How many 29'er hardtails here?

Air9 Scandium here. Mix of XO and XTR, Ergon grips, 80mm reba love it as an all day bike.

I am not supposed to say this, but for your budget, look at the Motobecane ti 29er.

I have been riding/racing 29er for 5 years now. Each season, more and more show up on race day aka, they are VERY common here in S. Cal.

What is nice about the 29er is that you can get rid of the rear shock and still have a fairly plush ride.

I am on a Lynskey 29er for this season it seems..

Here’s an interesting wrinkle to add to the discussion………what types of terrain are people racing on with a HT 29er? I know a few folks that pick and choose their ride for the course (they have the luxury of multiple rides of course). I’m guessing that if I were riding more buff trails and didn’t have as many sustained downhills etc. I would see more HT 29ers vs. FS of all types……

The Scott Scale Pro would be well within your budget. It has shock damping seat stays and a slacker head angle, both of which help on longer rides when you lose your edge a little.

I raced a 29er FS for the last several years and it worked great but I could feel the extra heft as rides got longer. I will be on a carbon Scott HT 29er this year and am really looking forward to it.

I was thinking I'd do the "horses for courses" thing but the suspension vs. weight penalty argument will come into play more than the technicality of the course.

Damitletsride! said:

I'll start off by saying i love my 100mm travel front and rear full sus, but it's getting old and if i was getting a new bike this year i'm not so sure about parting cash to get another 26" bike which might be outdated in a years time.

So how popular are 29 inch hard tails getting for 12 and 24 hour racing, and will they continue to get more popular can anyone predict?

P.S. The ones i like that i have dealers for are Scott, Giant, and Kona. Not a big budget,

3700 US Dollars would be reaching the top of my budget.

Thanks .

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Haro Mary 29er SS. Doing my fourth Solo 24 hour race this weekend. Paid $399 out the door (and have put in at least $1200 to upgrade wheelset, shock, and brakes).

River19 said:

Here's an interesting wrinkle to add to the discussion………what types of terrain are people racing on with a HT 29er? I know a few folks that pick and choose their ride for the course (they have the luxury of multiple rides of course). I'm guessing that if I were riding more buff trails and didn't have as many sustained downhills etc. I would see more HT 29ers vs. FS of all types……

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Ye i think that could be investigated more as well. I would say the courses i race on are often smooth and flowy, with long fire road climbs, and with not much in the way of anything very technical, maybe 5-10% of the course would be very technical steep rooty / rocky switchbacks or something. Saying that my first 24 hour solo last year had two long very rocky twisty downhills. I have heard that riding a 29'er is similar to riding full sus in terms of forgiveness though.

Fisher hard tail , use it for everything except D.H. My 26" dually isn't getting much love these days .

Ht

After 3 years with full squish 26 and HT 29 at the same time, I finally sold my 21lb carbon 4.5 inch travel bike last summer. Now i have a titanium frame and an AIR9.

I did a 100 miler, a 125 miler (17 hours), and a 24 solo on a ti el mariachi. The 100/125 milers were great. I didn't miss the sus at all. 24 hours of moab has some pretty rough sections and I wasn't wanting suspension until around hour 20. It was a rough climb, not the descents, that started to hurt the most. That being said, I would still pick the same bike again. Even thought that bit would have felt better on my blur, it was not terrible, and I think the added speed elsewhere was worth it. In addition I like the 29ht more for the other 364 days of riding during the year.

For endurance I bumped the fork to 100mm and added a heavier gel saddle.

I haven't used (or even owned) FS for endurance racing for about 5 years. In fact, for most races and courses I'm going full rigid...

Take a look here:
http://www.feltbicycles.com/USA/2011/Mountain/Nine-Series/Nine%20Elite.aspx
Race ready out of the box well under your $3700 limit.

River19 said:

Here's an interesting wrinkle to add to the discussion………what types of terrain are people racing on with a HT 29er? I know a few folks that pick and choose their ride for the course (they have the luxury of multiple rides of course). I'm guessing that if I were riding more buff trails and didn't have as many sustained downhills etc. I would see more HT 29ers vs. FS of all types……

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Seeing how you're from Southern New England, almost all long endurance type races around here aren't too technical. The XC races on the other hand can be. You'll still see people racing HT's on technical courses, whether that's because of a lack of a FS or just a personal choice who knows.

I had a FS 29er for a while but the only positive I could find for it was on the ocasional techy downhill, so I got rid of it. Granted I race a SS so a HT is par for the course but I never seem to miss suspension.