Post Nano 29"er History: The Year 2007

This is the third post in the series "Post Nano 29"er History" which aims to give the reader the sense of how 29'ers have become as popular as they are today. If you missed the first installment, please click here.  Part II is here. If you are looking for more on 29"er history before 1999, please see my page on 29"er history here. 

2007: By this time in the 29"er movement, it has become apparent that big wheeled mountain bikes are more than just a novelty. Several companies introduce new 29"er models during this year. This solidifies the category in mountain biking, yet- two big companies have yet to jump on board- Specialized and Giant- and the European market wants nothing to do with 29"ers at this point.  So, while things seem to be going gangbusters in North America, 29"ers are not a "slam dunk" yet. 

Mid-Level Companies Join The Fray: 

Haro Mary SS

 Mid-level bicycle companies, seeing the 29"er growth, start to jump in with 29"er hard tails like the Haro Mary, seen here. These models were typically steel, single speed, (or multiple set up bikes with capabilities for gears or single speed), and often had a rigid fork. 

Haro was a bit unique in that they brought out a geared version of this bike later. That bike had a Rock Shox Reba on the front. 

While more choices were welcomed as far as hard tail bikes went, the almost universal use of the 38mm offset Rock Shox Reba and the overwhelming introduction of steel single speed, (or sold as single speed), bikes was getting to the point of over-saturation. 

Riders were looking for more, and by that, they meant Fox Shocks and full suspension bikes. (Beyond the meager offerings by Gary Fisher, and the small company offerings like Lenz and Ventana, which were hard to come by)

Raleigh XXIX

Another interesting addition to the 29"er ranks came from left field. Raleigh, who were not known as a mountain bike company at the time, (having not made a "serious" push in high performance mtb since the halcyon days of John Tomac), brought out an unusual bike in the XXIX. A steel single speed, it had a non-suspension corrected fork, which matched up its geometry with the way most bikes were being sold at the time- 72 degree with a slightly longer offset in the steel fork. What then came as a bigger surprise was when Raleigh introduced the geared version of the XXIX, dubbed the XXIX+G


Coming into stock late in 2007, this bike sported a 80mm travel Rock Shox Reba- no surprise there. However; Raleigh did not correct the geometry to match the XXIX, instead they kept the frame exactly the same, (in terms of angles as welded up in the jig), and what resulted was a slack-ish, high trail figure bike so unlike anything else in the market at that time it was shocking. (You could get an XXIX to handle the same way by simply putting a 80mm Rock Shox Reba Gen I on it, by the way)

Fox Forks! Finally!

Fox Forks Become A Reality:

Late in 2006 rumors were running about that said Fox Shocks were working on a "29"er specific" front fork. Well, those rumors turned out to be what has now become probably one of the bigger developments in 29"ers history since the Nanoraptor and the 2005 Rock Shox Reba. Once again, the common thread through all of this is the Gary Fisher Bikes company.

While attending the 2006 Interbike show, I had the opportunity to meet the man himself, Gary Fisher. In our brief conversation at the Fashion Mall on Las Vegas' Strip, Gary uttered the following line....

"Soon we will all be able to tune our rides." 

What Gary was talking about then, only he and a handful of Trek and Gary Fisher engineers knew about. It was the fact that, first of all, Fox shocks would be entering the 29"er market. This was huge in and of itself at that time. However; what was being done in regards to geometry would have a long lasting effect on 29"ers that affects riders right up to the current times. Namely, that we can tune our rides. 

Gary Fisher Bikes, along with parent company, Trek Bicycles, paid for the development and the forgings and molds to produce the Fox shocks, and they also brought it out with an extra long offset. This was part of what they were dubbing as "G2 Geometry", a new thing for 29"ers, and an extension of Fisher's Genesis Geometry introduced in the late 90's for 26"ers.

The offset for the 29"ers was decided upon after much rider testing, where different offsets were blindly tested and riders gave feedback on handling traits. Up to five different offsets were tried, and when the word came down as to what was universally decided was best, Trek/Fisher R&D rider and MTB Hall of Famer Travis Brown said he "couldn't believe it". It turned out to be a radical 51mm.

Fox also did a G2 specific crown for the 26"ers, set at 46mm, and after Gary Fisher's year exclusive, this became the offset for the aftermarket 29"er forks. Some forks from Manitou also were set at this offset, and they became available at about the same time as the Fox Shocks. Manufacturers gravitated to the longer offset in subsequent years, and now this is the prevailing figure for fork offsets for 29"ers that are not "G2 Geometry".

But that doesn't mean other forks use 46-47mm offsets. In a phenomenon that suggests the Fisher experimenting is being used yet today, some Fox and Manitou forks have a 43-44mm offset, and some 2012 Jamis models, for instance, still come with 38mm offset forks. Tune your ride indeed!


Thanks for reading this two-part series. I will be adding this to the 29"er History Page for future reference.

Post Nano 29"er History: The Year 2007

This is the third post in the series "Post Nano 29"er History" which aims to give the reader the sense of how 29'ers have become as popular as they are today. If you missed the first installment, please click here.  Part II is here. If you are looking for more on 29"er history before 1999, please see my page on 29"er history here. 

2007: By this time in the 29"er movement, it has become apparent that big wheeled mountain bikes are more than just a novelty. Several companies introduce new 29"er models during this year. This solidifies the category in mountain biking, yet- two big companies have yet to jump on board- Specialized and Giant- and the European market wants nothing to do with 29"ers at this point.  So, while things seem to be going gangbusters in North America, 29"ers are not a "slam dunk" yet. 

Mid-Level Companies Join The Fray: 

Haro Mary SS

 Mid-level bicycle companies, seeing the 29"er growth, start to jump in with 29"er hard tails like the Haro Mary, seen here. These models were typically steel, single speed, (or multiple set up bikes with capabilities for gears or single speed), and often had a rigid fork. 

Haro was a bit unique in that they brought out a geared version of this bike later. That bike had a Rock Shox Reba on the front. 

While more choices were welcomed as far as hard tail bikes went, the almost universal use of the 38mm offset Rock Shox Reba and the overwhelming introduction of steel single speed, (or sold as single speed), bikes was getting to the point of over-saturation. 

Riders were looking for more, and by that, they meant Fox Shocks and full suspension bikes. (Beyond the meager offerings by Gary Fisher, and the small company offerings like Lenz and Ventana, which were hard to come by)

Raleigh XXIX

Another interesting addition to the 29"er ranks came from left field. Raleigh, who were not known as a mountain bike company at the time, (having not made a "serious" push in high performance mtb since the halcyon days of John Tomac), brought out an unusual bike in the XXIX. A steel single speed, it had a non-suspension corrected fork, which matched up its geometry with the way most bikes were being sold at the time- 72 degree with a slightly longer offset in the steel fork. What then came as a bigger surprise was when Raleigh introduced the geared version of the XXIX, dubbed the XXIX+G


Coming into stock late in 2007, this bike sported a 80mm travel Rock Shox Reba- no surprise there. However; Raleigh did not correct the geometry to match the XXIX, instead they kept the frame exactly the same, (in terms of angles as welded up in the jig), and what resulted was a slack-ish, high trail figure bike so unlike anything else in the market at that time it was shocking. (You could get an XXIX to handle the same way by simply putting a 80mm Rock Shox Reba Gen I on it, by the way)

Fox Forks! Finally!

Fox Forks Become A Reality:

Late in 2006 rumors were running about that said Fox Shocks were working on a "29"er specific" front fork. Well, those rumors turned out to be what has now become probably one of the bigger developments in 29"ers history since the Nanoraptor and the 2005 Rock Shox Reba. Once again, the common thread through all of this is the Gary Fisher Bikes company.

While attending the 2006 Interbike show, I had the opportunity to meet the man himself, Gary Fisher. In our brief conversation at the Fashion Mall on Las Vegas' Strip, Gary uttered the following line....

"Soon we will all be able to tune our rides." 

What Gary was talking about then, only he and a handful of Trek and Gary Fisher engineers knew about. It was the fact that, first of all, Fox shocks would be entering the 29"er market. This was huge in and of itself at that time. However; what was being done in regards to geometry would have a long lasting effect on 29"ers that affects riders right up to the current times. Namely, that we can tune our rides. 

Gary Fisher Bikes, along with parent company, Trek Bicycles, paid for the development and the forgings and molds to produce the Fox shocks, and they also brought it out with an extra long offset. This was part of what they were dubbing as "G2 Geometry", a new thing for 29"ers, and an extension of Fisher's Genesis Geometry introduced in the late 90's for 26"ers.

The offset for the 29"ers was decided upon after much rider testing, where different offsets were blindly tested and riders gave feedback on handling traits. Up to five different offsets were tried, and when the word came down as to what was universally decided was best, Trek/Fisher R&D rider and MTB Hall of Famer Travis Brown said he "couldn't believe it". It turned out to be a radical 51mm.

Fox also did a G2 specific crown for the 26"ers, set at 46mm, and after Gary Fisher's year exclusive, this became the offset for the aftermarket 29"er forks. Some forks from Manitou also were set at this offset, and they became available at about the same time as the Fox Shocks. Manufacturers gravitated to the longer offset in subsequent years, and now this is the prevailing figure for fork offsets for 29"ers that are not "G2 Geometry".

But that doesn't mean other forks use 46-47mm offsets. In a phenomenon that suggests the Fisher experimenting is being used yet today, some Fox and Manitou forks have a 43-44mm offset, and some 2012 Jamis models, for instance, still come with 38mm offset forks. Tune your ride indeed!


Thanks for reading this two-part series. I will be adding this to the 29"er History Page for future reference.

Post Nano 29"er History: The Year: 2005

This is the second post in the series "Post Nano 29"er History" which aims to give the reader the sense of how 29'ers have become as popular as they are today. If you missed the first installment, please click here.  If you are looking for more on 29"er history before 1999, please see my page on 29"er history here.

A Pivotal Year: Previous to 2005, it wasn't a "done deal" that 29"ers were going to become anything other than a side show curiosity. However; several events took place in 2005 that went on to solidify the wheel size in the marketplace, and definitely hastened the wheel's acceptance in the industry and outside of it by the riders.

2005 Dos Niner

While some companies kept watch on the 29"er movement, others were going to take the plunge no matter. QBP had Surly and the Karate Monkey going over quite well, so the 29"er idea became a project over on the Salsa Cycles side also. All throughout 2004 Salsa engineers worked on making a radical new "soft tail" frame taking cues from some titanium builders.

The "Dos Niner" came out from under wraps at the 2004 Interbike show and instantly became Salsa Cycles best selling frame in 2005.

2005 also saw the re-introduction of complete hard tail bikes for Gary Fisher, but the real show stopper was his purple single speed called "The Rig". The bike originally retailed for under a grand, and later prices went up to $1100.00, but it didn't matter. If you didn't get in on the pre-order, or down to the shop before spring, you missed the boat. Fisher was on the upswing, and had the Rock Shox Reba 29 exclusive for a year, and it was flying out the doors of shops. Salsa kept refining the frame, and added more hard tails to the line up with the El Mariachi and Mamasita coming a couple of years later.

2005 Gary Fisher Rig

Tires: Of course, tires are one of the necessities for 29"ers to exist, and still by 2004, there were very few choices. Something strange happened in 2004 though that may have had big implications in the 29"er world later, and it all had to do with tires, or to be more specific, "a tire".

Specialized Bikes, who said they would "never make a 29"er", in so many words, had an elite XC racer that was tabbed as a possible winner of the 2004 Olympic MTB race in Athens, Greece. Apparently, the course was a former grass track with some gravel sections, and was mostly dusty dirt. The athlete in question was thinking a 29"er hard tail was going to rule the roost, and Specialized may have been helping by getting some tires made to put on a 29"er for this racer. Unfortunately, the racer was tabbed for a doping offense shortly before the Olympics, so the project was mothballed.

In fact, Specialized raffled off 20 sets of 29 inch sized Fast Trak" tires for the first 20 guys on mtbr.com that responded. This set off a lot of speculation, but it is safe to say that Specialized was already tinkering with 29"ers by this time. By 2006, the Fast Trak was a defacto product in Specialized's catalog, but still, no bicycle. That wouldn't happen until 2008, but obviously, the behind the scenes preparations for the 2004 Olympics and the Fast Trak raffle of 2005 were important marks in the march towards full acceptance of 29"ers.

More tires were also hitting the shelves from WTB, (ExiWolf), Kenda, (Karma), and a few others.

Effects: The sales of 29"ers were starting to grab the attention of bigger companies, (Specialized is a great example), but more importantly, the wheel size was getting a lot of grassroots support, which manifested itself in sales of custom rigs to fit 29 inch wheels and spawned more than a few new custom builders in the process. This in turn was affecting product engineers and marketing managers who were watching this intently.

In fact, several mid-level companies were busy making plans already in 2005 to get on board with 29 inch wheeled bikes. In the next two years, the market for a prospective buyer of a 29 inch wheeled bike suddenly became a much bigger collection of choices with much easier to find outlets. This began a snow ball effect of even more companies offering 29"ers, and by 2007, it was starting to get harder to name everyone that was making production 29"ers.

Thanks for reading this two-part series. I will be adding this to the 29"er History Page for future reference.

Post Nano 29"er History: The Year: 2005

This is the second post in the series "Post Nano 29"er History" which aims to give the reader the sense of how 29'ers have become as popular as they are today. If you missed the first installment, please click here.  If you are looking for more on 29"er history before 1999, please see my page on 29"er history here.

A Pivotal Year: Previous to 2005, it wasn't a "done deal" that 29"ers were going to become anything other than a side show curiosity. However; several events took place in 2005 that went on to solidify the wheel size in the marketplace, and definitely hastened the wheel's acceptance in the industry and outside of it by the riders.

2005 Dos Niner

While some companies kept watch on the 29"er movement, others were going to take the plunge no matter. QBP had Surly and the Karate Monkey going over quite well, so the 29"er idea became a project over on the Salsa Cycles side also. All throughout 2004 Salsa engineers worked on making a radical new "soft tail" frame taking cues from some titanium builders.

The "Dos Niner" came out from under wraps at the 2004 Interbike show and instantly became Salsa Cycles best selling frame in 2005.

2005 also saw the re-introduction of complete hard tail bikes for Gary Fisher, but the real show stopper was his purple single speed called "The Rig". The bike originally retailed for under a grand, and later prices went up to $1100.00, but it didn't matter. If you didn't get in on the pre-order, or down to the shop before spring, you missed the boat. Fisher was on the upswing, and had the Rock Shox Reba 29 exclusive for a year, and it was flying out the doors of shops. Salsa kept refining the frame, and added more hard tails to the line up with the El Mariachi and Mamasita coming a couple of years later.

2005 Gary Fisher Rig

Tires: Of course, tires are one of the necessities for 29"ers to exist, and still by 2004, there were very few choices. Something strange happened in 2004 though that may have had big implications in the 29"er world later, and it all had to do with tires, or to be more specific, "a tire".

Specialized Bikes, who said they would "never make a 29"er", in so many words, had an elite XC racer that was tabbed as a possible winner of the 2004 Olympic MTB race in Athens, Greece. Apparently, the course was a former grass track with some gravel sections, and was mostly dusty dirt. The athlete in question was thinking a 29"er hard tail was going to rule the roost, and Specialized may have been helping by getting some tires made to put on a 29"er for this racer. Unfortunately, the racer was tabbed for a doping offense shortly before the Olympics, so the project was mothballed.

In fact, Specialized raffled off 20 sets of 29 inch sized Fast Trak" tires for the first 20 guys on mtbr.com that responded. This set off a lot of speculation, but it is safe to say that Specialized was already tinkering with 29"ers by this time. By 2006, the Fast Trak was a defacto product in Specialized's catalog, but still, no bicycle. That wouldn't happen until 2008, but obviously, the behind the scenes preparations for the 2004 Olympics and the Fast Trak raffle of 2005 were important marks in the march towards full acceptance of 29"ers.

More tires were also hitting the shelves from WTB, (ExiWolf), Kenda, (Karma), and a few others.

Effects: The sales of 29"ers were starting to grab the attention of bigger companies, (Specialized is a great example), but more importantly, the wheel size was getting a lot of grassroots support, which manifested itself in sales of custom rigs to fit 29 inch wheels and spawned more than a few new custom builders in the process. This in turn was affecting product engineers and marketing managers who were watching this intently.

In fact, several mid-level companies were busy making plans already in 2005 to get on board with 29 inch wheeled bikes. In the next two years, the market for a prospective buyer of a 29 inch wheeled bike suddenly became a much bigger collection of choices with much easier to find outlets. This began a snow ball effect of even more companies offering 29"ers, and by 2007, it was starting to get harder to name everyone that was making production 29"ers.

Thanks for reading this two-part series. I will be adding this to the 29"er History Page for future reference.

Post-Nano 29"er History: Gary Fisher Bikes and Niner Bikes

This new post is the beginning of a series that is going to cover the earlier days of the 29"er as we know it now- What I like to call the era of the "Modern day 29"er". If you want to read the history of the big wheels, here is a good place to start.

In that series, near the ending, I touch upon some of the earliest production 29"ers like the Supercaliber from Fisher and the Karate Monkey frame set from Surly which opened up 29'er bikes to those who wanted to tinker with the idea. This was all happening pre-2004. I'll pick up the story from that point....

The Internet Influence: The rise in the popularity of 29"ers is directly tied to the rise in the use of the Internet and specifically, forums, of which Mountain Bike Review.com is the foremost influencer from this time in 29"ers development. There were a couple of other fledgling sites; Bob Poor, who influenced the production of the first Nanoraptors, had a site, Jan "Cloxxki" Klok from the Netherlands also ran a site for a time. In 2005, a couple of fledgling 29"er sites started, twentyniner.net and Twenty Nine Inches.com. These sites and individual's blogs brought a lot of information that otherwise would have been cut and buried by magazine editors to the masses. The masses obviously responded.

2004 Gary Fisher Dual Sport

Near Death: 29"ers may not have made it much past 2004 had it not been for something significant which happened in late 2003. During this period, the only major manufacturer supporting the fledgling wheel size was Trek/Gary Fisher Bikes. Sales of 29"ers were poor. So poor that parent company Trek was going to pull the rug out from under the program.

At this early juncture, this action would undoubtedly have sent a very negative signal throughout the industry. The "nay sayers" would have had their day, and who knows what, if anything, would have become of 29"ers. As it was, internal pressure to give the wheel size another chance resulted in an unlikely "savior". This turned out to be a "hybrid' of a 29"er frame and 700c hybrid bike spec Gary Fisher called "Dual Sport"

29"ers were hard for the dealer network at Fisher to understand. Many dealers weren't even bringing them in, and most didn't stock accessories like tires and tubes for them. However; the Dual Sport concept was embraced by the dealerships and sales increased to the point that 29 inch wheeled hard tails were re-introduced into the line for 2005. (They had been missing entirely from the 2004 line, with only two full suspension bikes offered with big wheels that year.) Not only that, but another development behind the scenes turned out to be the spark that the entire 29"er movement benefited from.

Gary Fisher paid for the development of a new suspension fork by Rock Shox for 29 inch wheels. It was introduced for the 2005 model year, and its name was "Reba". Previous to the 2005 Reba, only sub-performing forks from White Brothers and Marzocchi were available. Now 29"er riders had a fork on par with decent 26"er forks for the first time, and of course, other companies took immediate notice of this and the increasing interest in 29"ers.

2005 Niner Bikes One 9

All In: Late in 2004, a strange banner appeared on the 29"er forum of mtbr.com. It proclaimed "Niner Bikes: The Big Revolution"

It was a company, (or was it?), that had a banner on a site where formerly there had been the banner for WaltWorks Bikes, a small, Colorado based custom builder who was really behind 29"ers. Forum members were curious, and some actually were offended. Who were these upstarts?

Well, they were a couple of bike industry guys that fell in love with big wheels and started their own company in 2004. Their first product was a Scandium aluminum single speed frame with a Reynolds steel fork called the "One 9", which debuted in mid-2005. They proclaimed to be a company only doing 29 inch wheeled product. By the following year, they even had prototyped a six inch rear travel full suspension bike as a "proof of concept" piece, which sparked a lot of conversations in the industry.

Niner went on to introduce a steel frame, the "SIR 9", then geared hard tails,  and full suspension rigs were soon to follow. Along the way, Niner Bikes influenced component makers and industry thought about 29"ers in a very positive way. The company has stayed true to its "29"er only" roots all the way to this very day. 

2005: Gary Fisher Bikes and Niner Bikes were immensely influential companies which forged a new category of bikes in a solid way that wasn't to be denied or ignored. In fact, several companies flew in on the coat tails of the two companies. I'll talk more about what happened in 2005 in my next visit to this series. Stay tuned.....

Post-Nano 29"er History: Gary Fisher Bikes and Niner Bikes

This new post is the beginning of a series that is going to cover the earlier days of the 29"er as we know it now- What I like to call the era of the "Modern day 29"er". If you want to read the history of the big wheels, here is a good place to start.

In that series, near the ending, I touch upon some of the earliest production 29"ers like the Supercaliber from Fisher and the Karate Monkey frame set from Surly which opened up 29'er bikes to those who wanted to tinker with the idea. This was all happening pre-2004. I'll pick up the story from that point....

The Internet Influence: The rise in the popularity of 29"ers is directly tied to the rise in the use of the Internet and specifically, forums, of which Mountain Bike Review.com is the foremost influencer from this time in 29"ers development. There were a couple of other fledgling sites; Bob Poor, who influenced the production of the first Nanoraptors, had a site, Jan "Cloxxki" Klok from the Netherlands also ran a site for a time. In 2005, a couple of fledgling 29"er sites started, twentyniner.net and Twenty Nine Inches.com. These sites and individual's blogs brought a lot of information that otherwise would have been cut and buried by magazine editors to the masses. The masses obviously responded.

2004 Gary Fisher Dual Sport

Near Death: 29"ers may not have made it much past 2004 had it not been for something significant which happened in late 2003. During this period, the only major manufacturer supporting the fledgling wheel size was Trek/Gary Fisher Bikes. Sales of 29"ers were poor. So poor that parent company Trek was going to pull the rug out from under the program.

At this early juncture, this action would undoubtedly have sent a very negative signal throughout the industry. The "nay sayers" would have had their day, and who knows what, if anything, would have become of 29"ers. As it was, internal pressure to give the wheel size another chance resulted in an unlikely "savior". This turned out to be a "hybrid' of a 29"er frame and 700c hybrid bike spec Gary Fisher called "Dual Sport"

29"ers were hard for the dealer network at Fisher to understand. Many dealers weren't even bringing them in, and most didn't stock accessories like tires and tubes for them. However; the Dual Sport concept was embraced by the dealerships and sales increased to the point that 29 inch wheeled hard tails were re-introduced into the line for 2005. (They had been missing entirely from the 2004 line, with only two full suspension bikes offered with big wheels that year.) Not only that, but another development behind the scenes turned out to be the spark that the entire 29"er movement benefited from.

Gary Fisher paid for the development of a new suspension fork by Rock Shox for 29 inch wheels. It was introduced for the 2005 model year, and its name was "Reba". Previous to the 2005 Reba, only sub-performing forks from White Brothers and Marzocchi were available. Now 29"er riders had a fork on par with decent 26"er forks for the first time, and of course, other companies took immediate notice of this and the increasing interest in 29"ers.

2005 Niner Bikes One 9

All In: Late in 2004, a strange banner appeared on the 29"er forum of mtbr.com. It proclaimed "Niner Bikes: The Big Revolution"

It was a company, (or was it?), that had a banner on a site where formerly there had been the banner for WaltWorks Bikes, a small, Colorado based custom builder who was really behind 29"ers. Forum members were curious, and some actually were offended. Who were these upstarts?

Well, they were a couple of bike industry guys that fell in love with big wheels and started their own company in 2004. Their first product was a Scandium aluminum single speed frame with a Reynolds steel fork called the "One 9", which debuted in mid-2005. They proclaimed to be a company only doing 29 inch wheeled product. By the following year, they even had prototyped a six inch rear travel full suspension bike as a "proof of concept" piece, which sparked a lot of conversations in the industry.

Niner went on to introduce a steel frame, the "SIR 9", then geared hard tails,  and full suspension rigs were soon to follow. Along the way, Niner Bikes influenced component makers and industry thought about 29"ers in a very positive way. The company has stayed true to its "29"er only" roots all the way to this very day. 

2005: Gary Fisher Bikes and Niner Bikes were immensely influential companies which forged a new category of bikes in a solid way that wasn't to be denied or ignored. In fact, several companies flew in on the coat tails of the two companies. I'll talk more about what happened in 2005 in my next visit to this series. Stay tuned.....