There is no doubt in my mind that the tipping point for 29ers is near. All of the knocks against them are rapidly disappearing, while the advantages are obvious to those who ride them.
As I prepared for this year's Interbike I zeroed in on full suspension 29ers after several high profile announcements from manufacturers. While at the Outdoor Demo I rode six full suspension 29ers and a couple of hardtails, but my focus was most definitely on the dualies.
One of the big knocks against 29ers is that they lack the "flickability" of their smaller 26 inch cousins. This is largely due to the increased weight of the bikes as well as the longer wheel-based geometry of many of the early 29ers. It would appear that the niche manufacturers are listening, however, as they have really worked on the frame design and have paid particular attention to the geometry and it's impact on handling.
Guitar Ted and I talked about this at length...he said (and I paraphrase), "no longer are bike manufacturers simply taking a 26 inch frame and just lengthening the fork and stays. They are now building specific frames to take advantage of the unique handling characteristics of the 29er platform."
Nowhere was this more evident than in the new crop of full suspension 29ers that will become widely available in 2007. As I talked to the reps in their dusty booths before taking their new bikes for a loop, I heard over and over how they made the head angle steeper (as steep as 73 degrees) and was careful to keep the chain stay shorter (around 18 inches) and reduce the overall wheel-base. Some manufacturers went so far as to say that their goal for the bike was to make it handle similar to that of a 26er.
Just a few months ago (before I decided to head down the single speed route) I was dead set on a high performance dual suspension cross country machine. I rode the Specialized Epic, Cannondale Scalpel and Rush, and Trek Top Fuel; all very fast and light race bikes. But I have to tell you, after riding these 29ers they felt every bit as fast, while at the same time yielded the benefits (G-Ted - point me to the best post you have describing these - please - I don't want to reinvent the wheel, so to speak) of the 29 inch wheel.
I think the future is a 29 inch future. People say that there will always be a need or a market for both wheel platforms in mountain biking. I'm not so sure about that. The only thing that the 26er may have left over the 29er is weight...and for that it is only a matter of time as the technology continues to improve year after year. 29ers compared to 26ers is like Firefox to IE, Jet Blue to United, Target to Sears, or Toyota to GM.
