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Hi ,
I am looking at getting a new bike .
A big thing for me bikes is bringing my center of gravity low as I am 6'2 and all leg so my inseam puts my saddle up crazy high . I have a 26 inch hardtail now where I feel a bit perched up on top. Slim pedals and a dropper obviously have helped to get the saddle height lower.
Ive been told that 29ers give a real low planted feeling as your sitting in the bike more as the BB is lower relative to the wheel axles.
But I have also been told that 29ers feel too tall and that 27.5 is more planted.
So I am a bit confused .
I hope to try out a few of each wheel size but any thoughts or experiences on it are much appreciated!
J
A low bottom bracket and a dropper post with tons* of drop. But if you’ve got both of those then a 29er will feel more planted than 27.5 if the wheelbase and angles are similar.
*Like 200mm!
It's more about the bike than the wheel size really.
That being said, all things being equal.... for your height you might find 29ers a natural choice.
No right or wrong to this though, go out and test ride some bikes and see what suites.
I have a Starling Murmur. It is a 29er and feels very planted. I used it at the weekend with heavy wheels and tyres and it felt unbelievably planted. No idea of your budget for a new bike, but they are doing a deal on the XL murmur at the moment.
Overall design of the bike has much more to do with how a bike feels than just wheel size. Try a few different ones and see which you like.
My XC 29er doesn't feel as planted as my 27.5 enduro/trail bikes, but it does feel more planted than my 29er rigid bike.
It's harder to endo an bike with a lot of BB drop, 29ers give you that. That's most beneficial for taller riders with a higher c of g. Bigger wheels roll over things a bit easier also. Those 2 things add up so the bike rolls through the trail a bit more easily, it copes with rough ground better. The rest is probably more about other aspects of geometry or suspension set up, tyres etc, things that aid stability.
29ers feel too tall
If the BB and bar is in the same place as a 26" bike, it can't really feel 'taller'?
A 29er really brings the trails alive. Canal towpaths will feel like Whistler
A 29er really brings the trails alive.
Utter bollocks. You are thinking of 650b 😉
Mullet bike obviously.
Long bike, big wheels for ultimate plantedness imo.
My fatbike is very planted feeling at speed once the big wheels get spinning, moreso than my simiarly long Starling 29er.
At 6'2" you'd have to be mental not to get a 29er.
It all depends really - My first 29er (Stumpjumper) felt pretty planted and neutral, the low BB and high front end made you feel as though you were sitting in the bike, not on it. My second (Enduro) is taller everywhere and felt a little too high straight out of the box, it needed a few tweaks before the geometry suited what I wanted from it.
Lots of people have opinions about wheel size that may or may not be subjective - I also have a 650B full suss that's an absolute riot in a way that my Enduro isn't. Perhaps the best unsolicited advice that I can give is to not get hung up about wheel size but to find a frame geometry that suits you. Test rides are very useful, especially if you're going to sink £000s into a frame that'll be with you for several years or more.
I am 6'2" and bought a 29er (large Jeffsy) which just fits right be that long rides or steeper technical stuff. But that's as much to do with geometry as wheel size.
I don't know where you are based but definitely try and get some test rides. I was looking to go from 26" to 650b and arranged to test ride a Bird Zero AM. As I'm in between sizes and they only had the AM in a large, I also tried a Zero 29 in M/L to compare sizes. Both bikes felt planted but I was surprised how much fun the 29er was. And the 29er was so fast but comfortable with the big wheels. I took it to our local woods last night, about four or five downhill trails with various jumps, drops and berms. So fast round the berms and I was happily doing drops I was normally wary off.
Test rides. Bikes vary far more than the wheel size dictates.
No right or wrong to this though, go out and test ride some bikes and see what suites
This ^ is the only right answer on this thread.
One thing to consider is suspension travel. I’m 6ft 2 like you and when I moved up from a 130mm travel bike to a 150mm travel bike (both 27.5s) it took a while to get used to the perched feeling of being atop 20mm more suspension travel. I can only assume that for us taller riders, it’s even more noticeable on a 170mm travel bike.