Editor’s Note: Grannygear lent the XTC 29″er to another rider who now reports back on his experiences aboard the black and blue bomber.

Rider number two: Jeff
Stats – 51 years of age – 6’5” @ 270lbs Riding since 1996. Intermediate skills. Self described ‘Circus Bear on a Bicycle’

“Fitness level is less than ideal, but I ride an average of three to four times a week. Gravity is my mortal enemy on climbs and my good friend while descending. Unfortunately, gravity hurts far more while climbing than it helps while descending. I am who I am with no excuses or apologies. Just another dude that loves to ride his bike.” – jeff

Being 6’5” and hearing for years that 29” mountain bikes are ideal platforms for tall riders, I have been increasingly ‘twentyniner-curious’. However, I had never had a chance to ride one that was actually my size. While riding with some of the locals recently, I noticed that Grannygear (GG) was riding a 2010 Giant XTC 29er1 that he had mentioned was in his possession. . . . . and it was an XL! We stopped briefly a few hundred yards before the top of the climb and I asked him if he would mind if I swung a leg over the bike to see how it climbed.

The one thing that had always kept me from seriously considering the big wheeled bikes was the gearing options available. In addition to being 6’5”, I also weigh 270lbs and I’m 50 years old. If you plan to do a fair amount of climbing, two of the three aforementioned personal descriptors are poor characteristics to possess and being tall isn’t a great thing either. But it’s the body I’m blessed with at this time and I do the best I can with what I have and have fun doing it. The new Deore 12-36 cassette was fantastic news to this mountain biker and it made the gearing options pretty close to what is found on 26” wheeled bikes and it made climbing no more difficult than on a 26” bike. The front wheel stayed nicely planted on the steeper parts and the Shimano drive train provided crisp, precise shifts.

I asked again if GG would mind if I rode the first mile of the descent on the big wheeled beauty (it really is a good looking bike). We added some air to the Fox F29 and this is where things got really interesting for me. I have ridden this particular trail probably around 200 times in the past three years. I know the trail and I know my limits on my bikes (a custom built 2005 Giant Reign and a Kona Nunu hard tail that I built less than a year ago). I instantly noticed that the 29er was very noticeably smoother than my 26” hard tail even though they both have 100mm travel forks. In no time at all, I was railing this trail that I knew intimately, faster than I ever had on either of my bikes. . . . on a hard tail that I had never ridden before. After convincing GG I needed to ride the bike on the 2nd half of the descent, I rolled into the creek bed section of my favorite local single track. It’s much tighter than the high speed section I had just descended. This is a trail that crosses back and forth over a creek bed in a relatively narrow ravine for about another mile. It’s rockier and sandier with much tighter turns and once again I am blown away at the speed I could carry through the various features I know so well.

This section of trail is so much fun, I have dubbed it ‘The Two Mile Smile’, but on this day, the smile is a massive grin. The Big Boy (that’s me) is pretty sure he has just had a significant MTB related epiphany as he reluctantly traded back to his own bike for the ride out to the trail head.

Fast forward a couple days and GG has graciously offered to let me take the bike for a ‘few rides” (10 rides actually, hehehe) and I couldn’t wait to give it a full flogging both up and down the trail again. On my first full ride, I noticed that the very wide flat bar doesn’t agree with my wrists at all. The lack of sweep is slightly painful to this former carpal tunnel sufferer so I rode the climbs with the my thumbs resting over the top of the bar. The grips that come stock on the XTC 29er1 are also kind of narrow for my size 11 meat hooks and I would like to see a bike spec’d as an XL come with larger diameter grips that those that come on a Small size model. Call me crazy.

The brakes of this particular model proved to be a bit finicky with regards to noise. GG had the fishing weight affixed to the rear caliper and it seemed to help a lot with regards to noise, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say it eliminated it because it simply didn’t. That said, every disc brake system I have ever ridden with has it’s noisy moments and at my weight, I can push a 160mm rotor to it’s limits. On this bike, the Juicy Threes have had a bit more than that, especially the rear brake, but mostly performed acceptably for me.

Sandy patches are not nearly as treacherous as they are on my 26” bikes and the bumps are not as noticeable as they are on my hard tail in spite of the XTC 29er1 having a 1.9” rear tire and a 2.2” front tire compared to the 2.35” tires I run on my 26” hard tail. The relatively minimal tread of the Kenda Karmas has me railing corners on a hard tail faster than I do on the Reign that has a 2.4 Kenda Telonix on the rear and a 2.5” Kenda Nevegal on the front. Not just a little faster, a LOT faster. Night and day faster. “Who is this guy” faster. What a rush! I feel like Stanley Ipkiss (Jim Carrey’s character in ‘The Mask’) and even start getting a little cocky. I’m usually content to sweep with the groups I ride with, but now I could easily ride mid-pack (with riders that would normally leave me seeing nothing but dust) with plenty of confidence that I won’t be holding anyone up.

OK, I really like (understatement and a half) this bike, a 29er hardtail. But maybe I am just getting better and should give my 26er another shot with my new found skill and confidence, right?
Wrong. My first ride back on my 26er hardtail, I am all at once, back to my former self. I try to get up to the speed I was carrying on the XTC 29er1 and I am greeted with several near mishaps. I have another Stanley Ipkiss moment. The one after he throws the mask in the river and then realizes that the mask really does make him. . . . . . ‘different’. . . ;-)
DSCF0039web I normally subscribe to the theory that says, “It’s the Indian, not the arrow.” I think I will now have to give the arrow a bit more credit and instead of wondering if a 29er hardtail will be my next bike, I know it will be my next bike.

As for the Giant XTC 29er1, like all the other bikes I have owned, there may be a couple things I might change to suit my particular needs. The good news is that Giant did their homework and addressed some issues that 29ers presented. I’m speaking specifically about the front end on the bike with regard to the tapered headtube frame,.

Editors Note: Jeff is presently assembling the pieces for his own 29er, a hard tail that is just a bit bigger frame size then the XL Giant, which was slightly small for Jeff in this Editor’s opinion, although you could not tell by how fast he rode it!