Those of you running 29er wheels, Give us your reviews! Actual vs Claimed weights, longevity, bearing quality, rim width, tubeless vs tubed, etc.

Give us your height and weight, length or time used, for durability comparison. Maybe typical terrain used? (Rocky, rooty, smooth hardpack, muddy, etc,)

Some brands to mix and match:

WTB

Salsa

Shimano

Mavic

American Classic

Bontrager

DT Swiss

Surly

Reynolds

 

Not a total 29er experience, but this weekend I did test the 69er  TREK.  Got to take it into the single track, it seemed clumsy.  COOL as hell though!!  But immediately after got on my 26er and it seemed much quicker and NOT $2100.00.  For me old skool rules. It was great to be able to really test the bike , not just in the parking lot.

That Trek thing looks all wrong! It's been touted as a 'light' bike, but isn't - and seems rather over-priced. Anyhow, I'll get a 29 soon. We don't have as much choice here in the UK. I might go for a Fisher Rig, but am a little concerned about buying anything devised by a man who wears a purple fur-fabric suit. I'll run the stock wheels, but will ditch the suspension fork and fit Pace rigid.

There are pros and cons to all high-end stuff, but tubeless looks good. I'll try tubeless and let you know how I get on.

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"Gears are like eyes or testicles. Having more than one is an unnecessary luxury." Elvis A. Presley

Even though I like the look of the bike, my main worry about the 69er is the forks, at our shop we have had more warranty issues with the Maverick forks as fitted to Whyte 46 bikes than any other fork ever. I've got no faith in them.

 

 

 

And another thing: I presume that as the original topic of this thread has had no answers, there must be no-one with experience of 29" wheels in this forum. Interesting.... 

 

 

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She who succeeds in gaining the mastery of the bicycle will gain the mastery of life.
– Frances E. Willard, How I Learned To Ride The Bicycle, 1895


The follower of singlespeeding
is at one with his bike.

I do like the look, but cant see spending that cash.  Here in NE some local shop has 2 RIGS priced at $800.00 I think they are demos. Looked in good shape from what I re-called.  I also tested one and it was smooth....it would take some gettin used to the 29er wheels for me?

I do like the look of the Rig, I must say.

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She who succeeds in gaining the mastery of the bicycle will gain the mastery of life.
– Frances E. Willard, How I Learned To Ride The Bicycle, 1895


The follower of singlespeeding
is at one with his bike.

I'm running Surly New Hub (wow I like disc brakes!) front and rear, and sure do like them. I haven't checked weights/measures, but they have 32 holes for spokes, 6 for disc bolts, and one for the axle, and they roll real nicely. I think they have the sealed bearings, and they confused me with the appearance of having bearing preload adjustment (I'd thought that was loose bearing only).

I've paired them with Salsa Delgado Race 29er rims (by way of spiffy DT Swiss triple butted spokes, all one length, thank you singlespeed!), and the rear wheel has given me no trouble yet, after a whole week.. however, the front rim tacoed during stress relieving as I got close to tension, so I'm pretty well convinced that the rims are too light for off-roading (though Salsa was kind enough to warranty the rim) and I think I'll be relegating these wheels/rims to street use as soon as possible.

I've been riding them anyway, since I have waited long enough/too long to ride already, and though the front wheel is crazy wiggly, it hasn't been getting worse..

I've heard good about Sun Rhyno's and Mavic (who've introduced a 29er rim + wheelset, and already had strong 700c rims), and think I'll use some other rim from now on, though the Salsa sure is light and spiffy looking.

Just laced up my wheel set and have been riding it for the past 3wks.  Feels lighter than my low end bontregar set.

 They feel solid and no flex experienced...

 

Rims: Salsa 29er Race

Spokes: DT  14/17  alum. nipples

Hubs :white industries (disc)

Rider Wt.: 175 

Finally a 29er WHEELSET review! Thanks!

So far my XT high flange, 32 spoke, A317 Mavic rim wheelset is holding strong. These were factory-built, and checked over by me.

Haven't put them through real rocky stuff yet though. We'll see this Spring. These aren't that light either, but dependable and cheap on ebay.

Thanks!

Keifer

 

I built up a StansZTR 355 29er rim onto a set of WTB Laser Lite hubs using DT revolution spokes tied and soldered. Stan's no flats with WTB Nanoraptors

Stan's rims are very light but very soft. You need to touch true them a lot and ride smoothly = no big jumping

There's a moderate amount of wheel flex but they make for a really nice Singlespeed race wheel set up.

Spike Shooter rider Katie Compton won the Shorttrack, XC and Super D on her Singlespeed Primus Mootry Ti 29er with these wheels at last years Mountain States Cup in Keystone

 

 

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Harden the F#%kup and ride a Singlespeed 29er!

GT Peace 9r came with WTB Dual Duty on GT branded hubs shod with ExiWolfs.

Have not had any problems (abouth 6 months), even though running very low pressure  (25 psi) in front.
 

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ThreeSpeed ...
Sit, stand and push

White Ind Hubs

 Phil Butted Spokes

Gordo Rims

Nokian Rubber

 

Not bad. Could be better...if they were diamond studded

That's a blinging pair of wheels!

 I'm on Mavic A119 rims laced to FRM Team hubs with Sapim Laser 2.0/1.5 'skinny' double butted spokes. Tyres are Conti Vapor 2.1", and I'm running 622 x 32 tubes. A pair of the new Conti Mountain King 29er tyres are on order, but these are no available in Europe quite yet.

I've hatched a plan to drill out the inner wall of the rim - in effect adding an additional three 10mm holes between each of the existing holes in the rim bed. This should cut the weight of the rim without significantly comprimising strength. Reducing rotational mass is the key to gaining the benefits of the bigger wheels, without the negative effect of that additional inertia. My skinny spokes and undersize tubes must help. The rim drilling and lighter tyres will help further.

I had my first ride on my new 29er this weekend. I was pleasantly surprised. There are definite advantages on bad surfaces, and the bike feels more sure-footed than a 26er. It rides much smoother and you can certainly carve the bigger wheels harder through corners before they break loose. I hardly noticed any negative effects, even when climbing, and within a short time was chucking the bike around just as I would a 26. It would seem as though 29ers are not just a marketing ploy after all!

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"Gears are like eyes or testicles. Having more than one is an unnecessary luxury." Elvis A. Presley

I use WTB rims on my 29"wheels

 Heavy but they haven't broken yet and I have a reputation as an abuser 

I reckon it's a good idea to have em a bit on the tuff side as the twisting forces are greater. Heavy duty for sure but make em lighter with light weight tubeless tyres and aluminium nipples (these don't last long if you have to continuously true up the wheel but they save a lot of weight where it matters)

 Mine are on my Ti custom made frame with Ti rigid fork. I often run 40+ psi and they have only needed trueing up once in the last year

 
Hubs are custom made carbon fibre and I use DT Swiss spokes 

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Make mine from Ti please

Guess that I should update this ...

rebuilt the rear wheel after the freehub started getting rough after 3/4 year's worth of abuse.

Now: Shimano LX (non disc) rear hub (+spacers), DT Swiss Competition DB  spokes and the same WTB Dual Duty FR rim. Probably lost about 100g due to lighter hub (and very slightly) lighter spokes.

The rim is heavy, but seems to be very strong. I had no problems rebuilding it. Multiple radial measurements (to determine spoke length) showed that it was still pretty round (within my 1mm measuring accuracy) and it lay pretty flat on the table.

Obviously not for weight weenies - but pretty solid so far.

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ThreeSpeed ...
Sit, stand and push