So, aside from all the hatorade going around, would this thing actually be legal to race at a UCI sanctioned event? I remember the old Big-hits were a no-go due to the 24" rear wheel...
Intense 29er DH bike
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Wow, the second half of this thread is much more constructive than the first half. I would love to have BCD chime in on this...
To the best of my knowledge, the only 29" 'ban' of sorts is for German National Championships events, I believe they are fully legal in all UCI competition.
Sounds more like it wouldn't want to turn at low speed.
The trail from a 26" wheel and a 64.5 head angle is about 158mm (totally depends on tire size). The same head angle with the 29" wheel would have around 176mm of trail. To get that same trail out of a 26" wheel the head angle would have to be a touch under 62 degrees.
That all ignores fork offset... but you get the picture.
Front/rear weight bias is a whole additional topic.
for what its worth, a whole slew of 29'er skeptics and haters, myself included in the hater category, had our minds blown by the santa cruz tallboy over the past few weeks....a good friend has been riding it on whistler's tech stuff and he's convinced its the real deal....yeah, for drops or jumps it doesn't seem ideal, but everywhere else its shining.....this bike looks pretty decent and not out of place, be interesting to see how it plays out.......all that being said, I won't be running out to get one
yeah but every BC person I have talked to has avoided 29ers like the plague, for reasons that I don't understand. why haven't more of y'all tried them, at least, to see what people were so worked up about?
I've ridden a 29er FS and I don't want to ride another. my humble thought is that they make things too easy... to me they're like driving a nitro-burning funny car about 4 blocks to the corner store to get a gallon of milk. for a lot of riders they'll be a big win-win situation because they let someone go much faster on terrain he/she couldn't handle with 26" wheels, without having to build up the skills and saddle time that normally allow someone to haul ass.
I guess that's good, in some people's eyes.
Ride a 20" downhill bike then? Or a full rigid? In fact, those brakes are just teaching you that you don't need to control your speed by using natural features of the terrain...
We get it, you hate 29ers. Come up with some new material.
Yeah, that's god. If it really works that way sign me up.
I look at this bike like the Porsche Cayenne. A total atrocity to Porsche purists, but they sell a lot of hem which mean they can build cool **** like Carrera GTs. If Jeff can sell them to people that want to buy them, that's great, and if it means he has money to build more cool ****, so much the better.
I like it. I don't have much time on any 29'r other than a couple short demo rides, but I did notice the ability to roll over bumps, roots, and rocks better. For that reason alone I think a 29r DH bike makes sense, as generally the bumps and rocks on DH trails tend to be much larger than those on XC trails. That said, I like my 26" DH/FR bike and don't have any issues with the way it rides, but I would certainly be willing to give this new Intense bike a test ride rather than blindly hate it.
Have you ever ridden a DH bike with 24" F/R wheels? Because it sucks. I personally witnessed w00dy go OTB on a rock due to riding a 9" travel DH bike with 24" wheels when he had no problem with that section on his 6" travel light FR bike.
Guess im a cheater
brostyles, hate to be a guy here, BUT
A) woody's bike has a 24" rear wheel.
2: He rarely if ever rides bikes with more than 8" of suspension.
iii. If it's my old brooklyn that you're referring too, then it was set up oddly and took significant familiarizing with before you could really control it (lots of trail, short TT, big suspension).
I rode 24" wheels front and rear for the better part of two seasons. They had their merits (lower to the ground, stronger wheels, gave the bike a more "playful" characteristic), and I'm willing to bet 29ers will as well, but on the opposite end of the spectrum, ie better ground clearance, better ability to roll over obstacles, more "cruise control" and less "angry rice burner in traffic".
I bet these bikes will rip, but the ability to make them successful will be in the rider. If you can muscle it around the tight stuff, I'm willing to bet it will make up for it in the stretches. If you're a weaselly little fella, stick with 26s. Bigger folks who could really make 29erDH work will probably be able to produce the power to make them accelerate at the same rate as a normal dude on a 26.
It'll be interesting to watch. I imagine on a course like sea otter or some of the other bmxtb races, you'll see these bikes offer a reasonable advantage in the hands of the big dudes.
Eh, I am not overly impressed, but good on intense for pushing the envelope. Ive been seeing the 29er DH pop up here and there, but havent seen anything that looks to have a respectable frame build.
I can sit and make two lists about 29er DH bikes. One with all the good, one with all the bad.
No way to truly tell how it will do untill you ride it. Just like any other DH bike that has been built, you can look at it on the screen, watch the suspension programs build a bitchen bike, but youll never get the feel till you build it, and ride it.
I would like to see them out there, I would like to see them riden, would even like to throw a leg over and make a couple runs. Never know, the benefits very well might outweigh the loss's. The loss's may well make teh benefits dissapear.
Just gotta try it before you hate on it. Its a new idea, let it grow if it grows, great, if not... then tell everyone you said so.
I can sit and make two lists about 29er DH bikes. One with all the good, one with all the bad.
No way to truly tell how it will do untill you ride it. Just like any other DH bike that has been built, you can look at it on the screen, watch the suspension programs build a bitchen bike, but youll never get the feel till you build it, and ride it.
I would like to see them out there, I would like to see them riden, would even like to throw a leg over and make a couple runs. Never know, the benefits very well might outweigh the loss's. The loss's may well make teh benefits dissapear.
Just gotta try it before you hate on it. Its a new idea, let it grow if it grows, great, if not... then tell everyone you said so.
you couldn't be more wrong, Mattyboy. I've owned and regularly ridden 29er bikes for 4 seasons now.
get a new crystal ball, new tea leaves, new Ouija board, or whatever it is you use to guess at others' thoughts.
i lot of the races i did on mine were all kinds of tracks. i did flat out pinned tracks like MSA world cup and sun peaks UCI masters worlds. i also did angel fire and world cup in schladming. i didnt have any trouble with the UCI.
i only had trouble with flats. that seems as if its coming along.
the 2951 was a proto jeff put together was not designed from ground up.
it needs to be to get the bike dialed. i thing opinions will be made off its long wb that
might not be made with proper 29er dh geo. I.E. same as a 26 just big
wheels and 1'' less travel f-r.
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yay he does exist! Just like santa, only with bikes!
um.ÆX;3345455 said:
what?
ÆX;3345455 said:
Double that on the 'um'???um.
what?
Andrew, from sales at intense, will be racing the 2951 at Fontana's new suprisingly very rocky course (typical fontana "flow") today.
I'll bluntly say what I mean now.
the bike was thrown together with new dropout.
people who test it are going to feel it sucks bc
it was patched together and not a ground up
design specificly for 29dh.
imagine your fav geometry. that needs to be the
same only add 29 wheels and a little less travel.
designed right they work better period.
have two bikes for racing is retarted. well from
a consumers point of view. . . .
the bike was thrown together with new dropout.
people who test it are going to feel it sucks bc
it was patched together and not a ground up
design specificly for 29dh.
imagine your fav geometry. that needs to be the
same only add 29 wheels and a little less travel.
designed right they work better period.
have two bikes for racing is retarted. well from
a consumers point of view. . . .
No, it was not.ÆX;3345990 said:
Steber on MTBR:
mr intense said:
the video explains it all
http://www.vitalmtb.com/features/Why-Not-Prototype-Intense-2951,58
http://www.vitalmtb.com/features/Why-Not-Prototype-Intense-2951,58
So it's been almost a year since we first saw the 2951. Any updates?
I have a season on this 29er. 7x7. Its a ton of fun. There are pros and cons to it.
So....do you think there's a future for 29er DH bikes? Assuming rims go carbon and tires and forks become available...I have a season on this 29er. 7x7. Its a ton of fun. There are pros and cons to it.
Its all tires now. Fork and rims are fine.
Just need better DH tires.
Its not the end all be all. There are places that a 26er performs better and there are places where the 29er is better. Depends on the couse.
Its just another club in the bag.
Just need better DH tires.
Its not the end all be all. There are places that a 26er performs better and there are places where the 29er is better. Depends on the couse.
Its just another club in the bag.
would love to know your thoughts...
looks like a poopy bike
It has seen some prototyping, hard part was getting people to RACE on it because anyone whos worth testing has deals with a Fork/Rim/Tire sponsor that does not make bits for this bike...that is changing though. JD Swanguen rode it in practice back east this summer, at platty I think, was amped on how much faster it was through the rocks, but at the end of the day one of his sponsors would not let him compete on it. He is pretty eager to race one in 2011.
But we have done some changes to it, keep on riding it and testing it, see where we end up. I have been on fork manufacturers, tires and rims to make some good stuff, but that has been slow. We can turn out a proto in a day, but doesnt matter when the rest of the industry is slow to respond.
Too funny:
It's weird how there's so much hate for 29ers. I thought they were a fad when they came out, but now i own a FS trail bike 29er and wouldn't ever go back to a 26er. Taking it out on Porcupine Rim a month ago really opened up my eyes as to how much smoother they are and how much faster. I have had my share of Dh bikes too. I actually sold mine a few months ago since i'm having a kid in a few months. Figured i wouldn't have time to ride any DH until a year or so later. I figured i'd start looking for a 29er Dh bike when that time comes.
To each his own. But honestly speaking as a 29er hater from before, my mind has been completely changed about them after owning one. More grip, more speed, smooths out bumps........why wouldn't you want one if you're tall enough to ride it? I figure that a 29er Dh bike isn't going to slow me down on anything. It's my skills or lack thereof that will slow me down.
To each his own. But honestly speaking as a 29er hater from before, my mind has been completely changed about them after owning one. More grip, more speed, smooths out bumps........why wouldn't you want one if you're tall enough to ride it? I figure that a 29er Dh bike isn't going to slow me down on anything. It's my skills or lack thereof that will slow me down.
I have both a 29er and 26er DH bike. I will always have one of each until there are better tires for the 29er. Until then I will have my Lenz PBJ and M9 soon.
They are building a PBJ @ my LBS.
Sweet bike. Looks MASSIVE in person. I'd love to give it a whirl on our local trails, I can see it being fast as hell.
I ride wheels of all sizes. I absolutely LOVE bmx. If I could only afford a single bike, it would have 20" wheels. But I can't so I don't. This transitions over to mountain biking as well. Makes me tend to like smaller sized bikes compared to other riders my size. I ride road as well, but I feel like I'm on a barge (comparatively). I've ridden 29'ers, and while I can see while they're fun, its not my thing. Like the article above, you can't get as aggressive on a 29'er as you can a 26'er. To me it felt like riding a road bike. If that was what I wanted to do, I would get on a road bike.
I hear you, and agree that I've never felt comfortable on a 29er, but I've also never ridden anything other than a 29er hardtail XC bike. I do think 650bing the Draco would be an interesting experiment. I'm pretty sure it would clear, and would be a way to work on the retardedly low BB. I'm defiantly not convinced it would work well, but I am curious to try.
the only hate i have for 29'ers is for the people who ride them and then look down their nose at other mountain bikers who aren't on 29'ers. to me 29'ers is just mountain biking for road riders. NTTAWWT, at the end of the day more mountain bikers is a good thing, I just wish that the crappy attitudes would get left behind.