So a while back I started seeing some threads about 96er bikes. Basically it is a bike with a 29" wheel and 26" inch wheel. Sometime times the big wheel is in the front, other times it is in the back. Sometimes they are called 96er, other times 69er. Either way it sounded like a interesting concept. Surly makes some really cool bikes, and after doing some digging around online I found out that you can fit 29" wheels into a 1x1 frame, which is normally a 26" bike. The rigid fork will hold up to about a 2.1" 29er tire, and the rear looks like it has a lot of space also. So after a bit of searching I found some used, cheap 29er wheels online. Swapped out the fork with my rigid one, and now I have a 96er.
My first ride on the bike was in fresh snow out at the tree farm. Hard to tell how the bike rides, it took us twice as long as normal to ride the trail. I didnt have any problem getting used the slight geometry change of the bike. Just riding it on the road it felt like it rolled really good. I think that the idea of a 96er or a 650B bike has a lot of potential. It has the benefit of a big wheel up front to roll over things, but the back wheel is smaller and spins up faster.
After more rides on the bike I will update with what I think of it.
3 comments:
I like it. I thought a 29" wheel should fit in there. I just put an xtracycle kit on my Surly 1x1 and I thought a 29" would be nice to get the front end up to make it more cruiser-like. I just don't have the original rigid fork. I suppose I could put a KarateMonkey fork up front and not worry about disc brakes or tire size...
One question - how much higher is the front end now? Measured bars to ground...
Not sure. I didnt measure it before I took it apart and I had a 100 mm fork on the bike so it probably was pretty similar.
I tried a bonty 2.2 tire in the fork and it was too big. I have seen people using 2.1 ignitors on mtbr, so I will give that a try also sometime.
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