The bike you have is the perfect bike for your next tour. That said if you are buying new, my experience is 29+ wheels are cushioned, confidence-inspiring, rolls-over-anything fun. My three off-road bikes have 29x3, 26x3 or 4, and 26x2.75. The 26ers are lighter, quicker, more jarring. I choose the 29x3 just about every ride.
Wheel size should also be a direct function of frame/rider size. Joe in GJT who rode road this Saturday morning. On Saturday, June 9, 2018 at 11:59:12 AM UTC-6, Erik Wright wrote: > > Alright y'all, help me work out this inner quandary I've had over getting > a new bike or not (to replace one in my stable). The demo Hunqs shown on > the blug are really making my insides jump at the thought of a 29er Hunq > for offroad riding/bikepacking. > > I have 4 bikes, and I've tried specializing each (to an extent) because in > essence 3 of them are all-rounder type frames. I've turned one of them, a > 26er XO-1 clone, into my off-road tourer. 2.1" knobbies for trails, RTP for > roads/gravel, frame bag, front panniers, Swift saddle bag, On-One Mary bars > + Ergon grips, the whole getup. Recently I've been dabbling into resources > around 27.5 and 29er bikes for bikepacking (i.e. Surly Bridge Club and > Hunq), feeling that my 26er might not be the best choice nowadays in > today's landscape of bike options, falling short in the jack-of-all-trades > master-of-none kind of way. > > What I keep telling myself is the old adage that really, any bike will do > the trick (for the most part), and that my 26er XO-1 clone is a fine bike > for off-road touring. Plus, people rode (and ride) 26" MTBs for a loooong > time and all was good. I don't ride offroad *that* much, but nowadways > when I plan multi-day trips they're geared toward mixed terrain**. I don't > doubt that a jump from my XO-1 clone to a Hunq would in itself make a huge > difference in ride quality, but in terms of wheel size, would swapping to a > 29er really make that big a difference? > > Thank you for your insight! > > Erik in Philly > > **Right now I'm in the midst of planning to ride a portion of the Idaho > Hot Springs MTB route in September. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
