I have the feeling that the soul is returning to the sport of biking. Let's not kid ourselves: The golden era of the founding years is history and fewer and fewer contemporary witnesses remember it: purple anodised, CNC-machined parts on slim steel frames. Bright, tight Lycra on the skin and polystyrene shells on the head. Who still knows brands like Breezer, Kestrel, Klein or Mountain Goat? My gut feeling is that the soul is returning with the 29ers. And that makes me happy. You can identify with a bike with character again, stand out from the mass of black anodised bar products. You simply break out of the vicious circle of lightweight construction, price/performance, mail order and special offers.
The return of individuality
The good thing about 29ers is that they are not exactly that: Mass-produced, mainstream, junk goods in seasonal sales. With a 29er, you show your own business card. These bikes are still mostly made by small manufacturers, are hard to come by and are anything but cheap. Anyone who already owns one is looking for exactly that and has not made a random purchase. Who has heard of them, the brands Pivot, Intense, Titus or Niner, which have no chance in mega tests, don't find access to the wholesale bike markets (fortunately) and don't appear on the checklist of sensible purchases. But what can the 29ers really do - and above all: what can they do better? We don't want to sing the praises of the big bikes until the facts are clear. For this test, we compared large and small bikes. It's not about finding the absolute best bike. That is merely a side effect of this test. Our test field: two bikes each from four manufacturers who offer two wheel sizes on the same chassis basis. We pitted the Intense Tracer, Pivot Mach 4, Rocky Mountain Altitude and Specialized Epic against each other with five test riders (29er newbies and veterans).
Amazement in the test lab
Unexpected results from the lab: The suspension of the 29ers is stiffer than that of the 26er bikes, but also up to 1.3 kilos heavier. The excess weight comes from the fork (around 200 grams), frame (up to 450 grams) and wheels (up to 600 grams). The Edge carbon models of the Intense show that it is possible to build lightweight 29er wheels; they are even lighter than most 26-inch wheels in the test field. The question of wheel size is similar to the crucial question of "hardtail or fully?" in racing: you pay for the better riding characteristics with a higher weight. The difference will probably always be around 500 grams. In this test field, the lightest bike is a 26er (Pivot, 11.75 kilos) and the heaviest a 29er (Intense, 13.95 kilos).
Practice: Weight is not an issue!
But you shouldn't be put off by the weight. During the practical test on Lake Garda, it only played a subordinate role, apart from the sluggish Intense (but that also impressed in its own way). The large wheels undoubtedly have a special riding behaviour. You need a few more turns of the cranks to get going. The bike lacks liveliness and the steering sometimes feels a little sluggish on singletrack. But these are not the decisive criteria. What tipped the scales in the duels was always the outstanding traction, cornering grip and superior handling on technically difficult downhill sections. An epiphany for our two test riders, who had never ridden a 29er before. A stable ride here, a rollover feeling there. All in all, none of the five test riders were able to make friends with the lightest bike in the group, the Pivot Mach 4 (26 inch). And the weight of the bikes didn't even have an impact when measuring the lap times.
The results of the comparison of 29 vs. 26 inches and a market overview can be found below as a PDF download.
Models in the test:
Intense Tracer VP 29 against Tracer VP 26
Pivot Mach 429 against Mach 4
Rocky Mountain Altitude 29 vs Altitude 70
Specialised Epic Comp 29 vs Epic Comp
Please note
All data in the market overview are manufacturer specifications, some of the recommended retail prices are provisional - subject to change. There is no claim to completeness of the overview.
