It’ll be interesting to watch it all unfold as we ride our fat tired 700c wheeled rigs in the coming years.

Random comments:

The 29′er market is not saturated anywhere yet.

29′ers will eventually take off across the pond in Europe. Why? Because they work well. They work well here and they’ll work well there. It will just take another year or two and some curious folks that love bikes and aren’t afraid of trying something different. They become the influencers (and yes, I know there are many in this role already!)

There are a lot of unknowns with regard to where all of this ends up. Play along with me here as this is just a fun way to think about this:

There is a place where people eat their food with two pieces of wood, also known as chopsticks. It has been that way for thousands of years. One day someone makes a metal fork. It cost a lot to make because they had to make some new machines to manufacture it. The metal forks don’t fit into the special chopstick holders because the chopstick holders weren’t designed for them. Everyone knows how to work the chopsticks, but the forks are new to them. They don’t know what to think. Eventually some people try them. The forks work too. Some prefer the chopsticks and some prefer the forks. Tradition says use chopsticks.

That’s a super simple version the the introduction of the 29′er. Except that the introduction of the 29′er is far more complicated than introducing a fork into the land that uses nothing but chopsticks.

The introduction of the 29′er needed real forks! The kind you ride. And hoops and treads and all kinds of good stuff.

29′er zealots need to be patient. Things will continue to progress. The market will make and find its way. It has already come an incredibly long way in a pretty short time in my opinion.

Remember to ride your bikes!
Kid

I’m still not sure how my current 29er could have been better designed — I have only ridden about 500 miles. I built my own with XTR and lots of carbon fiber — I have the bike of my dreams.

At my bike shop here in Texas, everbody still gawks when it’s in. I’m sure this wouldn’t be the case in San Fran., Boulder, or Madison. But for the majority of the country, 29ers are new stuff. Magazine articles help, as do the trade shows.

As more X0 and XTR bikes (with carbon bits) come in for service, they’ll realize that dollars are being left on the table. The shops will start bugging the reps and the reps will bug their bosses. If this happens enough, we’ll get our jazzed up tricksters.

My take on the 29er market is that it still remains the fastest growing mtb market out there. Sure there are quite a few people converting from 26 to 29 but there are also plenty of people that have kept mountain biking at arms length because they were unsure of their bike skills. With the additional stability of the bigger wheels it inspires much more confidence than previously available with the 26 inch platform. In speaking with people from different regions at the Interbike ODD, it does seem that 29′er support is still relatively regional with the midwest and east coast leading the charge. That is not to say that people aren’t riding them out west, it’s just not considered as quite a viable alternative as we do here. Looking at what people are racing on will tell you at what level 29′ers have been accepted by local crowds. Once you see the fast guys showing up with 29 inch weapons then you know that the local/regional markets are maturing. Until then, it’s going to be a small cult following of people trail riding or perhaps a second or third bike.

29 & Single,

Seve
Mpls, Mn

So a pleed to companies out there, stop giving us do all, market safe bikes. Sombody, anyone do something that blows my dress up, because for the first time in my life i dont want to buy a bike after interbike and im not jazzed up about going to a bike shop to see new stuff.

PS the team that won the national 24 hour race and and the chequamegon won it on a 29er carbon single speed. Please, introduce something like this (i know he had a geared bike with a chain tensioner on it) and restore my love gauking at cool stuff again. Carbon Singlespeed with EBB.

There are so many companies heading in the right direction but it almost makes me laugh/cry to see the companies that just flat out don’t get it. They either only offer one or two bikes and some of them do not even offer a 29er at all.

As for shop owners…… They use to not have an option for what wheel size to offer so when a customer comes in their options were a road bike, mtb or a kids bike. Now they have two wheel sizes competing for the same market share. It’s exactly what the front and full suspension bike did to the rigid and hardtail bikes. It gave customers another option for basically the same type of terrain. Then the shops had to explain the pros and cons to the customer and hopefully they make the right decision.

Economic pies, be they markets for Q-tips, 29ers or the GDP, are not and never will be static. The 29er segment of the bicycle industry is an infant. Guitar Ted refered to buyers resting in two camps, the zealots and the newbies. That comment alone should wake us up to the fact that the market is in its infancy. I’d argue we can expect a middle group to mushroom in coming years deriving from new members to the cycling community, 26er to 29er converts, riders adding to their arsenal, as well as DH’ers, roadies, weekenders and who knows else contributing to growth.

Maxrep suggested that our LBSs will be another catalyst. Isn’t this the truth! I brought the first 29er my LBS here in Japan has ever seen (in person) and this shop is wall-to-wall high end mtb. The shop owner just got back from his yearly visit to Interbike and was pretty stoked about what he saw. He knows more about what is going on with 29ers and people here listen to what he has to say. Enthusiasm is contagious and enthusiastic customers tell their friends, co-workers, frankly anybody who’ll listen! (we’ll be able to buy some of these bikes on ebay in a couple of years with only “storage scratches” on them!

Also, you never know when you’re going to see a shiny black Vassago hanging on the wall of some sitcom stars wall causing sales to blow through the roof. Cyclecross is taking off too, so should we anticipate marktet share assaults from our (semi) road bike counterparts? I’d argue that as cyclecross grows we’ll see more 29ers ‘in the race.’ Did Lance in his seven strokes of greatness steal from the MTB world or did he increase the size of the pie? There is no question he got more Americans than ever on a bike - all kinds of bikes. Funny thing, too, while Lance was really popular here in Japan, having a Japanese rider spend a year on Lances’ former team caused a huge spike in sales of road bikes - I was once a roadie too!

29ers are a long ways from figuring out just what they are and where they fit in the bicycle industry and when you add some new dish to the menu, your going to attract new diners. Vassago seems to be one of those companies pushing the envelope rather than testing the waters. Their newest frame designed for shorter riders will again expand the market. How so? As in the sitcom example above, you never know where market expanding forces will come from and this will be just another alternative when couch potato Bob decides he needs a bicycle.

For the record, I love my Jabberwocky! If you are a potential market-expander contemplating your options I highly recommend it!

Zero miles per gallon? Don’t you mean infinite miles per gallon? Actually, I think someone determined that the fuel you eat worked out to be 633 miles per gallon on a bicycle.

As for the original subject matter, I can see 29ers becoming more mainstream for those who don’t really ride off road simply because 29ers are like glorified hybrids. They’re basically “hip hybrids” in a sense.