oh my gawd!

soooo...i picked up the 29er after work tonight and headed on over to pontiac lake. i put on my own saddle and made some adjustments to the levers and shifters all the while some guy was eyeing my shiny new yellow big-wheeled ride. believe it or not i was the first one to demo this bike. it was brand new! this guy comes over and asks me all sorts of questions about the bike. turns out he's also on the mtbr 29er board and is currently building up a custom steel 29er. so this guy has a custom frame but he's never even ridden one!

i head out by myself and was getting used to the more upright position. the damn riser bars plus two 1/2 inch spacers put me a bit higher than i'm used to. i get to the 2 mile switchback climb and was thinking...hmmm, this is no better than my 26er. i'm working just as hard. it took me awhile to figure out the gearing. being in the same gear on the 29er is still a "taller" gear or should i say bigger gear inch. so until i got that squared away i felt the 29er was slower on the climbs. however, my mind quickly changed about half way through. i could not believe how well it cornered and how well it rolled through the little rock gardens and roots. it basically laughed at anything that got in it's way. i was going down the hills WAY faster and just carrying momentum through the rough stuff way better. so, how much faster was i than last thursday? on the first lap, i was 2:39 faster without even trying. last week i was going probably 90-95% and this week i was going about 75%. and i was more than 2.5 minutes faster on a 10 mile loop! unbelieveable! now get this. for the night lap, i was 5:15 faster than last week! both were similar efforts. and the night lap this week on the 29er was only 1:01 slower than my first lap! it really wasn't even about the speed. it was about how much fun i was having on the bike! i seriously can't remember the last time i had that much fun on a bike! i felt like a kid again. needless to say, i'm selling all of my other bikes to build up a 29er. i really wish i could have one for the yankee race but realistically i won't have one built up until probably mid-late may. i really could not find any weaknesses. maybe, it was a little slower on the long, grinder type climbs but it more than made up for it on the down hills. and that's just a maybe. it felt like i got through the hills faster. you go a lot further with each pedal stroke. i'm so giddy right now. just like a little kid! i can't wait to get my own! until then, i have to ride the little wheeled bike which i know is gonna suck and feel so slow!

oh one more thing, i weighed the 29er when i got home and it tips the scales at a portly 27 pounds! that's 2 pounds heavier than my fango and didn't notice it at all. it certainly doesn't feel that heavy even on the climbs. once again, surprising. now i'm not the kind of person to go and tell everybody and their grandma to go out immediately and buy one....BUT if you ever get a chance to ride one on the trail, go for it! just be prepared to sell off your current bikes!