably going to be a lot cheaper, so I'd be inclined to get one of those and save some money/upgrade components where needed. 

Heres my experience, as I too ride really deep in the back end with high rise at 5’ 9”. I did it for the first time with a Stumpjumper Evo. Loved the mixed wheel but the limkage screwed with the kinematics making it regressive. So I traded it for a Giant Trance X 29er. A trail bike. Meant for 29er wheels. In the high setting a 27.5 wheel makes it like youre riding a dual 29 setup in low. For one, this bike shreds. And I accidentally upsized the frame 15mm too much on reach. I do a lot of foothills riding where descents are not too long and usually have moderate climbing sprinkled in. Its not as efficient through the flat stuff as my buddies Pivot 429. Also through babyhead ridded trails it has less rear end roll over. But its not that bad. The minute the trails get steep for climbing, I forget about the small rear wheel. Going downhill its a monster. Im sold on mullet for life. 
I came from riding dirtbikes since I was 5 and adopted the lean back and plow through riding style. The faster the better. 
I like mullets so much I am trying to find someone to trade a Guerrilla Gravity Shred Dogg with me so I can mullet it. Its chainstays are wicked short and it just compliments that back end heavy ride style. Let me know if you have any other questions. 

I am a zealot so take it for what it is, but I'm 5'10" w/ a short inseam.  The reach on my medium has gotten somehow cramped at 450mm, but I'm on a full 27.5" Kona Process 153.  

I've had a Specialized Demo 29 and then ran it in mullet & felt like I'd unlocked the cheat code for my DH happiness after 20+ yrs. 

On the opposite end, for trail, something about a 29" front wheel and the odd ride height, leverage it takes to get it to turn and be playful on the trails & the shorter travel of 29er front wheeled bikes (full 29 or MX) isn't fun for me.  It feels like everything is delayed. 

So I stayed on full 27.5" for trail and run a mullet DH and both are perfect for everything I love to do.  If you're gonna race & go w/ a 29er front wheeled bike, if you're like me, a 27.5" rear wheel might stay around longer than a 29 rear wheel.  It comes down to one thing...
Would you rather have fun during the 4 rides during the week and be able to rally on weekends for DH by going mullet?
or
Would you rather pedal everywhere with that rear wheel eating your butthole a couple times per ride & then go full wagon wheel competitive roll over everything for race day?

I say mullet.  Be happy more than just race day.

I live in the Northeast New England area too. I'm also 5'8", long torso with 30" inseam and I have 2 bikes and there both 29ers. One is a trail bike that is a medium size (reach 442), and the other is my DH race rig which is a size large (reach 456). I can't speak to much on the enduro side of things. But 29er for trails is great.  As for DH, a full 29er is awesome up here in the Northeast. The mountains out here like Highland, Thunder and Killington aren't very steep, so it works well.  But if you're riding steep stuff or like a playful bike. I'd look at an MX wheel set up.  I like to plow through everything at high speeds. Thats why I like the 29er format.

At 5'11" I really prefer the handling of the mullets especially when it's steep, but there is zero doubt that I climb better on a full 29er and can hold a higher average speed when on a pedal bike on a straight 29er.

As a result, my 130mm trail bike (Smuggler) was in part selected because it's a full 29er & my 160mm e-bike (Relay) was in part selected because it can be run as a mullet. * if my big bike didn't have a motor I'd chose full 29er again

At your height, I might lean towards Mullet full time, probably one of the new Santa Cruz Mullet bikes which all get rave reviews.

One issue with mullets is that a 2.35 x 27.5" tire, doesn't have the traction of a 2.35 x 29" tire, so you might end up needing a grippier tire and then the bike rolls notably slower. A good work around for this is running the Aggressor 2.5 x 27.5" as it rolls pretty well at a decent weight and is wide enough to equal a 29ers traction. Of course, it comes with some geo changes as well cause it's a taller tire than the manufacturer intended (maybe can offset with flip chip however).

GL.

I'm 5'8 160lbs, own a Druid v2 (Med 29 150 lyrik w/ -1* headset), and have ridden mixed wheel sizes on other bikes. I prefer the roll over and speed from full 29 especially in the bike parks/racing. I personally believe that mixed wheel configuration is best served where the steep grade of the trail is the main feature.

If your everyday trails/racing are not on sustained steep grade downhill, it doesn't really justify it for me personally. I'd rather own a 29er trail bike that I ride on properly STEEP trails a few times a year, than a mixed wheel bike I ride 3 times a week at my local descent loops, ya know?

I also dont buy into the narrative that mixed wheels corner "better". Just like different suspension designs perform different, mixed wheels corner different than full 29er. Not better, not worse.

I've tested the Druid V2 from 30-32-35% sag, and bracketed the clickers at every sag setting. Eventually settled at 32%(ish) with -1 H/LSC and 9 reb. The bike can certainly be playful enough. I have 30mm rise bars, 35mm length stem, and 30mm of spacers under the stem. No issues getting if off the ground, manuals, or dancing around the trail. Probably the best cornering bike I've ridden. I've ridden and owned multiple bikes in different categories from a lot of the major brands over the last 4-5 years. 

I've been on my Privateer 141 for over 2000 miles and about 500 of those in a mullet set-up using a Cascade Components mullet eyelet with a Fox DXH2.

I am really enjoying the mullet set-up, especially on steeper trails (25-35% grade). 

I’m 5 8 and like dual 29.  I just run the bars pretty high and I have no issue getting over the back wheel on long travel steeds

@Roy that's funny because I was looking forward to testing my Altitude MXed at Thunder and Highland, as well as Sugarloaf. Have you gotten a chance to test a mullet setup at any of those spots over a full 29er?

The new Giant reign can run either size wheel without buying extra parts or link. I am 5'9" and run 29 rear and it's never really been an issue, but I am not a hang-off-the-back kind of guy. 

Yes, I tried a friends MX wheeled V10 at highland on bone saw, maiden voyage and eastern hemlock trails. It was great. No complaints. I can't say that it's faster than my 29er DH bike cause his bike wasn't set up for me or my riding style. And I don't want to risk destroying his bike either. But it was nice. 

6’1” and have both full 29 and mullet. I butt buzz a lot on 29. But my local trails are extremely steep. Going to go mullet on all future bikes

It sounds like you're a great candidate for a mullet. I've ridden full 29 and mullet and I really don't believe there's a significant difference in speed, traction, or bump absorption between the two. They both work great. As a tall person with a ton of racing and product testing experience, I really couldn't care less if my bike is mullet or 29er, as long as I have a spare rear wheel and tires available. BUT if you're short enough that a 29" rear wheel could get in the way of your body's range of motion on the bike, I'd definitely recommend a mullet. Being able to move comfortably on your bike is super important for good bike riding, much more important than any negligible difference in rolling speed or whatever.

And Privateer will be taking preorders soon for their updated frames. I love that they and Raaw have mullet compatibility built in. I'd be grabbing a new 141 or 161 frame if I hadn't just purchased a Lithium, which I plan to mullet this spring as an experiment. I'll be moving from a 2.35ish rear to 2.5 to help offset the bb drop just a little. Bottom bracket starting point is ~350mm so hopefully I can keep it almost reasonable at around ~340mm. Already running 165 cranks but don't want to go shorter. 

I recently demoed a Bronson MX and was impressed. Sure I "felt" the rear end of the bike more in the rocks but can't deny the cornering improvement over my ripmo v2 but the main draw for me, even at 6'1", is the increased arse clearance in the steeps.

I think we like to overanalyze things sometimes. OP - I say do it and grab a Bronson. If I were the OP's height it'd be a non-question, MX fo' shizzle.  

Agreed. As much as I love my gen 1 Privateer 141, I'm pretty keen on replacing the frame with a gen 2 Privateer frame or the RAAW v3.

I think for mellower trail riding with less gradient, short travel 29'er makes a lot of sense but I'm confident all my future long travel bikes will be a mullet going forward. 

It's a great solution.  If I could snag a Reign, I'd ride it MX and just pick up someone's castaway OEM Roval rear wheel as a swap out and pick up a T9 Butcher when they're on sale. Have both wheel sizes in one bike and maybe $160 in the 29er wheel.

Then, if @SRube gets to an event where it's like Massanutten with a lot of momentum and minimal switchbacks, toss on the 29er rear to get that extra mythical .5 second of race time.

Edit: I'd dump my money on a solid 27.5 basher hand built rear DT wheel if the Reign comes speced as 29er off the shelf?

I experienced significant rolling speed between mx and 29, I have been riding the same bike on the same track (Mammoth Mtn) in both configurations and there were definitively measurable differences. (multiple seconds) It's not true for every track and it was not as severe at some other tracks (Brian Head and Winter Park).. I guess it's not all black and white and it might depend on your style of riding and fitness.. or terrain.. Are you aggressive and active or do you let the bike roll and monster truck over stuff...
For me, even being quite short a full 29er makes more sense.. If I would not ever race with my bike, or I could afford to own a more niche bike I could consider riding something a bit more playfull MX setup.. maybe also if I would leave somewhere like PC, PNW, lower speed and more twisty..