Oct 08
24
Niner EMD Post Ride Impressions
I took my newly built up Niner EMD out to Patapsco this evening after work. It’s a trail I know pretty well and one I thought offered enough varied terrain to be a good testing ground. I must admit up front I have not been overly eager to jump onto the 29r bandwagon. In a nutshell I feared it would mirror my experience with single speeding. In that instance I jumped in bought a dedicated single speed, I was eager to try something new and to see first hand what folks were so crazy about.
As it turns out single speeds just aren’t my thing. I enjoy the occasional ride on mine and still use it as a work out tool. It was far from the eye opening, life changing, semi religious experience others have reported. I always miss my gears when on a ss and can never find a rhythm. Somehow I got myself to thinking 29ers would be the same deal.
They do have some similarities. First off many single speeders in my area sing the praises of the big wheels. They run custom fully rigid 29rs. They go on and on about how you don’t need suspension setups with big wheels and so on. This makes me think back to being told by many a zealous single speeder that I’d soon be giving up my gears for the one geared lifestyle. Like single speeding 29ers seem to have an almost rabid fan base of folks who find it their life’s calling to preach the gospel of their ride choice.
So having been burned by the one gear deal and being somewhat put off by the over enthusiastic 29r crowd I was quick to label it a fad and one I didn’t want to jump into. I bought into all the standard arguments, everything from big wheels won’t climb as well to they handle slower and are less nimble. I even tested a couple of fisher 29rs at a trek/fisher demo a couple seasons back that confirmed all my doubts. Those I tested were sluggish didn’t climb as well as my 26 inch rides. Those rides did a good job of keeping me off big wheels for a long time.
A few months ago I began looking for a bike project that I could do on the cheap. I had a serious itch to build and ride something new. After mulling it over I remembered there was a Niner EMD frame in the shop. We had pulled parts off it for another bike and the frame hadn’t sold. Brian said I could have it and a reba fork for it, for next to nothing. I figured worst case scenario I’d find I really hate big wheels and I could sell it and probably make some cash on it. I pulled the drive train off my old Blur and Pete lent me wheels so my investment was minimal.
I spent a couple days moving parts over and getting the Niner ready to ride. I was very pleased with how the bike built up overall, it came in at just a bit over 25lbs. Today as I mentioned earlier I took it for a spin around Patapsco. I went into tonight’s ride with no real expectations. I figured at best the niner would just be another fun hard hard tail to play with. At worst I would hate it and turn around and flip it.
Instead what I ended up with was the realization that all of preconceptions regarding 29 inch wheels were just flat wrong. This bike was quick to get up to speed, climbed like an absolute goat and was just as nimble as my 26″ custom IF. The really surprising thing was this aluminum hard tail was buttery smooth and yes the big wheels do easily roll over rougher terrain. Tonight the Niner actually felt better and overall less harsh than my far more expensive steel 26″ bike. The only thing I was having issues with was using a powerstroke to get the front unweighted. I just had weird issues getting my feet / crank arms in the right position at the right time. I think I’m just going to need more rides on this to get a better overall feel for the bike. I’m not ready to sell all my 26 inch bikes and join the cult of the big wheel just yet but I am starting to understand why there are so man devoted fans.
I’ll post more after another couple rides.
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