Been a big fan of 29er wheels since 2011. After I bought a 27.5 electric bike in 2021 the first time and put 2.8 tires on it, I stopped paying attention to wheel size
Each wheel scenario is notably different for me. Full 27.5 feels faster, but unstable at high speeds, but on a pedal trail feels good. Full 29er feels stable at high speed and feels good on pedal trails. It's less maneuverable on tight single track, with buzzing on my rear. No fun when I'm not expecting it on a fast steep decent. Mixed Wheel bikes for me is the perfect combination. I finally decided to go with a Stumpjumper Evo Pro. Here's why. It's super adjustable. 2023 comes stock in mixed wheel. It comes with a link to put a 29er on the rear. In the aftermarket you can get a WRP yoke to set the mixed wheel in a 29er geo and a 29er suspension curve. Once it's in the 29er geo you can get a Cascade link to add 8mm of shock travel, so from 150mm-158mm and it makes it more plush. ( I just installed the WRP yesterday) but haven't ridden it yet. I think if you run both yoke and link on the rear it will probably feel good like a full 29er with Cascade but you might have to run shorter cranks because of pedal strikes. Lastly, for the EVO the frame adjustability has 6 geo settings. It's an awesome trail bike, and can handle enduro as well. The fork can easily be extended from 160mm to 170mm. If you wanted to go more enduro setting thecrear to 158mm and fork to 170mm it would be more enduro focused. For me having a 29er front makes it more stable but the 27.5 rear feels light and nimble.
Man, that sounds like a lot of work haha! I’ve ridden the evo in its stock configuration a few times and man, that’s a fun bike, especially on big terrain! Cool to hear about all the tinkering you plan to do, if you think about it reach back out and let me know your thoughts on the various setups!
Nice to have comments in metrics 😅 A very good analysis about wheels sizes, perhaps i'll give a try to the mullet. Still haven't find a 29 inches bike according to my size (162 cm), but who knows...😊 Once again, thanks for this great video!
Glad it was helpful! And yeah it can definitely be tough finding a 29er that fits well at your height. My wife, who’s 5’4”, rode a 29” enduro bike for a while and recently made the switch to a mullet setup and had loved it!
Gonna go from aluminum 29’s to light carbon 27.5”Berd wheels on my Pivot trail 429. I’m hoping that going to a much lighter, more compliant wheel will squash most of the down sides to the 27.5
Nice, I like the line of reasoning there. That’s gonna be a pretty drastic change in rolling weight as well, I bet that thing is going to accelerate like a bat out of hell!!
@@99spokes yep. Sure does. After a couple rides, I mostly like the smaller wheels. I did go from 2.4” tires to 2.6” to try to get a little more height to avoid pedal strikes. Still not sure if I’m gonna be ok long term with the 2.6’s. I only have a couple short rides on them so far but the pedal strikes are still a bit of an issue in chunk but I don’t ride much of that anyway. Time will tell
Great info Josh, enjoyed the video for sure! I used to swear by the 27.5, never thought I’d switch over… until I test rode a 29er, then was hooked through and through and ended up going with a 29” ht as well as 700c gravel bike! I never had a chance to try a mullet tho… I can see the advantages of it for sure 🤔 You coming out to bham still?
@@justsayin3600 I think you’re probably right!! I’ve thought about turning my HT into a mullet set up… it would be pretty sweet I imagine. May have to make that my winter project! 🤔
I have my Middlechild and Wildcat both set up as mullets right now I’d I’m digging it!! Bham tentatively scheduled for the first weekend in October, but nothing too solid yet
It depends on the terrain, but most would say yes, which is why you’ll see nearly 100% of XC and enduro racers on 29” wheels. The larger wheels carry momentum better and maintain speed better over rough terrain
Definitely would go with the 27.5” setup because who cares about the climb, it’s already not fun so might as well keep it that way and make the decent more jibby and playful! Plus maybe the 27.5’s would make you better at climbing because your line choice would need to be that much better🤷🏼♂️
Good points!! Comes back to that debate of whether you build a bike to make the stuff you like/are good at even better, or to improve the stuff you’re bad at/don’t like. The older I get the more I lean towards making the bad stuff suck less haha
