Any 'wagon wheeler' fans out there?

mac_man

Had a full days demo of a Kona Hei Hei 29er, courtesy of the Dog n Partridge over at Gisburn.

Have only ever ridden a hard tail (and a relatively heavy one at that) so this was something a bit different.

Straight line speed was nothing short of amazing, it bowls along a fair old lick. And the feel is rock solid and stable blasting down the fire trails. And blasting along tarmac at the end of the ride was a revelation.

Climbing was excellent and it just seemed to munch up rocky ascent with great composure. Again this sense of stability and solidity just seems to shine through

And given it only has something like a measly 80mm travel the behaviour over the rocky stuff was equally impressive, those big wheels really do seem to just 'roll over stuff'.

My only problem is that I've been comparing this with my current bike which is a hefty hardtail with just a fairly standard Tora fork up front.

So have I just been dazzled by over £2.5ks worth of kit? Or is there really something to these big wheelers?

I really must check out some 'standard' full suspension bikes before I eventually upgrade. But have to say i was fair impressed with this bikes abilities.

Shaggy_Dog

What you are describing is the magic of big wheels, not having a 2.5k bike. Kona make good ones too, I loved the King Kahuna

wobbem

I'm a complete convert , here's some thoughts on choosing a 29er.
Get a fork with a through axle or maxel etc - not a standard quick release, this will help heaps with stiffing the front end.
Better still a head stem that is tapered.
Wide bars and a shorter stem.
A front disk 180mm +
I just bought a 2nd bike - a new cheap Diamondback mojito (£200) and stuck all my spare XT bits on, its got a 1 degree steeper head angle compaired to my Ti On One so I reckon I can fit a 120-mm fork on it. Can't go wrong.
The only thing I notice as different between the skateboards and 29ers is that you need to be more physical in throwing the bike around corners to compensate for the bigger wheel stability, apart from that its all good, better traction up hills , cornering, bump comfort, rolling ability and more confidence when doing bomb holes, drop offs etc, your far less inclined to go flying over the bars if you balls it up as well. Ps I'm 5f :9" tall, Willow Koerber is 5F: 2" , so you don't have to be tall to ride one.
Good luck.

Shaggy_Dog

Wow, a cheap 29er! and it's got rack mounts! where did you get that?!

monkeypants

Mojitos are on the bay for £200 courtesy of Rutland Cycling. I got mine the other week as I was fed up with techno gears and suspension and I think it's great. It's not as easy to flick around but it's still really good fun.

I'm going to disagree with the people who say it just rolls over things, it's not a big difference at all but there's no denying there's extra grip there when you need it.

I've changed the rear cog for a 20t and put a solid tensioner on there (the stock one was flexing massively and skipped horrendously when I pedaled with any power) so it'll be getting another outing at Gisburn on the 20th, hopefully I'll be able to ride the steeper bits without being thrown off by a jumpy chain.

Shaggy_Dog

Hmmm, well, you have got a rigid fork on it. You don't tend to 'flick' 29ers, they carve, like a pair of carving skis or a MotoGP bike. I love it, it feels so effortless, but totally thrilling at the same time. No way I'm going back to 26" wheels on a hardtail. I've got a 26" full suss at the moment but I'd rather be riding a 29er

mac_man

So what about full-suss 29ers? :-)

That Kona had only an 80mm fork. And sadly I never got the chance to try it on anything challenging at Gisburn. But I know what you mean about it's ability to 'carve'. Just somehow felt more swoopy than my regular hardtail. On some of the really tight stuff... there was one section of North Shore ish at Gisburn that I struggled on. But that could have just been because it was my 1st go on that section.

Think I need to try out a few more bikes before I upgrade though.

GHill

Don't own one yet, but after a recent demo day I'm certainly interested in getting one eventually.

It was a Kona Big Unit that really impressed me.

Shaggy_Dog

The best bike I have ever ridden is the Gary Fisher Rumblefish. A 29er full suss all mountain barnstormer. I have never banked a bicycle over on dirt as much as that one. Not as light as I'd usually like but just mind blowingly fast and fun. Climbs really well but descends even better. It's stable like a full blown DH rig because of the big wheels and slack angles but the geometry doesn't shift around as much because it only has 120mm travel so when you hit the brakes it remains remarkably composed. Handling is also spot on, perfect balance of slack all mountain surefootedness with nimble singletrack manners.

My avatar pic is me riding one in my local woods

wheezee

I have a hard tail 29er.

One plus point for me, (I don't know what I'm doing off-road, and can't give an educated opinion on it's merits) is being able to swap the forks and tyres and turning it into a road, well, hybrid bike with good sized wheels whenever I'm in the mood. A sort of two-bikes-in-one kinda deal.

Shaggy_Dog

Yep, another great reason to buy a 29er, I'm thinking of having a steel frame made for me with rack mounts and have a Kona Project 2 as a second fork so I can run it as a tourer too.

wheezee

If you're getting a frame made, why not get the fork made to suit at the same time?

Mine also has rack and mudguard mounts to cover all bases.

Shaggy_Dog

I've already got the fork from an old 69er project from a few years ago. Which bike have you got?

wheezee

It's one of Robin Mather's custom built frames. He's local to you, in Upper Wraxall.

http://www.robinmathercycles.co.uk/

Shaggy_Dog

He is, I know him well, any pictures?

wheezee

:oops: Image posting? With these hands?

You'll have to bear with me. In the mean time; it's black, big wheels...

No...

Success! Too big though..

cavegiant

Wagon wheels work for me.

Niner WFO with a dorado and 2.55" tyres.

Great fun

Shaggy_Dog

Wow, she's a beaut, how did you come up with the geometry? A colleague of mine is having his 29er built by him as we speak, he's settled on Kona geometry based on my recommendations. I'm thinking of getting another local frame builder to make me one based on Niner or Kona geometry, maybe even Gary fisher geometry if I can get a G2 fork.

mac_man

That Kona at the D&P is up for sale at £1500 (down from £2700). Sound like a bargain?

wheezee

Shaggy_Dog wrote:

Wow, she's a beaut, how did you come up with the geometry?

I more or less left that up to Robin. He knew I wanted it to work on the road as well, and I seem to recall there was a tiny bit of compromise with the head tube angle.

All I can say is it works well for me...

Who else is local apart from Argos? How long will you have to wait?

Shaggy_Dog

I haven't discussed it with him yet but I was thinking (in the last few days) of getting Gary Woodhouse from Curtis bikes to make me one. He specialises in dirt jump and BMX frames but makes a couple of lovely XC frames too. He made a one-off sidecar mountainbike that was featured inSingletrack a few years ago so I'm sure he'd be inclined to make me a 29er. I haven't spoken to him yet about it so it's only a pipe dream at the moment

wheezee

I'd have thought that guys making hand crafted frames would jump at the chance to make something a little different. Anything out of the ordinary usually comes at a price of course...

VWsurfbum

another wagonwheel convert here!
i sold my Scott MC20 carbon after riding one of these big wheeled beasts.
i'm keeping my hardtail (link in signiture) but i'm going for another full susser, not much to choose from in prefference order Garry fisher super fly 100 (but its £5K)
Rocky mountain altutude ? (cant get hold of one for love nor money unless i inport it)
Giant Antham X (its not out until the new year)

they just work so much better and i'm so much faster on them, climb better and race better

wheezee

The green and red work well.

VWsurfbum

Cheers, I would like some new forks but 29er forks are so bleeding expensive I'll put up with these dart3's until I get a new complete build

Shaggy_Dog

Well, I've decided to go mad and get myself an Intense Tracer 29. SLX build and Bontrager components to keep the price down

VWsurfbum

I like the look of intense bikes, look really solidly made, I looked at getting the spider but once you add up all the component's I thought it was just too much. I have never bought a complete bike new so Rhys what I'm going to do this time rather than doing a component build.