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29 ‘ers Going Downhill
The 29 inch wheeled bike segment may be typified by the single speed hard tail right now, but if a few forward thinking individuals get their way, that won’t be what you think of in the future. There is a growing movement in the 29″er mountain biking world and it is a gravity fed one.
A Quick history of 29′er DH/FR
Early on the 29″er bicycle met with much resistance and one of the most vociferous groups was the All mountain/ Freeride crowd. They were quite sure that the larger wheel size would never see action on their trails due to the “inherent” lack of strength and the total lack of suitable equipment to ride with. It’s now looking as if these obstacles are being swept aside and that a new era in mountain biking might just be around the corner.
Strong words? Perhaps you haven’t heard of Lenz Cycles, a company out of Colorado steeped in downhill and freeride tradition. Company head, Devin Lenz took up the challenge to build a durable, workable 29″er trail bike early on and created the Leviathan. In the beginning, it was only a three inch travel frame, which matched most closely with the forks available at the time. Now with the addition of four inch travel White Brothers forks to the 29″er arsenal, Lenz has stepped up and produced the Behemoth, a five inch travel frame and increased the travel on his Lenz Leviathans to four inches.
Other players in the market
Lenz isn’t the only company to have taken up with longer travel 29″er trail bikes. Ventana has its El Capitan, which is also available as a five inch travel bike. Right around the corner, Niner Bikes will be entering the All mountain segment with its R.I.P. Niner four inch travel bike. The news doesn’t stop there with famous full suspension companies like Turner and Iron Horse both working on trail bikes featuring All mountain suspension designs.
It’s all in the legs
Of course, having an All mountain frame is one thing, but if you don’t have a fork to bolt to the front of it, it’s not of much use. White Brothers has been, up to this time, the only game in town for long travel 29″er suspension forks. There are now rumblings that there will be major announcements from some suspension fork manufacturers at Interbike this year. With the companies that are rumored to be, or have announced that they will produce longer travel full suspension frames, could it be that it is a sign that the longer travel, major manufacturer fork is just around the corner? Only time will tell.
One thing is for sure, the trails will not be the sole domain of 26 inch wheeled bikes much longer. Rims, forks, and tires are all being manufactured or about to be that will take the 29″er places that up until this time, it feared to tread.
The only place that the 29″er has left to go now is “down”!
1. Posted by Ritch | 4:58 pm, 30 October 2006
What about a 29 inch front wheel, and a 24 inch rear! With 10 inches of travel, that’d be the ultimate downhill bike…