Yesterday was one of those days that begged to be spent outside. It was almost a perfect day. So against my better judgment I snuck outside for a mountain bike ride. I owe the opportunity to ride to Andrew who stopped by the store on his way to Rosaryville State Park and invited me to tag along. I was glad I did as fall rides are my favorite. During the ride Andrew looked over and mentioned how lucky we were to have ridding venues like Rosaryville the section we were in at the time would have made a perfect backdrop for a magazine cover! As we rode on we discussed all of the great places we have to ride off road locally.
Since I didn’t have my regular bike that I have been riding, a carbon Rush from Cannondale, I took one of our demo bikes. I choose a Trek Top Fuel 69er in a 17.5. I’ve ridden the 69ers before but it has been a little while. The 69er is a unique bike in the sense that it has a 29 inch from wheel with a 26 inch rear wheel, all on a full suspension platform.
The theory of the 69er is that on the front wheel you get the larger wheel that gives the rider greater ease in riding over things along with the larger contact area that the bigger wheel offers. The 26 inch rear wheel still allows the bike to accelerate a little faster.
Complaints that the 29ers (dual 29 inch wheels)often receive is that it takes more effort to get the 29 inch wheels moving, the up side is that once they get going they roll super fast. I think this characteristic makes the 29 inch wheels better suited for cross country rides and many of the 100 mile mountain bike rides. Many people find that the bigger wheels are harder to manage and control then the 26 inch wheels; making a 29ers better suited for taller riders.
Other benefits of the 29er wheels are they roll over larger objects with greater ease because the axle is higher from the ground then the 26 inch wheels. A neat feature about the 29er platform is that you can easily swap out wheels to a 700c configuration for road riding.
I enjoyed riding the 69er, I love both the front and rear suspension on the bike. Both of these are Fox Shocks a 29er RL100 for the front and an RP2 w/Pro Pedal for the rear. For the drive train the bike is spec’d with SRAM and I love the SRAM components they also happen to be on my Rush. Mechanically I think the bike worked great, it is well spec’d the components work well together and there is a lot of value in the bike.
The handling of the bike is another story. I guess I am a little more old school having been riding mountain bikes for year, I still remember when I worked in a shop and the first Rock Shox came in. I am slowly adjusting to the more upright position the new longer travel bikes offer and the slightly slower handling they have. What I do continue to realize the more time I spend on the mountain bikes that the fit of the mountain bike is just as critical as the fit on your road bike. As I tweaked my position on the bike yesterday I felt more power going to the pedal and greater overall comfort on the bike. I had fun seeing how moving my position on the bike improved comfort and performance.
For me as the day went on I felt like I was slightly “behind” the bike in the handling and steering of it. Another characteristic that I noticed was that on certain size bumps the front wheel would roll over the bumps and the rear of the bike would come up off the ground. As one road the bike more I think you could learn on which bumps you would need to compensate for this. The other issue I had with the bike was that if I wanted to approach a curve at speed I couldn’t hold my line through the turns. This isn’t a characteristic uncommon in many mountain bikes; in fact Fisher came out with a G2 geometry to reduce the trail to improve handling. The G2 is designed to address these handling characteristics at the lower speeds.
For now I will reserve a final judgment on the 69er but have to say I am leaning to believe that the 69er is not the right bike for me. I’d like to ride it a little more before I ruled out the bike once and for all. One thing about the 69er is that I am only 5’ 10” so someone who is taller than myself may have a different opinion of the bike. I have ridden 29er full suspension bikes, the Super Caliber from Fisher, and have been very impressed with the 29er platform.
