Will smaller wheels make me brilliant?

buffoon

Currently riding a 2015 stumpjumper evo 29er with Yari fork. Im 6'1

While i like the bike, it does feel a little cumbersome in the turns, and i do wonder if smaller wheels will make me more agile. I often ride Cannock which is rather tight and twisty. Although occasionally venture to BPW etc.

Ive only ever ridden a 29er, so am curious to know if a 27.5 bike will give me more fun and agility (eg calibre triple b) ?

So, should i splash out on a smaller wheeled/ better bike? Will it actually improve my fun factor?

Slightly vague question maybe, but advice appreciated. Purely looking to increase fun factor for this middle aged weekend warrior...

cycleclinic

It all depends on the 29er as well. My current orange stage 4 is quite cumbersome in tight spaces but the front wheel is in a different time zone to me. My old Gary Fisher 29er is much more maneuverable but this has a shorter wheelbase.

So it's not the just the wheel size but the wheelbase that affects maneuverability.

billycool

As has already been said, wheelsize is part of the equation and can influence bike handling. The wheelbase, headset angle and top tube length/reach all impact your riding position and perceived manouvrability.

Personally, I'm not keen on 29" bikes. I like to ride fast and flowing XC type trails and I've been on 26" wheels for 25 years. My HT and FS are both 26". They suit the terrain I ride and my style of riding (I ride my FS a bit like a BMX at times). I'm 5`10" and ride a large FS (19") with 67.5 degree head angle. It's 140mm front end.

I've tried 27.5" and it feels fine and I'm sure I'd get used to it if I went that route. I just have too much invested in 26" to justify the change.

You're quite tall - some say that is better suited to 29" and some say you feel almost too high up. It's all personal. I have 2 friends that ride longer distance type XC and love 29" - cover the ground really well and iron out small bumps. In Wales (Afan and BPW) on the tighter stuff with switchbacks etc, they struggled to make the turns so easily and I had great fun with 26" wheels.

It really comes down to what suits you and not what the rest of us think.

I'd suggest that you try and get out on a 27.5" bike (or two) and see how it feels.

tom_howard

Go to a demo day, find out for yourself before splashing the cash

steve_sordy

You should not feel any higher up on a 29er than on a 26er, it is the bottom bracket height that influences that.

I agree with others on here that the understeer that you feel on a 29er vs smaller wheeled bikes is very noticeable at first, but you very quickly adapt. When on a 26er I swapped bikes with a guy on a 29er. It was only for a few hundred yards on a twisty trail. I almost carried straight on at the first bend, but quickly got the hang of it. I thought the 29er carried speed really well and ploughed over the bumps. He found the 26er steering "too twitchy" and he nearly went off because of it, but again he quickly got the hang of it. He loved how rapidly the bike accelerated.

Each wheel sized bike has its plus and minus points. Early 29ers were just 26er geometry with bigger wheels and they did suffer badly from understeer. But that was quickly adjusted for in the geometry of the bike and the amount of fork offset to mostly remove the understeer.

Without knowing for sure, I would have thought that a 2015 bike from Specialized would have had those necessary geometry adjustments. So it really is a matter of getting used to it. One thing has just occurred to me, maybe the fork is not the original and it does not have the correct amount of offset? Worth checking?

If after a period of adjustment you are still unhappy, it may be worth experimenting with a shorter stem. That will sharpen the steering.

JGTR

I had a very similar bike, 29” 2013 Specialized Camber. At first I didn’t like it as it felt cumbersome and awkward in tight turns but stuck with it and it was an awesome bike, you need to be abit more assertive and throw it around a bit more. I fitted slightly wider bars and a shorter stem which made a big difference.

I own both wheel sizes, you’ll notice a difference with smaller wheels in the tight stuff but I doubt that it will actually make any real difference, what you make up in the corners you’ll lose everywhere else, 29ers are proven to be faster than 27.5” like for like rider/course/buke - geo plays a part but the Stumpy has decent geo once you change the bar & stem.

cooldad

Bottom line, it will not make you brilliant.

The Rookie

Unfortunately (for my preconceptions about CDs advice) he's right.....

Firts time I tried a 29er I hated that cumbersome feel and lack of nimbleness (and that was on a lightweight XC race bike), and stuck with 26ers for a long time, when rebiking I decided it really had to be a 27.5 or 29 (as 26 is dying) I bought a Gary Fisher Cobia hardtail 29er and found that after a few miles it was almost as nimble as the 26 but sure rolled faster.

I now have a Whyte T129, it has the same rear centre as my old 26er but a much longer front centre, last time out at Cannock it was faster on the twisty bits than my old 26 and never felt cumbersome at all.

Have I got better (possibly a little), is it just getting used to the feelings (quite likely), is it just this 29er (can't say), would I go back to a 26, probably not, but would consider a 27.5 (27").

One think I've learnt for tight hairpins is to really lean the bike into the turn more even if I'm more upright above it and it copes with the ones at Cannock (on the dog) just fine.

cooldad

I got a Trek (Gary Fisher) Rumblefish. Initially it did feel a bit harder on really tight twisty stuff, until you realise you seem? to have extra grip and can just go for it.

On almost anything else, steep stuff, rocks, roots, logs, humps, bumps, dips, ditches etc it is significantly better. I'm not much of a jumper so can't comment on that, but does fine on the small stuff I'm willing to tackle.

I still have 26ers, but for my riding, I'm a convert.

Maybe GF was just one of the first people to adapt the geometry properly to bigger wheels.