Every year at the start of the bike season (around springtime), manufacturers put out the theme for the year’s merchandising push.

This year it seems to be: 29ers are here to stay. So get yours now!

(There’s a subtext as well, which is: Get ready for the 650b Revolution! 650b being the tire size splitting the difference between the standard 26er and the 29er.)

We at BikeIntelligencer have puzzled over all the hot talk re 29ers since it first stirred the pot back in the day. We in fact had the pleasure of riding with a WTB (Wilderness Trail Bikes) 29er pioneer a decade ago on Sunday morning rides with Keith Denebeim’s Tam Valley Bike Club.

Over the years we’ve seen a number of friends, colleagues and riders we respect get 29ers for their main steed. And here’s the bottom line: Nearly all have gone back to 26ers.

The exceptions have been folks falling into 3 categories:

1. They are sponsored riders paid in part to promote bikes that happen to be 29ers.

2. Their favorite rides are tailor made for ‘niners.

3. They are tall.

The other folks — the ones who bought 29ers with their own hard-earned cash just to see what the buzz was all about — have just about to a rider abandoned or shelved the big wheels.

When we ask them why, we get a surprising variety of answers. But they all militate toward a common theme, which is: Lack of versatility. 29ers are great bikes for certain specific purposes, which can include racing but mostly involve classic cross-country (XC) singletrack.

The problem is, most riders don’t ride just XC. Most riders in fact do a lot more with trail riding (aggressive-trail, freeriding, or downhill), where things like maneuverability, quickness and handling are paramount. It may seem like a joke to point it out, but so far 29ers haven’t made it big in slope style, 4-cross, enduro or downhill competitions. They aren’t even the bike of choice in World Cup XC events, although some riders have done well on them.

We go up to Whistler every summer and have yet to see much evidence of a 29er boom there. Out on the trails in NorCal this summer-like winter, we have noticed an uptick in 29ers. But they’re hardly a threat to displace conventional mountain bikes.

We stopped and chatted with the owner of a spanking new 29er on the climb up Mount Tam a month ago. Why had he gotten a ‘niner? “Curiosity.” What did he think so far. “It’s…OK.” It was hardly a ringing endorsement, although he did say he’d not had enough ride time to adequately evaluate it.

Another facet of the ‘niner buzz that frustrates us is the broad generalizing about the bikes with little quantitative basis. Commentary after promo commentary hints that the bigger tires make riding over obstacles easier, forward momentum stronger and ride stability greater. While those may be observationally true, we have yet to see any scientific substantiation.

In that vein, we were intrigued to see the 29er versus 26er shootout in the most recent (No. 23) issue of Mountain Flyer magazine by racer Michael McCalla, who compared similarly set up bikes over a variety of terrains for time and power output (wattage).

McCalla’s startling conclusion: No quantifiable difference between the two. Interestingly, McCalla experienced the same feedback that 29er evangelists promote regarding ride feel. But none of it translated into any actual ride advantage.

McCalla’s findings may have surprised us, but they mirror our own reaction to 29ers. We’ve ridden fully rigid, hardtail and full suspension versions of 29ers and always had the same response. They feel great for the first hour or so. Then they feel OK. Not long after, their idiosyncrasies start to make us hanker for our familiar mount.

We do think that 29ers are great for taller riders (6’2″ and above). A big powerful guy like Dejay Birtch thrives on a Niner, and not just because the Niner brand sponsors him. We can see why the (tall) maestro, Gary Fisher, was so stoked at the idea in the first place.

And for specific terrain — flowy, not-too twisty or technical singletrack — 29ers are a hoot for just about anybody. But are you gonna do drops or hucks and jumps on a 29er? Is a 29er suited for your favorite downhill? And what about having to buy spare 29er everythings, like wheels and tires and tubes? Ka-ching!

We’re firmly in the camp of “to each his (or her) own.” Just because we don’t ride 29ers doesn’t mean we hate them.

But when someone starts talking 29er Jesus to us, we have to smile and shake our heads. They’re just wasting their time.

A friend of ours, citing the Church of Big Hoops, put it well in a modified Christian hymn. Feel free to sing along!

Hoop of ages, spin for me
For a slightly higher fee.
Though the weight is kinda high
And the roll out burns the thigh.

29ers rule the day
Just get in the line and pay!

The concept occurred to us as we were doing a torture test of Schwalbe’s Hans Dampf all-mountain tire on the back side of Mount Tamalpais in the birthplace of mountain biking, Marin County.

Instead of writing up a review and attaching a video — as we’ve done for many BikeIntelligencer evaluations — we decided to just talk out loud about what we were feeling as we rode the bike…while all the time pointing out what the tire was going through on our test.

The result we dubbed OTBR — On The Bike Review.

Tires are tailor-made for On The Bike reviewing, but other components can be critiqued just as easily and effectively. Among them are suspension (droppable) seat posts, front and rear suspension systems, brakes, drive trains — in fact, just about anything worth reviewing can be adapted to the On The Bike review. The best fit of all may be evaluating a new bike itself — recording reactions as they occur to the reviewer in real time.

We wish we’d had this setup when we first rode the Crank Brothers Joplin suspension seat post back when. We could have dramatically illustrated the frustrations with trying to raise and lower the post using the Joplin’s under-the-saddle lever. Remote controls have since made the Joplin approach obsolete, and Crank Brothers itself has a new post called kronolog.

How does OTBR differ from conventional reviews?

The first thing to understand is that OTBR would not be possible without GoPro’s sound technology. You need a mike that can pick up voice in just about all conditions. The Hero gets the job done, offering amazingly adaptable audio pickup as the ride progresses. Combined with the camera’s visual feedback, the OTBR gives the listener/viewer a truly real sense of how the bike is performing. For the viewer, OTBR is quite literally the next best thing to being there — on the ride itself.

Contrast that with text reviews where the writer discusses reactions in the past tense, often leaving out key information and having no way to show exactly how a component behaved. There’s just nothing like being there.

We at BikeIntelligencer used helmet cams for nearly a decade before the GoPro. They were heavy, bulky, difficult to use and suffered from low video resolution (barely TV quality back when TVs were big heavy tube things with fuzzy pictures — you remember!) as well as short battery life.

When we did reviews with them, the best we could do was voice-overs during editing.

When we began using the Hero it immediately occurred to us that its versatility lent itself to bike reviewing. But we tended to use it the same old way we did pre-GoPro: With mostly dubbed-over commentary. The visuals — riding along a favorite singletrack — may have offered some sense of what the ride was like. But without real-time, simultaneous commentary, the “review” element was not as effective.

The model here might be those outdoors videos where adventurers whisper so as not to disturb the wildlife. The commentary imparts a greater sense of immediacy and participation. It puts you right there on the scene. It’s just plain more real.

Beyond being more real, OTBR is more spontaneous and honest. If a fork seal pops, it’s right there on pixels and you see the travel die. If a suspension post wobbles, you can show how and why right there in the saddle. If your brakes fade, it’ll show right there as you pin the lever to the handlebar on the next corner.

With the Dampfs we wanted to test traction, durability and stability. We picked the nastiest downhill around, Blithedale and Eldridge grades on the back side of Mount Tam, to just pound the stuffing out of the Dampfs and their Snakeskin sidewalls. If we so much as rolled a bead, chipped a knob, tore a sidewall or dented a rim, we’d have it all right there on video.

OTBR’ing is so effective we hope that Web reviewers and YouTube denizens will adopt it with time. It may even merit its own queue on our favorite review site, MTBR.com (it’s no coincidence that OTBR shares so many initials with MTBR).

To do the job right, OTBR does require a bit of thinking on the feet (or pedals), good audiovisual instincts and an articulate narrator. The reviewer has to be able to make observations beyond the American Bandstand approach — “it’s got a good beat and you can dance to it.” But that’s true of reviewing in general.

We think OTBR would be a great tool for our favorite reviewers — folks like MTBR’s Francis Cebedo, PinkBike’s Richard Cunningham and BIKE mag’s Vernon Felton. With the resources of their supporting publications (far better than BikeIntelligencer‘s modest lot), they should be able to take OTBR to a much more sophisticated level.

In the meantime, here’s our humble OTBR offering, featuring the Hans Dampf on one of the nation’s most popular mountain bike rides.

We recently explored the Leavenworth area, home of the Wenatchee National Forest and environs — and subject of the new land-use mtb movie, “Pedal Driven” — and found all but one epic ride still socked in. Not that heavy rain and chilly overcast weather would have been conducive to all-day back-country trekking anyway…


Fortunately the cross-country race loop at Freund Canyon was open and dry. We had a great time doing it backwards, forwards and upside down, running into trail brushers and a family from Duvall in the process. We loved the kid with the 29er doing wheelies all over the clearing at the top.

Although it’s difficult to pick up on the video, there are lots of moderate jumps on the way down that make for a rollicking time. You can ride up either side of the canyon but our preference is to do a counter-clockwise configuration because of a long fire-road connector (a lot of hard-earned elevation to lose in the opposite direction).

There always seem to be other riders and hikers on the trail, it’s close to town, and most importantly it’s open when the big rides aren’t. We’ll hope for clearing asap in the Mad Lake-Klone Peak region, but till then Freund Canyon (and Mission Ridge/Devils Gulch to the east) will have to suffice.

Thanks to Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance and the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR), Preston and NW Timber are slated to be linked for a giant singletrack loop on Tiger that will really rock n roll. For now they’re connected by a dull fire road, but still represent the most challenging singletrack in the Seattle area.

We happened to be running the GoPro Hero HD helmet cam when another rider came to a 3-foot ledge drop midway down. Whoa! Classic endo! You can find it at the 1:12 mark. Enjoy!

Armed with a GoPro Hero HD helmet cam, we decided to document our travels aboard our long-travel trail bike, the Pivot Firebird. We hit Ashland OR (to our minds one of the most underrated mtb destinations), San Luis Obispo CA, the San Francisco Bay Peninsula, Santa Cruz and Aptos and finally Fairfax — the birthplace of mountain biking — in the heart of Marin County.

Because our favorite Northwest high country rides are still impossibly snowed in — closing in on mid-July no less! — we wish we were still south, riding our hearts and minds out. Instead we’re sitting at our desk, blogging away as Phil and Bob and the 2011 Tour de France drone on in the background.

So here’s to memories of rides recently past. Enjoy!

Ashland SuperD (partial). We rode part of the race course and had a blast.

Alpine Road, Palo Alto. Trail-blazed as an off-road cycling romp by the legendary Jobst Brandt before mountain bikes even existed, Alpine remains a fun jaunt downward.

Mount Madonna, San Luis Obispo. Praise the Lord! even though the “Madonna” has nothing to do with the Bible.

Mount Madonna Lemon Grove Loop, San Luis Obispo. A quick ride from town that you can extend into a two-hour workout.

Wilder Ranch State Park, Santa Cruz. Classic singletrack with the best sight lines you’ll find on two wheels.

Forest of Nisene Marks State Park, Aptos. Where some of the best slopestyle riders in the world hang out, and you can see why.

Camp Tamarancho, Fairfax, Marin County. Mountain biking got its start nearby, and Tamarancho is the must-ride not only for locals but mtbers the world over.

You gotta love it.

Our 2011 West Coast mountain biking tour concluded with a romp through the familiar groves and switchbacks of Tamarancho, always a joy, always a place where you run into lots of other mountain bikers from all over the San Francisco Bay Area, and the world.

There’s a campaign to formalize Fairfax’s reputation as mtb’s birthplace with a mosaic in the center of town. According to the Marin Independent Journal: “The chamber is teaming with Quntilia Nylin, ceramic artist and creator of the history obelisk in San Anselmo, to create a ceramic tile installation in downtown Fairfax.” We will miss the fundraiser but wish the locals well.