27 vs 29 DH for Bike Park

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27 vs 29 DH for Bike Park
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flag mastakilla
Posted: Apr 19, 2019 at 0:37 Quote
I am fixing to get a new DH bike for bike park season and am trying to decide between doing another 27 vs going to a 29.

What peoples thoughts on this? Is a 29er going to be too unweildly for jumps? I am not a great rider honestly, just passable. Mostly like to hit the reasonable (not large) jump lines and slowly work up to clearing all the tables without riding things too riskily.

On the surface, I would lean to doing another 27 but it seems that 29 is taking over DH and I dont want to drop a chunk on an outdated bike.

Anybody actually ridden one of these 29 DH bikes that can comment?
flag grantgeesmith
Posted: Apr 19, 2019 at 5:19 Quote
Just a thought, if your keen on a 29er, get a 29er, and put a 27.5 on the back to make it more fun on the jumps, I personally just swapped from 26 to 27.5 and loving, would be keen to try one of these 29er downhill bikes, everyone seems to be swapping to 29ers
flag onyxss
Posted: Apr 19, 2019 at 5:33 Quote
mastakilla wrote:
I am fixing to get a new DH bike for bike park season and am trying to decide between doing another 27 vs going to a 29.

What peoples thoughts on this? Is a 29er going to be too unweildly for jumps? I am not a great rider honestly, just passable. Mostly like to hit the reasonable (not large) jump lines and slowly work up to clearing all the tables without riding things too riskily.

On the surface, I would lean to doing another 27 but it seems that 29 is taking over DH and I dont want to drop a chunk on an outdated bike.

Anybody actually ridden one of these 29 DH bikes that can comment?

There is no other way than you demo 29 DH - just because "everybody" is getting it doesn't mean it will be good for you. 29er in general is more "monster trucking", 27.5 is more "playful", whichever you prefer more only you can decide. There is no outdated bike as long as it suits you.
Semenuk, Vink (and many more) is still on 26", hard to argue that they are not good at DH, even on "outdated" bikes... :-)
flag BeaverCreaker
Posted: Apr 19, 2019 at 8:13 Quote
Based on your description of what/how you ride, get 27.5

I dont suspect 27.5 is going anywhere soon. If it does, I will stop riding MTB and ride more MX
flag Illorgan
O+
Posted: Apr 19, 2019 at 15:01 Quote
I rode a 29er last season (commencal dh29) and it is certainly made to go fast. Most of the 29er models coming out seem to be more focused on speed/racing as well.
Before that I rode 27.5 and before that a 26. In general those were easier to flick around but it isnt night and day. I think a bunch of 29ers will be sold but many will stay on 27.5. I don’t see them suiting everyone, especially those that aren’t tall. Long story short, I wouldn’t worry about 27.5 going away.

In my opinion it may be easier to pick up skills on the current 27.5 bikes vs 29 (granted, my experience is limited to one 29er DH bike). But you can absolutely jump, flick, and have fun on any DH bike, regardless of wheel size.

One thing to consider are the evil park bike builds. I bet a wreckoning with dual crown is fun as hell.
flag Loki87
Posted: Apr 19, 2019 at 16:22 Quote
27.5 isn´t going anywhere.
There are too many people who don´t want/need a 29er for various reasons like body size, fitness, ability level, riding style and so on.
Even manufacturers have realized they can´t force 29ers like they did 27.5 as nearly all of them have released their 29er bike alongside a 27.5
Also, you do see where this whole 29er thing is going absolutely crazy and you are the best example for it, right?
You´re not a great rider and think about buying a bike which has only ONE advantage. Speed.
Why would you ride such a bike? So you need to drag your brakes even more? So you can corner even more awkwardly?
Now i´m not trying to be mean to you, i do count myself as a pretty decent rider BUT the same things are true for me.
Us normal guys, we need to gain our speed in corners. That´s where we suck. Not on straight lines. Our bikes are already going faster than we can hold on to in a straight line.
So why buy a bike that corners worse and gives you speed?
And before anybody says this isn´t true. Dan Atherton said he doesn´t get along with the 29er. Various dh racers switched back mid season as they couldn´t make the 29er work without putting in serious effort and a lot of training. None of those guys switched back to 26 from 27.5 the years before. So there is definitely some threshold there between 27.5 and 29. Whether it´s huge or negligable is up for debate, but my argument still stands.
Why risk getting a less responsive bike in order to gain speed you can not even utilize?

And then there´s the added weight of the niner wheels as well as their lower reliability. Personally it´s not worth it to me to put up with the increased risk of destroyed wheels for some marginal gain in speed. When i´m out on weekends i wanna ride, not true my wheels. I do not have time for that. As this is my hobby and not a job, i want my gear to strike a balance between performance and reliability as a too big drop in either aspect will negatively impact how much fun i can have in my limited freetime and i simply value not having to worry about my gear a lot.

I get being curious about a 29er. I am too, but i had to admit to myself at some point that my gear has gotten to a point where i´m not limited in speed anymore by my bike.


On another note, be careful when buying a 29er as they´re not all created equal.
I have compared geometires extensively and many 29ers use a 62 degree headangle. From personal experience i can say this is great for plowing through really rough stuff, BUT it results in noticeable bushing binding in your fork. This isn´t noticeable on the gnarly tracks but you´ll feel it a lot in breaking bumps and small chatter. So for a racebike i think it´s great as it let´s you truck thorugh anything, but it beats you up on a park day when usually you ride a mix of tracks.
For that reason i would look for something with 63 degrees. It´s also a lot more responsive on the flowy jump trails.
That´s the reason why i went with the 27.5 Devinci Wilson instead of the 29er Wilson for my new bike as it simply is the better allrounder. I would have loved the 29er for plowing through rough tracks, but the reality is i do not ride those all the time.
flag MarcusBrody
O+ FL
Posted: Apr 20, 2019 at 11:16 Quote
I'm with everyone here. I don't see why you would want a 29 in bike for jump lines.

If you're riding someplace really rough and want to carry speed over roots/rocks, sure. But for regular park riding, I think that 27.5 makes more sense.

The other big question is: How tall are you? If you're sub 6 foot, a 27.5 seems like an absolute no brainer. If you're 6'5", though, it's might be a different story.
flag mastakilla
Posted: Apr 20, 2019 at 17:45 Quote
MarcusBrody wrote:
I'm with everyone here. I don't see why you would want a 29 in bike for jump lines.

If you're riding someplace really rough and want to carry speed over roots/rocks, sure. But for regular park riding, I think that 27.5 makes more sense.

The other big question is: How tall are you? If you're sub 6 foot, a 27.5 seems like an absolute no brainer. If you're 6'5", though, it's might be a different story.

6 foot even. Have a last gen Tues in large that is too short I feel.

Was looking at 29 Tues. Even YT recommends 27 for bike park, but I was wondering if they had more 27s laying around they needed to sell prompting this recommendation.

Used to be people were saying 27 is better for trail and enduro, but now it's all 29.

Wonder what the zeitgeist will be for 29 DH in a year?
flag Loki87
Posted: Apr 21, 2019 at 0:30 Quote
Don't confuse pinbike's comment section for the general consensus or the general population.
People here are dentists who ride less and talk more. Go ask people out in the wild and you'll get a different, more diverse opinion than in pinkike's comment section. You see it here. Even on the forums things start sounding differently.
There are things the industry can't just simply take away. Heck,people on here claimed 26 would be dead and done and that fear was the reason everyone switched to 27.5 in fear of no spares being available. Now everyone rides 27.5, yet manufacturers still release new rims and tires in 26 to this day (Schwalbe,Maxxis, Stan's rims etc). History has already shown you'll not be stranded with an unrideable bike, so does it even matter if your bike might become outdated? DH bikes loose value faster than anything anyways, so resale value also isn't an argument imho.

Same goes for enduro.
People claimed 29 was king on here, yet EWS was dominated by 27.5
People claim whatever they want on pinkbike (comment section at least) as long as it fits their narrative of how they wanna see the world. It's like asking for the best personal computer on an apple forum. No chance in hell you'll end up with an objective opinion as all the trend whores accumulate there Wink
For comparison, go ask your question on the Yeti or Santa Cruz subforums here or on mtbr.com
I bet you'll end up with a vastly different opinion than what we here just told you Wink
flag yzedf
Posted: Apr 21, 2019 at 6:59 Quote
I am on 27.5 for the stronger wheels
flag norfiril
O+
Posted: Jun 2, 2019 at 16:05 Quote
First day today with the Norco Aurum HSP 29er. Crazy fast but much harder to trick on jumps.

It's not like heavy bike but when I whip found it much harder to get the rear end back. It felt lazy
flag sumarongi
O+
Posted: Jun 3, 2019 at 0:53 Quote
I rode a 29” Santa Cruz v10 @ Highland BP this weekend.

I freaking loved it man. Such comfortable riding position, so stable, cornered better than any bike I had ever been on. I was able to hit everything at the bike park no problem

I too was worried how it would perform off jumps and Freeride stuff. I can say this- It rocked on the air! The enhanced gyro effect of 29” really make the bike floaty and stable in the air! Sure maybe if you are pulling complex bmx tricks a smaller wheel size might be better, but throwing huge whips with the 29” made me feel steezy

About me: A big wheel skeptic as you can get. I held on to my 2007 26” Cove Shocker as long as I could until just a few years ago I moved to 27.5 Enduro, (Yt Capra then Trans Patrol) The 29” v10 is the first downhill bike I’ve wanted in a really long time
flag bikebike69
Posted: Jun 3, 2019 at 8:13 Quote
Or.....get a modern 26 Slope bike Trid ZZ or Ticket S similar. If not for you, then go for full DH 27.5 only cause there’s no modern 26 options. If you like tech trails a full DH bike will be the better choice. But if you really dig big jump,flowy stuff Slope is fun as hell.
flag mastakilla
Posted: Jul 14, 2019 at 23:36 Quote
My 27 DH broke and had to rent a couple days on last trip and road the 29 V10. Definitely a big more sluggish in the air, but the tech was better than on my 27. Ended up ordering a 29 Tues so now I have both 27 and 29 dh rigs.
flag InGoodFaith
Posted: Jul 15, 2019 at 14:57 Quote
If possible, try going to a demo in your area. Try some 29's and see how they feel.


Personally I prefer 27.5 for park.
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