Another year & 29er ride !!

The day started with hubby waking me, a delicious blueberry muffin in hand - for me.
Loaded up for a little mountain bike ride a wissa… hubby offer’s me his 29er!

You’d think it was my birthday or something, oh wait a minute – it is!
Not that I'm happy being older.. another year.. but heck, you're only as old as you feel, right? I just don't feel old. (Granted, 20 years ago I believed anyone was well 'gone' by this age)

29er - the story of the year… it seemed everyone we know was switching to it. Hubby has loved it. I’ve heard plenty of opinions of its greatness. I’ve also heard it might not be the best for anyone under 5’6” or female. Granted I’m 5’6 1/2” but I figured it’d still apply to me. Plus I don’t have the largest quads for strong climbing which I heard you need to get it going.

This was admittedly the first time I ever rode a new/different bike and actually expected not to like it.

Was I ever wrong!

The first couple miles I didn’t feel quite one with her. Maybe I was just being cautious, it is hubby’s bike after all! I remember him riding around the house quite happy when he first got it...

(There may, or may not, have been a few beverages before this. I'm not saying)

But back to my ride on the 29er. Quickly I had noticed the climbing was phenomenal. Fast forward a few more miles and I was smiling bigger than a pig in you know what. It felt great, the 29er really just wanted to go.. didn’t take much to get her going and then she’d just keep it going. Rocks, logs anything… the bike just loved them, devoured them. Climbing over large rocks, even better! I can only describe it as my first ride where I actually felt like I was slowing the bike down verses me trying to keep the bike going.

Is it my bike for next year… still undecided. Oh I loved the ride… but one thing that I felt was contrary to what everyone has said “It doesn’t ride like a hard tail, it feels like there is a little rear suspension”. I would say the 29er felt more like a hardtail than my 26er hardtail, if that makes any sense! But Wissa isn’t really a good place for me to make a decision on the bike. The only time I haven’t enjoyed the hardtail is over roots.. for whatever reason I could never keep my momentum going with roots, especially off-camber roots. I never had a problem with them before on my Scapel or Rush.. but this last year on the hardtail, I never road well. I never developed the “hardtail riding skill” I guess. Wissa is absent those roots so I’m not sure if the 29er would improve this or not…

Maybe some more test rides are in order!?!?