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Race testing a 29er


ps's picture

By ps - Posted on 06 November 2012

Re: This ride meeting: 
NSW XCO Championships
Team: 
Jet Racing
Status: 
Finished
Laps: 
2
Time: 
00:54:00
Position (Category): 
4

The phone call went like this:
(me) What day can I pick up the bike?
(Rob Booker) You cant, Specialised haven't sent the shock back yet. Were you riding this weekend?
(me) Yes. Im coming 2nd in the series.
Then before I had time to think about NOT riding in the last round and state champs.
(Rob Booker) Your a large aren't you? You can ride the test bike.
(me) OK, that should be good.

Got to give the Jet Cycles guy's credit for putting a bike together for me. We had allowed 2 weeks for the shock service as it had just ticked over 2 years since the last service and was starting to weep around the seal. The flaw in our plan was that we hadn't allow for the Noosa Tri. Its the biggest Australian triathlon weekend and all but one guy from Melbourne head office had been in Noosa for the week.

So I spent the next few days looking forward to racing an Epic 29er around Ourimbah. Picked the bike up Saturday morning and Rob had set it to the same cockpit measurements as my 26in S-Works. He suggested a test ride on Saturday to fine tune the seat position and anything else that needed adjusting. I decided to head up early and do a practice lap after the first race and make any adjustments then.

I have ridden 29er MTB's before and my commuter is essentially a 29er so I wasn't expecting to notice huge differences. When your cruising along it does feel like your sitting a bit higher. It seemed to corner the same, accelerated and braked OK. It did feel a little more stable over bumps than my 26er and didn't need any more effort through the graveyard and the switchbacks on the climb back to the trail head.

In the race I was a bit tentative at the start and missed clipping in the 1st time so was into the singletrack in about 10th position. There were a few other classes in our wave so I had no idea where I was running. The guy in front of me let the gap open up till I couldn't actually see the rider in front of him anymore however once we got to an open section and I asked to go past he obliged quickly. In the race I didn't notice that I was on big wheels. I think swapping from Shimano to Sram shifters was a bigger deal than changing wheel sizes. All the subtle difference that you can notice when doing a slow lap are just not that obvious during an XCO race. The bike just works. Riding it is pretty much the same as my 26in S-Works Epic.

I finished the first lap in 26 minutes in 4th place, about 15 seconds behind Steve 01 and about 3 minute slower than the elite boys went round earlier in the day. We continued to get heaps of traffic from the earlier waves on the second lap and whilst I caught occasional glimpses of Steve, Vince and Ian I never actually got back in touch with them. My second lap was in the low 27minute range for a 4th place finish. It turned out that it was pretty tight at the front and Steve managed to work his way past Vince and Ian on 2nd lap to take the win with the 4 of us covered by less than a minute. The guy in 5th place was only about 20 seconds behind me at the finish so he must have been one of the guys I passed on the first lap. Got to love close racing.

Was the 29er faster? Well I'm not sure although I can say that I don't think it was any slower. I do think it is simpler to ride so that probably makes more of a time difference in the marathons were your in the saddle for 5+ hours.

Anyway thanks again to Mark and the team at Jet Cycles for stepping up and providing the bike. It really was above and beyond any reasonable expectation of LBS service.

Still haven't got my bike back but with the fling coming up this weekend I am pretty relaxed about wether I get my shock back from Melbourne or not.

craked's picture

nice ridin Paul,so will we see a 29er in your stable in the future? Eye-wink

Dicko's picture

Rumour is an Sworks 29er is already on its way .......

But you know what they say about rumours.

GiantNut's picture

Yr on fire - look fwd to seeing you ride off into the distance this w/e

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