The New Niners

By David Shedd, contributing editor

There’s no better way for a consumer to get into the heads of the mountain bike industry leaders than at Pedro's Festival in Hancock, Massachusetts.

The annual July festival features a dazzling display of different demo bikes. Often prototypes of new bikes are on display. Keep your ears open while you’re waiting for your dream bike to be set up for you to try, and you just might hear what the manufacturer is planning for next year.

This year the buzz was about "29ers." We’re talking big wheels, big tires, and big fun. Plenty of the standard 26"-wheel mountain bikes were around, but more and more manufacturers are embracing the “niners” for their obvious benefits.

King of the Hill

In my book, the Titus Racer X 29 is the king of the hill in the 29er world.

I took all of the bikes that I tested over the same course -- a rocky stream crossing; a steep little uphill; a nasty, twisty, technical section of singletrack; a faster, smoother singletrack; then blasting back down the hill to see how confident the bike felt on the descent.

The Racer X was astonishing in the twisty section. A 29er typically is harder to maneuver in tight corners due to the larger wheel and longer wheelbase, but I was able to take the Titus through. I enjoyed it so much that I took it to another section of trail that is very steep. My butt actually was hitting my rear wheel at one point when I was descending, I was leaning so far back to keep my balance.

I proceeded to stuff the front wheel into a rock. I knew that I was going over the handlebars. I’ve been there so many times before that I’m an expert in trying to figure out whether I’m going to tuck and roll, land on my head, or break something, all while I’m flying through the air. 

But, thanks to the 29er, I felt the tire bend into the rock, rebound, then flow over it, with me still attached to the bike. The genius of the 29ers is rolling over things that would normally stop a rider. For now, the Titus is golden.

Suspended Animation

In the 26" full-suspension bike category, the Trek Top Fuel 8 was the best of those I tried.

Back in the dark ages when I raced cross country (or, more accurately, fell off a lot), I rode a Gary Fisher Sugar 1. State-of-the-art at the time, the full suspension allowed me to ride over and through a lot of terrain that I really wasn’t good enough for. Unfortunately, that meant I could get in over my head and hurt myself even more when I fell. That suspension was an uneasy balance of soft enough to actually do some good, and firm enough to not make the bike bob all over the place every time I took a pedal stroke. Climbing on a fire road was an exercise in control. I always had to be aware of my technique to avoid losing power to that suspension bob.

But things have changed in the last half-dozen years, and entirely for the good. The current crop of full suspension bikes are lighter than mine was, with more travel, yet more efficiency.

On the Trek Top Fuel 8, I honestly couldn’t feel the suspension working at all while I pedaled, yet the bike flowed smoothly over a wide variety of terrain. I took the Trek down the same grueling test route as the Titus Racer. When I got off at the end of my ride, I could tell by looking at the rear shock that I’d been using close to 3” of suspension travel, and never feeling a loss of efficiency. That's a huge gain over my old Sugar.

Climb Aboard the SS Rigid Revolution, Matey

The quirky trend at the festival was a huge crop of SS (single-speed), fully rigid 29ers.

Single speeds have always been the realm of the lunatic fringe of mountain bikers. But who wants to work that hard? And, what's with fully rigid? Didn’t the suspension fork come about to make riding more fun and faster? Why would anyone want a rigid fork?

The answers to that are actually pretty clear.

Hands down, a rigid fork handles better than a suspension fork. There’s no slop, no worries about rebound characteristics. You just aim the bike and it goes.

The same goes for a rigid rear triangle. No matter how efficient the Trek Fuel 8 felt, it still can’t match a rigid bike for pure energy transfer from your legs to forward motion.

SS bikes are also light, easy to maintain, and, well, fun. You just ride. No thinking about when to shift, which chainring to use, any of that. It makes you a better rider when you aren’t relying on technology to help you get around things.

But, if it’s such a wonderful idea, why has it been hiding in the bushes all these years? It’s the 29er equation again. A niner SS is more comfortable and plush because of the bigger tires. That big wheel has an advantage over a suspension fork in getting over mid-sized rocks and logs. True, its not as fast as a suspension bike, but the SS isn’t about the speed, it’s about the experience.

I tried SS 29ers from Kona, Jamis, and GT that were moderately priced, handled beautifully and were just flat-out fun.

Then, I went over to the Van Dessel booth and fell in love with their Ramble Tamble SS Rigid Race. It’s in a different price class than the others, and deserves to be. With a stunning carbon fork and a glowing paint job, it’s a beauty.

But it's not just all looks.

The Ramble Tamble felt like a different category of bike through the twisties, cleanly carving through corners that I flat out couldn’t make with the other bikes. The only disappointment was the Bontrager Jones XC tires that were on it, possibly the worst MTB tires I've ever been on. They slid with every root they hit. I'd done that section of singletrack at least a dozen times on other bikes without going down once. But thanks to the Jones XC tires, I fell 4 times. A Van Dessel spokesman confirmed that these are not the tires that usually come with the bike. Their usual supplier, Maxxis, had run out of tires and they needed something to fit the bike up for the show.

If you fall for this bike, make sure you don’t get stuck with the Jones, or you’ll be falling on it as well.

Over in the Salsa booth, they had their own take on the rigid SS. It was rigid, anyway. Their El Mariachi niner is a “1x9,” which means it’s got a single chainring on the front, but a full cluster on the rear. It offers a lot more flexibility in exchange for a little more complexity. The bike is gorgeous, with a stem that matches the paint job of the frame for a little extra eye candy. And fun…oh, yes. This may be the ultimate crossover. It has the simplicity and handling of a rigid bike, with some gears to get you up those miserable climbs.

Road Revelations

I ended up trying some road bikes at this mountain bike show. Why? A variety of manufacturers were showing of road bikes and there were two I couldn’t resist. One was the new Trek Madone. You can’t pick up a cycling magazine these days without seeing photos of its elegant monocoque frame. Any successor to the bike that Lance Armstrong propelled to those Tour de France wins is begs to be ridden.

The Madone is a Trek, through and through. My wife has a Trek 5900, which was Lance’s bike of choice. This feels like the spiritual successor to it.

It goes about its business in an unspectacular way. It simply does everything extraordinarily well.

Need to climb? Up it goes, fast and smooth.

Hairy twisty downhills? No need to worry;  not a quiver to scare you.

Sprinting for that finish line? Get out of the saddle, and it explodes under you.

Rough roads? Relax and let it flow over them, without your fillings rattling out of your teeth.

This is a bike designed for all day in the saddle, day after day. Yes, it’s expensive. And yes, it’s worth it.

From an entirely different world comes the Jamis Xenith Pro. Jamis is one of those companies that never quite seems to get the respect that it deserves. They’ve always made bikes that are wonderful value for the dollar, sort of the perfect brand for a budding racer. The fit and finish are always better than I expect at the price, and the parts spec is always intelligent. Not flashy, just good, solid performers. But certainly not on anyone’s “lust list.”

What’s the deal, then, with the Xenith? A sexy carbon frame with shaped tubes and eye-catching graphics, an aggressive advertising campaign, a frame-testing program to make sure that every frame performs to spec. Hmm. Sounds like Jamis is trying to move in on the big boys. Or is it all smoke and mirrors? Only way to find out is to hop on and ride.

It turns out that the Xenith is an easy bike to describe. Only one word is needed: Wow!

This bike is a blast. It’s always hard to describe feel, but again, one word -- light -- does it. It feels like a feather under you climbing or sprinting, yet it never feels whippy and inefficient. I’m almost as miserable a climber as I am an MTB handler, but it was a sheer pleasure to spin this up a multi-mile climb. Stable in descents, it’s a confidence-inspiring bike as well.

I honestly can’t remember the last time I had this much fun on a bike. It’s like having Ginger Rogers as a dance partner (Google her, young ‘uns). Incredibly light and graceful, and it always knows exactly what to do and when to do it. It was shocking. I’d just ridden the world-class Madone, and I found myself falling in love with a bike that’s about half its price.

Baubles

No show is complete without “toys.” You know, the fun stuff that doesn’t make us any faster, but makes us smile.

Pedro’s always has good tools, and good tools make for good rides.

Shimano was showing off some hot new carbon fiber toys for tri-bikes. Jelly Belly was giving away their “Sport Beans,” which they claim work better than gels. I can’t confirm that, but I can confirm that they taste better. Far and away the winner in this part of the show was a company called Danolite. They’ve got the smallest, lightest, brightest LED headlamps I’ve ever seen. Check out the XP if you ride at night, or hike at night.

Last, but not least, go to the Pedro's Festival website and plan to see all this stuff for yourself next year.

David Shedd is a self-described "terrible bike handler" who's too stubborn to let a few broken bones stop him from breaking more. He is a Cat 4 road racer, and the 2002 Maine Mountain Bike Association NORBA state champion.

In the winter, David skis down insanely steep trails. 

To finance his fun and pay his medical bills, David is a real estate broker with Coldwell Banker in Portland, Maine.