I鈥檓 sick of 26er fan boys hating on big wheels. You hear this spew all the time: 鈥淭wenty-niners aren鈥檛 quick. They鈥檙e not flickable. They can鈥檛 corner at all.鈥
Disregarding the fact that 鈥渇lickable鈥 is meaningless, Matt Hunter . That shot of him going completely horizontal, burying his bars in the dirt while staying upright, shredding like 99.9 percent of us can鈥檛 shred? Yep, he rode it on a .
This footage, this mountain biking, this turn鈥攊t鈥檚 how we all wish we could ride. It鈥檚 the riding we dream of when we sleep. It鈥檚 veritable perfection.
And yet some haters have written it off. They鈥檝e said that stunning, beautiful, arcing turn had nothing to do with the wheels but with the perfectly constructed radius of the berm. They鈥檝e contended that you can see the 29-inch wheels flex in the video and argued that 26ers could have done it better. There鈥檚 even a thread out there asserting that the video is a hoax expressly because he鈥檚 riding big wheels.
The pigheadedness kills me.
A few months ago in Sedona, Arizona, I rode with an excellent rider, a friend of a friend, let鈥檚 call him Xavier. He was ripping fast, both uphill and downhill, and, incidentally, he was aboard a 26-inch Specialized Enduro. Twenty-six inch wheels are a disappearing breed*, so I enquired if he鈥檇 considered sizing up. Xavier鈥檚 reply was automatic, 鈥淵ou couldn鈥檛 make me ride a 29er. They鈥檙e awkward. Slow.鈥澛
鈥淗ave you tried them?鈥 I asked. Of course he had not. Dogma, it turns out, is as blind as it is resolute.
But there are rational people out there, too. I was back in Sedona last week and had the pleasure of riding with an old buddy of mine, Mike Raney, who owns , and his friend Nate Hill. Raney is an ex-downhill pro, and last year Hill won the overall at the . Both were riding 29ers, Raney on a Trek Fuel EX 29 and Hill aboard a Yeti SB-95 Carbon. And both charged the trails as if they were aboard motos.
Hill just got his SB-95 a month ago, and it鈥檚 his first foray on any wheel other than a 26er. 鈥淚鈥檓 sold,鈥 he said. Will he race the big wheels this year? 鈥淵es, depending on the race,鈥 he said. 鈥淚鈥檓 sure I鈥檒l still roll the 26er at some events. But I鈥檓 feeling fast on this bike, too. It will make for hard choices.鈥
That鈥檚 the thing. I鈥檓 not arguing for 29er supremacy. I don鈥檛 really care if you ride 26 or 650B or 29. Hell, if it makes you happy, get a 24-inch bike.
But if you鈥檙e one of those people who insists on disparaging 29ers , please stop acting like a stodgy, old curmudgeon and cut the grousing鈥攁t least until you鈥檝e given it an open-minded try or three. Actually, even if you try them and hate them, just shut up and ride your 26er. Nobody cares about wheel size but you.聽
*Most fork manufacturers have ceased tooling for 26-inch forks. Wheel builders, most notably Shimano, have abandoned the size in their new line-ups. And major bike manufacturers like Trek, Scott, and Giant have all but discontinued 26-inch bikes. If you鈥檙e a 26-inch devotee, now would be a good time to stock up.