Is 29+ Dead?

over the past decade we've seen the rise of 29 plus an overland bike platform as capable as any but in recent years we've seen that 29 plus platform the bikes and the parts associated with them fade why are they fading and what's the reason behind this and what does the future hold for 29 plus well in this video we're going to unpack those questions in hopes that we can find an answer to whether or not the 29 plus platform is endangered [Music] so before we jump into it i just wanted to ask you all if you like what you see in these videos make sure to hit that subscribe button and notification bell and if you want to help support these videos financially you can do so by signing up for the bike packing collective which is bikepacking.com's annual membership this is not possible without you the viewers so i truly appreciate the support so what is 29 plus well while many bikes were designed around this platform 29 plus is ultimately a tire and rim combination or platform based around the 29 inch wheel diameter with a width or a tire width of 2.8 to 3.0 because of the larger volume here many of these tires require wider rims to adequately fit the tire so it's not unheard of to see a three inch tire mounted to a 40 or 50 millimeter rim so why is 29 plus appealing well this platform and the bikes designed around it are extremely capable they offer flotation traction comfort clearance and loads of rollover capabilities without the added weights or rolling resistance of a fat bike while more than likely it was unintentional it is no coincidence that 29 plus and bike packing's popularity spiked at the same time all right so talking a little bit more about the 29 plus history to help us gain a little bit of context here so back in 2014 i personally peddled my first 29 plus bike which was the niner ross 9 plus i instantly understood the use case while it wasn't the fastest bike out there it literally did roll over everything one of the interesting things about that bike was that they specked it with a competitor's tire in the sierra leonard because well this early nard was the first 29er plus tire to the market certainly should be getting full credit of creating 29 plus two years prior to that in 2012 surly launched the krampus which was the first 29er plus bike to the market and today surly continues to make the krampus and ecr two bike packing centric plus bikes so word on the street was that cass gilbert was the first to bike pack on the surly krampus and logan watts was the first to bike pack on the surly ecr which helped spur the growth of 29 plus and bike packing once 2015 hit 29 plus bikes went mainstream as trek jumped in manufacturers started to get a little creative with plus bikes as well with the salsa deadwood which was a drop bar plus bike that was launched in 2016 and redesigned a year later to be a full suspension plus bike between the bike brands the ramp up of production of tires and rims and the consumers seemingly sold on the idea 29 plus seem to be here to stay fast forward to today and over the past few years we've really seen plus bikes simply fade away just take a look at our 29 plus bike and 29 plus tire gear indexes and you'll notice that much of the products on those indexes are discontinued and some of those bikes that were specked with three-inch tires and wide rims might still be available but they're now specked with a much more narrow combination so between the engineering challenges and the lack of demand the fade is clear so let's jump into the specifics so right here you can see the difference between a regular 29er wheel and a 29er plus wheel fitting this large diameter wheel in the back end of a frame is an engineering challenge all while making sure that that rear tire doesn't rub up against the frame or chainstay and making sure that that chainstay isn't so long that it makes that bike slow it's not and while we did see the elevated chainstay on both the trek stash and the salsa wood smoke to make it a little bit more of a snappy ride it clearly didn't last very long another challenge is that the 29 plus platform requires larger frames with typically less standover which is a challenge when you are trying to fit all rider sizes especially when you get in the extra small or small frame sizes and because these bikes are just bigger they not only have more tire more rim and more frame material that adds up in weight but also adds up in price making these bikes heavier and more expensive so obviously it's up to us the consumer and when a manufacturer sees a decline in the sales number well those resources put into those bikes and products will definitely be reduced so there's been quite a few popular products in the 29 plus category that have been discontinued including the salsa deadwood the salsa wood smoke the trek stash the trek full stash maybe one of the most popular tires that we've come to know with the 29 plus category the max's chronicle and if you go on to our website and look at our gear index on both 29 plus bikes and 29 plus tires you'll notice that those products are really hard to find not only at your local bike shop but also online so you're probably asking yourself what about 27.5 plus well many of the bikes on the market 29er bikes have the capacity or ability to run a 27.5 plus because of the smaller wheel diameter not all of them but some of them do because of the wheel size there's less engineering challenges and thus less energy and time put into designing something around that wheel size but much of the struggles that 29 plus offers kind of trickles down to 27.5 plus you have a higher rolling resistance because you have more tire and likely a little bit more rim width and because of that you also have more weight so in general you're probably working a little bit harder while riding this platform as opposed to say a 29 by 2.6 inch combination 10 years after its creation is 29 plus dead well there's always going to be somebody that wants this bike and it also just might be the best tool for the job 29 plus bikes just thrive on rocks and snow and they have pretty good clearance too so they are prepared for the unknown conditions ahead it's a great bike packing bike because the geometry typically comes with super long wheel bases and frame space for plenty of cargo ultimately i think 29 plus has truly set us up for success we were able to test the limits of that wheel diameter and now we've come back a little bit and personally i feel like the 2.6 inch tire on a 30 mil internal rim width rim is the perfect setup for not only bike packing but just trail riding traction stability and confidence all right so now it is your turn to share your thoughts on 29er plus is it just getting started or is it dead leave a comment in the comment section below and as always thank you all so much for the support and watching and until next time pedal further [Music]

Channel: BIKEPACKING.com

Views: 44,279

Rating: 4.9481707 out of 5

Keywords: Bikepacking, 29+, Mountain Biking

Id: hnKCb4Hbjzo

Length: 7min 58sec (478 seconds)

Published: Thu May 27 2021