Future of DH.

[Gooby]

According to Trek it is 29 on the front and 26 on the rear...

[HowMuchLonger]

I remember using 24"Halo combats front and rear on my dh rig. Heavy but at least they enabled you to get rolling more easily.

29" on a dh rig, does not make much sense.

[Turbo Harry]

I guess it reduces the bike's angle of incidence by a few degrees right off the bat.

[HowMuchLonger]

I doubt they would make the head angle any more slack than is currently fashionable. The reverse would probably be true, in that they would steepen the frame head angle with a net result of no change.

[deadtom]

Hard to make a 29 inch wheel strong enough i would have thought. also low CoG is very important for downhill racing, and a 29er is going to affect this quite a lot

[Roman]

I wouldn't be surprised if manufacturers can persuade everyone to buy expensive new rigs by simply equipping their sponsored riders with a 29 at the front.

[Jimbo.]

Hard to make a 29 inch wheel strong enough i would have thought.

No doubt they'll think of ANOTHER front axle standard, and market the bejeezus saying "LIGHTER! STIFFER! FASTER! STRONGER! BETTER IN BED! CURE CANCER! BRING ON WORLD PEACE!". MBUK will sank themselves into a frenzy and obligatory 45-degree pictures, STW will write articles involving arty pictures and at least one word from "Mojo", "Karma" and "Soul", and MBR will bore the living st out of anything within 20 paces with talk of angles and rake and zzzzzzzzzzz.....

Edited by Jimbo. on Wednesday 27th July 20:58

[Beyond Rational]

How will they get over the high front end? Less travel, flat bars, drop stem, shorter head tube? Not sure when all is said and done that this will show any advantage - at least not in the short term.

[Mr Gear]

Motocross bikes have had small rear wheels for years, but they compensate with a taller tyre profile:

[Gooby]

I asked how Trek would sell such an ugly bike / concept, I was told that if the winners podium has thier bikes on, they will sell...

Edited by Gooby on Thursday 28th July 11:24

[Pondered Scrotum]

Gooby said:

I asked hoe Trek would sell such an ugly bike / concept, I was told that if the winners podium has thier bikes on, they will sell...

"Win on Sunday, sell on Monday" not strictly for cars then!

[P-Jay]

Don't know about that, Intense have built and trialed a number of 29er DH bikes and no big names have been tempted to try a WC on one, admittedly that was a pure 29'er not a 29/26.

Spesh tried to push a different sized format for years with the 26/24 big-hit which was about a popular as a head wound, they sold some, but because they were cheap and most club level racers converted them to 26/26.

I don't think rim strength is an issue, pretty much everyone will be running that old wonder material carbon rims soon anyway so you can get the strength without needing 3kg of rim material.

Maybe some young gun WC racer will ride one to great success and the form book will be rewritten again, but I don't see it.

[a11y_m]

Wheel strength would be my concern, and that's with experience of riding a 29er hardtail for a couple of years: it's been noted by a riding buddy that my wheels flex significantly on landing drops (could be utter lack of technique though...).

That plus keeping the front end low enough could be the issue, although you'd get away with less front travel with a 29er. Don't ask me to explain it, but my 29er with "only" 100mm travel is fecking quick on descents.

[Beyond Rational]

This is a bit out of date, but quite interesting;

http://www.bikerumor.com/2009/07/13/why-doesnt-any...