Big Wheel Rant

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What became of the White Rim 29er?

We have put our eggs in the Serotta and Moots baskets. We can have Serotta custom a White Rim to exactly to our specs, or we can get very close with a custom Moots. We have dropped all connection (and desire for a connection) with the Chinese fabricator of the original WR frames. Outsourcing is a VERY bad thing when it is done out of the country. The price for a WR has gone up, but it is available as a 29er or 69er, fully rigid or with front suspension, if you have enough desire, and the result is much better due to the state-of-the-art titanium fab at Moots and Serotta. Moots has the classic 9er, 69er and full suspension court covered with the Mooto-X, Mooto-Xz, and the Gristle models. Moots even allows us to configure the Gristle hardtail and YBB models as a convertible, which is what the White Rim was designed to be--a rigid 700c bike that can convert to a front suspended 69er.

29er Moab Guide Bike and Testing Platform

A Dreamride MOOTS MOOTO-XZ set up custom for Moab is currently in the guide bike quiver and available as a demo. It is used for guiding when people with similar rigs show up for a ride series, or the ride series leaves from town on the bike. I was blessed to TEST THE PROTOTYPE and had a tad of input into the production frame. When I finally received our first Mooto-Xz production frame I knew it well enough to outfit it with components that suit its unique geometry, compliance and strength to weight ratio. Testing over the past few years has finally yielded strong wheelsets, raising weight limits and tire widths. Fox released an over-priced, but very, very good high-end 9er fork at just a bit over 3.5 pounds. Moots has built the perfect full suspension 29er frame for most people, and Ventana's 9er models take over as rider weight goes up. We are at last in a good place with 29 inch wheels.

The Mooto-Xz is the ride-from-town rig in my personal quiver, there to "handle" rough trails around Moab I can get to under my own power. This includes Porupine Rim, Slickrock, and Amassa Back, new singletracks to the north and south, and Flat Pass, 4WD tracks in Arches National Park. All of these are rough and tumble rides. I ask this bike to go fast enough on roads of all sorts and offer a level of comfort and efficiency that saves energy when the going gets rough. It gets more capable of the various deeds depending on the tires I put on it. The Mooto-Xz is fast going downhill over jagged babyhead rubble and anchored boulder when it is set up with fat tires. Those huge tires and big wheels just roll over stuff that I had to deal with before on a 26er, but I suffer on those short burst uphills after a sharp turn that scrubs off momentum. The DREAMRIDE FULLY 69er is much more capable in that line of work (accurate handling and acceleration over rough stuff).

There are very good reasons for choosing a Mooto-Xz or a VENTANA EL REY as the platform for a 9er. These bikes' suspension members comes apart! I thought this through as I considered S&S couplings for a rigid or YBB version. Couplings would have cost far more than full suspension. Couplings compromise strength and weight, pick up debris and place it INSIDE your frame, and don't help the bike perform one bit. Due to the construction of the rear ends of Moots and Ventana bikes, we offer a special suspension 9er sale as part of our HAWAII COUPLES TRIP on the Big Island.

26 to 29 Conversion Kits

On a recent trip to San Francisco I took my 29ER CONVERSION to ride the city streets and trails. After this experience I can say that the conversion might be the best thing you can do with an old hardtail, and might end up as the best all around bike for folks in most locations on the coasts, namely places where the trails are easy to moderate and the streets are safe for commuting via bicycle. My 1992 Fat Chance Titanium frame fitted with 700c wheels and mustache bars was the perfect machine for the surfaces and challenges in and around the family hometown of San Francisco. It ate up steep pavement, smooth and rooted singletracks and manicured bike paths. It worked in the ruts, loose conditions and other assorted mild to moderate challenges provided by trails in city parks, back alleys, short cuts and moderate sand of Lands End. It climbed city streets like a rocket and was extremely comfortable everywhere I took it. It even made stairs easier to descend. Meanwhile, it was interesting to discover the new fad in the city--fixed gear bikes with no freewheel and no rear brake. There were folks practicing fixed gear techniques in the Panhandle of Golden Gate Park on the most minimal of machines. Everywhere you looked geek-bikes prevailed. I found it refreshing that fadmongers have reverted to the roots of cycling---WAY back to fixed gears. Any form of suspension was hard to spot in town. Road bikes have always been popular in SF, but the introduction of the 29 inch wheeled mountain bike has caused some rethinking. Simpler IS better when it comes to life in the city. Less is more--more challenging to ride in a less challenging environment, but also cheaper and easier to maintain. I have never enjoyed riding in San Francisco as much as with the 9er conversion. My wife took hers along, too, a 1992 Specialized S-Works frame with a conversion kit with flat bars and bar ends. She couldn't stop raving over how safe the bike felt even on the short but steep rooted decents in Golden Gate Park. We were also shocked at how the mountain bike phenom has all but disappeared from the local scene--a positive thing as far as access goes. We were able to ride just about every trail we used to ride in the late 70's, with only the occassional warning printed on the sidewalk, "No bikes or skateboards." One more note on the conversion: I don't use a car in Moab anymore. I would much rather ride my Fat Chance conversion than deal with cars, motorcycles, and idiots who drive their cars to the toilet while on their cell phones. The only negative with using the 9er conversion is performance in soft sand and really rough trail. The conversion will not allow for fatter tires necessary to fly over the soft or rough stuff.

Rigid bike head angle testing results

The formula: 68 or 69 degree head angle + minimal fork offset + 29 inch front wheel + 19 inch chainstays = enough suspension for moderate bumps! 29 inch front wheel + 26 inch rear wheel = enough lateral rigidity for railing turns!

Yes, fully rigid mountain bikes are back thanks to 29 inch wheels! If only we had figured this out in 1980. Now, if we can get the marketing hacks out of our faces, we can proceed to enjoy the challenge and efficiency of an unsuspended mountain bike again. Suspension is still wonderful, by the way. Can't gripe about it other than maintenance and expense, unless the design sucks.

Caution: Wheel Build Testing:

During the winter of 2006 I worked an all day session, experimenting with 9er rims and 32 and 36 hole hole combos. I used King disc hubs, DT double butted spokes and brass nipples, looking for the strongest, lightest version of a disc wheel for 29ers, thinking of just how I was going to be able to stand behind a full suspension 9er at this point in history (limited component choices).

I chanced to build up a particularly light and wide 29er rim built by Salsa, the Delgado, that recommended I "smile" while riding. When I picked it up, I did smile. It was very light, very wide and quite good looking. I began building the wheels as always, slowly, carefully lacing for disc brake torque, counting turns, massaging spoke heads into holes and around turns, making every angle defined and clean with no air between the hub and spoke. I began to tighten slowly. When the spokes were evenly tensioned enough to produce a tone, I put the wheel on my lap and pressed down with VERY modest force on the rim. The wheel snapped out of true as if the rim was made of jello. I loosened and re-tightened spokes to get the wheel back to even tension, then trued to a higher pitch to make the wheel more rigid and strong. I put the wheel into my lap again and pressed down on the rim with what I consider modest force. Out of true again, but this time even more deformed (due to the exra tension necessary for a stiff wheel). I have built hundreds and hundreds of wheels for mountain and road bikes alike and never experienced such noodly whimpiness in a wheelset. The road bike wheels (29 inch rims are 700c rims, just with a marketing slant) almost always have Mavic rims on them. This speaks volumes about Mavic's rims, quality control, alloys and product testing. I continued to repeat the process of tuning the Salsa rimmed wheels up, carefully truing the wheel again and again at several tensions to see if I could find a spot at which I would trust the wheel on a bike. Each time, at various levels of tension up to tight enough to almost bust a nipple, I could push the wheel out of true in my lap with relatively little force. Just to make sure I wasn't hallucinating, I picked up a 26 inch wheel I had just finished building, put it on a rubber mat on the floor leaned it against a stool, stood beside it and pushed on the hub axle to sideload it with my foot. It did not complain, and remained true. I kicked it. Same results--rock solid. I took the 9er wheel off my personal White Rim 29er (32 hole Mavic A317 rims, alloy nipples and King disc hubs). I tested the tension and strength of this wheel the same way as before. No problem. I tested a Mavic A719 rim brake wheelset I had just built with a little more intent and a bit more abuse than necessary and it was rock solid laterally. Something is BAD wrong with Salsa rims!

The motto of this little story is: Be damn careful getting a pre-built 29er, and be especially careful of wheel components--and rims in particular. The rims of a 29er are THE component (aside from a frame that is built too light) that can kill you. Ralph Nader is not there to help you with the Corvairs of mountain biking with legislation or media coverage.

Wheel and frame resolutions!

Before the spring of 2008 when I finally found a decent rim, I did not recommend a full suspension 29er, aside from the Moots Mooto-X YBB. I heard about breakages of full suspension 9ers left and right. One thing is for certain: No 36 hole rims on 29ers no matter who makes them. And, no aggressive big boys on 29 inch wheels until the industry builds a good wide rim with double eyelets. The side loads are just too great to tune-in any "give" through the use of 36 or 40 spokes per wheel. And, Mavic rims ONLY, even if we have to stick with narrow tires (as of 2010, DT has a very good rim, as well).

I build for purists like myself, people who trust me to build a safe, reliable, efficient bike that fits them. We only use the very best frames and components, so our safety issues are fewer than folks who must buy Chinese stuff out of the box and out of necessity. For our Dreamride clients and those looking for to pay less, I hope the following rant will remove any illusion of clothes the 29er emperor might be wearing in the magazines right now. Though I have resolved many issues with 9ers recently, I have to let you know that if you follow the dotted lines in the magazines and ride aggressively, you will end up with a poorly manufactured, well-marketed turd with limp wheels and wrong geometry. Be careful with your choices, if you are trying to save money! It is better to have a rigid bike that is reliable and without a maintenance schedule that requires hundreds of dollars every year or two to deal with shocks and forks, than to even think about cheap suspension rigs. Spend your money on the wheels! Get good hubs with high flanges and get Mavic rims with double eyelets or rims with a deep V aero profile, such as the narrow Bontrager units (not good with fat tires).

Psycho Babble and the Fully 69er

Miki, co-owner of Dreamride, says, "The 29er 'revolution' is like the war in Iraq. Americans never think things through. A 'good' lie is always better than the 'bad' truth. To Americans, something new and unproven is always better than old, proven and reliable. Give them Vegas, babes and lies, or give them death."

My understanding is that Americans (and other humans) subconciously want what they fear. Read Freud. I don't have the time to offer a review of the research that backs up this concept, but I can tell you that those who write on our tour company questionnaire that they are afraid of heights are first ones to walk up to a cliff and go all wobbly. "Every fear hides a wish." If you have a death wish, a cheap 29 inch wheelset will get you closer.

Here at Dreamride, we just work to get bikes right. We sacrifice for this goal, but our rewards are great bikes, lower liability risk and personal happiness on the trail. Our Dreamride Fully was developed over twelve years. It remains ahead of its time, a thoroughly proven product. The basics--the geometry and rear suspension members have remained unchanged for a few years with the only changes there to deal with fork height and cable routing. The Fully 69 is end gain. It combines the best of both wheel sizes. The front wheel rolls over trail mess and the rear wheel scoots forward with a thought.

Here is a bit of undercover info everyone who wants a full suspension 9er should understand: Get the fork with a 15mm solid bolt on axle, or sand the paint on fork dropouts off and be vigilant checking your skewers after every really serious impact or long rough and bumpy section of trail. Testing has demonstrated that skewers loosen during a break-in period on a 9er, and must be monitored on the trail. Never start a ride without checking the skewers!

Don't go too far from rigid, if you are looking for a lifetime friend.

If you are looking for ONE bike to be your friend and companion EVERYWHERE, a 29er can do the trick in a heartbeat. But drop the hype, the glitz, and go for simplicity. Mountain bike components make the idea friendly, but never forget those road bike influences and that the tall wheels put a lot of leverage on rims and spokes.

The Rant: Purity and simplicity rule Ninerland, but you can buy any jacked-up version you want.

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So, you've seen the "big push?" The slumping mountain bike industry, desperate for the next fad, bloated with category after category of silly bikes, is having multiple gut spasms and cramps over the big wheeled phenom dubbed "29er." Every cockeyed big wheel dingleberry is hanging off the Christmas tree. Meanwhile the manufacturer of that really horrible, light and very pretty rim, sued small builders over the use of the word "niner," taking a page out of Gary Fishies' book, trying to look like the "big deal know-it-alls" in the bike biz. If you don't have an original idea and think you need one, just fake it and lie. Americans love to be lied to and fake stuff is on the pedestal high above the real deal, which is down on earth riding around under riders with working brains in their skulls.

But really, why all the excitement over a 700c rim on a mountain bike? Is it the bigger wheel? To the industry, no, it ain't. It's that gleam of new money combined with the known gullibility of the American public when it comes to lies that smell good at first, but like dead bodies in short order. They routinely sell you forks that don't last a season under an avid rider. They've sold you stupid-flexy "long travel bikes" with inches of goo doled out by a flimsy rear end with a patent and a nifty slogan that cannot take a hard curve without throwing you into the woods. The closer the inches of travel to the desired size of the idiot's member, the more the damn thing sells to the wrong crowd. If they can sell you a war without end and the statement that "without America the world would be in a sad state," it's a dead cinch to sell you shocks with brains, tubeless wheelsets that weigh more and still flat, dangerous catapults disquised as "full suspension" bicycles, a million and one carbon fiber doodads that don't have an once of carbon fiber in them, and a diet of sugar, Red Bull and carboloads that end up giving you diseases that make life after 40 a chore. Americans will buy anything backed by enough exaggerated hype and blatant untruth. Americans need to fill that hole in the soul where the connection to nature should be with as much useless crap as they can before they die. So, the magazines are popping with 29er full suspension, 29er softails made out of pot metal (metal fatique will happen AFTER the warranty runs out), 29er long travel, 29 inch front wheels with a 26 inch rear wheels (geeks go nuts, like me), 9er singlespeeds (double geekiness, almost insane, but any excuse to have fun), 29ers with monocoques, coque-less pink lady 29ers, flowered lady 9ers, steel 9ers, carbon 9ers, titanium 9ers, and lawsuits about who owns the word, "Niner."

But dammit (even as late as of 2010), there is still not a real 29" mountain bike rim worthy of putting a really fat 29" tire onto. So, with all the whimpy, piss poor wheels out there, and the fact that a larger wheel truly needs larger spokes and wider, heavier hubs to work off-road under a suspension bike, why in the name of Ralph Nader are people buying this crap?

Because it is "different." Because they are not satisfied with the crap they bought from these idiots last year. Because they can sell you stuff that seems to make your dick bigger. Why NOT more bicycles? A good question.

And what do I think?

The reason the 29er idea is a good one is because it is NOT new and fancy and decked out with all the stupid stuff they put on mountain bikes. The 700c wheel is proven over 100 years. It works for what it works for--rolling speed and momentum. And, if you build a fat-tired 29er light and right, it will climb a wall and not loose traction. And it will roll over rocks that call for the NEED of suspension in a 26 inch wheeled bike.

Tires
Thanks to Wilderness Trail Bikes in Marin for taking the rubber plunge in a big way out of the gate. They even went too far. Dreamride's testing in Moab has proved that big knobbies are not so good on a 9er. 29er tires paddle the wind as much as they paddle the ground. This slows you down--in the air up top and on the ground down low. A really good 9er tire should have low, stable, grippy tread that doesn't paddle the atmosphere, as much casing as you need for your terrain, and a very strong kevlar bead to keep the thing on the rim during a hard turn. Steel beaded 700c and 29er tires are just plain dangerous--the beads stretch over time and a big tire leaves a lot of room for the bead to roll over and off the rim.

Rigid Forks
A 9er is the best platform to run a rigid fork. Make sure suspension compensation is correct, or better still, get a frame set up specifically for a rigid fork with NO compensation.

Brakes
Like many who have been riding 9ers for a while, we lean toward rim brakes on rigid platforms. Those rims are huge brake rotors just begging to be utilized. The leverage of those long spokes make for good braking power and the extra brake surface of the bigger rim dissipates heat nicely. One of our Dreamride guides is running huge rotors on the front of his full suspension 9er and has been getting spooked by the sound of pinging spokes on steep descents. The leverage what works for us with rim brakes works against us with discs, winding up spokes and deforming the wheel under stress. You might think it retro to use rim brakes on a 9er, but it is actually the best way to go, unless you ride muddy trails most of the time, or are getting 9er suspension. We use Magura disc and rim hydraulic brakes exclusively, and recommend them. But, if you want lightness at all costs in a front suspended or rigid 9er, go with rim brakes.

A blast from the past.
I used to ride big wheels off-road as a matter of necessity. I pre-date BMX and banana seats. Cruisers did it fine in my early youth, but when I grew to over 5 feet tall a road bike was the faster machine off-road. On skinny tires you learn how to ride soft and with weight back to avoid flats and front wheel tuck. You learn to take it smooth and easy, to get off and behind the saddle in tight stuff to keep from going over the drops. When I was growing up, a road or city bike with the biggest tires you can wedge into the frame was the best machine for all-around cycling tasks of getting to school, escaping onto tobacco road, riding in the woods behind the tobacco and corn fields. Put some Carnation Evaporated Milk in the tubes and you don't even have to worry about thorns. I got a three speed 700c city bike for Christmas in 1961 and proceeded to strip it down, fill the tires with condensed milk, and put baseball cards (that would now be worth thousands of dollars) in the spokes. That bike had 27.5 (650c) inch wheels. I rode it through the woods in Goldsboro, North Carolina until I got a drivers license in 1965 (you cannot park in the woods and diddle your sweetheart on a bicycle, or get to the beach in two hours on the highway). That city bike was trash by the time I was 16, a rusty heap from beach cruising in salt water from Altantic Beach to Fort Macon. That 3 speed city bike was more noodly than my compact Schwinn cruiser, but I preferred it for "treking" because it rolled over stuff my cruiser Schwinn would be arrested by. That first city bike was the reason that in 1974 in San Francisco I employed a 10 speed English 700c road bike as my "mountain bike." It is all coming back to me now that I am addicted to my rigid 9er. Big wheels work.

Let's not forget about cyclocross.
If there is one off-road bicyle that is forgotten and underrated by the mountain bike masses, it is the cyclocross bike. If you have ever ridden a good one, you understand that 700c wheels grab the ground, roll over logs and boulders, . . . and taco like a limp potato chip if you make the wrong move, tuck the front wheel under or shove the rear end into a turn too hard. Moots and Serotta both make awesome cyclocross frames and the Moots can have a softail YBB rear end. It can be customized to fit you like a glove, to suit flat bars or disc brakes. As an alternative to a fat tire 9er, a good cyclocross frame is not much of a compromise. It is an efficient off-road machine that zips on the road, too. Check out the DREAMRIDE LA SAL MOUNTAIN LOOP BUILD on a Moots Psychlo-X.

And what is my personal take on a full suspension 29er?
A full suspension 29er is too tall for short folks (wheel-toe overlap happens in sizings below 17"), and too flimsy for the really big folks (the downtube and spokes of a big 9er are just too damn long). A front suspended 29er will never be as good as a well-designed full suspension 26er when it comes to tight or open technical trail. It will work for smoothing out rooted singletrack, and really rip the long rough, fast straightaway, but go fast and turn hard and holy shit! You'd better have insurance. Common sense tells me that there are a lot of 29er wheelset injuries. I have worked as an expert witness in law suits involving cycling issues, so I know the secrecy involved in litigation. And, no one in American business wants to "bad mouth" a product, right? The secrets of spinal chord injuries and fractured pelvises are kept in court for the families to wail about "loss of joy in life" and other such stupid made-up stuff to get more money out of the manufacturer's insurance company. Frankly, I prefer to avoid getting hurt, so I waited as the industry took a few years to produce parts I trust for a full suspension 9er. The most fun I ever had on a bike was on a funky Dutch street bike with two rear wheels I bought for 35 Guilders from a junkie in Amsterdam, so it really doesn't matter what bike you are riding, as long as you are on acid and/or endorphines, or just plain excited about two wheels.

Back to current history
A 9er is really just a cool wrinkle in the quiver. I not only live with the 29er idea, I embrace it. I understand the limits and advantages. I like 700c wheels and prefer big wheels for most riding I do alone, whether on the road or on the trail. I think converting those old 26 inch wheeled hardtails to 700c is really great idea, too, and our rental fleet now reflects this shift (we have three 9er conversions for rent at this point, for roads of all kinds).

The big BUT, right now, is a bicycle sales industry willing to invest fortunes to market (note: I did not say, "build") a bike they spend far less on than the ad budget to sell it. The Chinese stuff worries me in more ways than one. Even in 2010, I see horrible designs with cheap parts selling for prices that are quite shocking. It is alright to spend your money on titanium, but spending it on hype is a lousy plan. In this world the wounded guinea pigs with accident insurance start suing and designs get altered to reflect the injuries. That's how it works, folks--you are crash test dummies for the cycling industry. You won't hear about the injuries because the lawyers shut down any talk in the mags. Hell, I get a threatening fax every now and then: Shut up or we'll sue. They never do. Why? Because not only am I telling the truth, it is also my opinion.

So, why 29? Really.
Because a well-designed and well-equipt rigid 29er kicks ass on a rigid or front suspended 26er for most riders. 29 inch wheels have killed the idea of a hardtail 26er for riders over 5'7". A Ventana or Moots full suspension 29er frame allows you to build up a real monster of a fast bike. And a rigid 29er with mountain bike disc brakes, flat bars, stem and shifting system puts a cyclocross bike to shame when it comes to ergonomics and technical handling. Big wheels and fat tires give you a decided advantage in sand, loose rocky sediments and over bumps and roots. A rigid 29er can almost keep up with a road bike when it has to, and roll past hardtail 26ers on the trail. Put skinny tires on a 29er and it still zooms over most off road conditions. The bigger wheel is simply efficient at going fast in most conditions. A simple rigid 9er can be a real joy, a pure bicycle, not a mountain bike or a road bike, but a damn bicycle--the most efficient machine man has come up with.

And for the survivalists, maintaining a rigid bike is a piece of cake. Eat that cake and ride the bike, too.

69
69--some call it 96--facing away from each other, so the born again anal crowd doesn't get offended by our lovemaking. A 26 inch rear wheel makes a 9er front end much more snappy and manueverable. We are doing 69er customs with Moots--rigid, YBB, and 3 or 5 inches of travel. We are also selling Serotta 9ers and they will build our custom 69er to suit your size needs. A 69er is for off-road use primarily. 29 can go either way more freely.

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