Is there any word on when we will get more choice in tire(s)? This article is over a year old and still only one tire is available.

Well, while this is true, there have been several developments since then that bear looking into. Let’s see where we are and where we might be going.

The “tire” in question that has a UST certification for use with sealant is the Hutchinson Python. Huthinson has also introduced a Toro model in 29″er size that should become available soon. This would make two 29″er tires available with the much ballyhooed UST certification seal. That doesn’t quite seem to be cutting it for some folks. The feeling I get perusing the various forums and talking to folks is something that isn’t congruent with what tire manufacturers are doing, and really, is incongruent with riders own expectations.

Right now there is a group of folks waiting for a “true UST” tire in 29″er size. My opinion is that you will probably never get it. What is “true UST”? It is the idea some folks have based from the earliest 26″er UST tires that all tubeless UST tires need no sealant. In many riders minds, there isn’t any other UST type tire out there. But there is. It is the UST tire that requires sealant to work, most commonly known as “tubeless ready”. These tires meet UST certifications and are compatible with UST certified rims. Yet some riders do not recognize this as UST.

Why won’t you see a UST tire that requires no sealant in 29″er size? Because of weight. A UST tire requiring no sealant adds extra butyl rubber to the casing making it air tight. Some may see this as a cool thing for sharp rocks or more abusive riding, but for mere tubeless uses, it is a deal killer for 29″er freaks and the manufacturers know it. I’m not saying it will never happen, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Why don’t we see more UST certified tubeless ready tires? I think manufacturers are finding out they can do rims and tire manufacturers are finding out they can do tires that will work together tubeless without spending the money for the UST certifications. Bontrager’s Tubeless Ready tires and wheels are an excellent example- no UST certification needed. However; in my mind the real underlying reason for the lack of tubeless ready UST tires and rims is Stan’s NoTubes and the efforts of individual riders all over the world who have turned to making tubeless work on their own terms. If you, as a manufacturer, see what is going on out there, why would you spend the money on a certification when you can make an end around on the whole thing. Think about Panaracer, who when introducing the Rampage more or less gave its blessing on using it tubeless. Continental has essentially done the same thing, declaring all their mountain bike tires safe to use with any of the mountain bike tire sealants commercially available. Doesn’t sound as though either of those manufacturers is interested in doing a UST 29″er tire anytime soon, does it?

Then you have the various rim manufacturers who are doing a lot of refinements to rim bead seat designs on 29″er rims, not saying they are “tubeless compatible”, but making it a lot easier to do just that. WTB, Sun, and Salsa are three that I saw at Interbike that were doing new rim bead seat designs, but not going so far as to say they were tubeless compatible.

What of Geax and Michelin? I have seen that Geax has gone their own route with the “TnT” concept and Michelin is also rumored to be doing their own tubeless ready type designs without seeking UST certification. At one time it was rumored that these companies would do a UST 29″er tire, but this seems to be not the case now.

So, revisting that article of over a year ago makes me say that I was wrong. There still is “that” argument against 29″ers. However; you can choose to stick with looking for a UST 29″er tire, but the rest of your riding buddies and competitors at the races are already doing something about it. Tubeless ready type tires are here now and there are rims that work as well. Some will scoff and say the risk isn’t worth it, but it’s something that isn’t going away anytime soon. Advantage or disadvantage for 29″ers? You’ll have to make that call.

We experienced a long, icy, and snowy winter. Both Captain Bob and myself were using the Racing Ralph in winter riding conditions. I found that the racing Ralph was an incredible tire for ice and snow. The casing seemed to wrap itself around anything it could get a grip on. Traction was phenomenal for me. Captain Bob concurs saying, “I use them most of the winter riding gravel roads that were not gravel very often. The gravel roads were complete ice that was at least one inch think all winter, or completely covered with several inches of snow. What I do know for sure is that these tires will grip to ice better than any non-studded tire than I have ridden. I was amazed at how well that they grip ice. Snow? These treads roll over many inches of snow with ease. Very little washing out was experienced. I am guessing that the width of the tire is adding to their stability. I could ride almost as fast on 4 inches of snow racing down the gravel roads as I could with just gravel.”

Moving into the spring and summer saw a lot of wet, muddy, and tacky trail conditions. The Racing ralph’s are no match for true mud, especially sticky dirt or clay conditions. I found that the tread packed up rather quickly and that the tire would continue to collect mud, losing all ability to grip the trail surface until it cleared out its tread. If the trails started to firm up, things got much better. I felt that the Racing Ralph really started to shine on tacky to hardpack trails. Captain Bob thought similar things here. He says, “Hardpack singletrack was another area where the RR’s shine. If the trails were too smooth though, or on any trail that felt like pavement, I noticed some drag from them. Nothing too much. Just more than I expected.”

On really hard trails or on rides to the trail head on pavement, both Captain Bob and I thought that the Racing Ralph showed it’s width and tread compound as higher rolling resistance. Not too surprisingly, we also didn’t find as much to love on hard trails with any loose dirt over the top. Captain Bob explains, “I feel like I am not getting the tires to dig in. They seem to float over everything. Almost too much. I have a little trouble getting the cornering bite that I want, and it’s making it difficult to rail in the turns. I have tried lowering the psi but that just seems to make the bike steer too slow. It feels as though there is too much contact which causes everything to slow down. Straight lines are fine but anything involving turns is where I notice this.”

Conversely we found this “float” to be a great attribute in sandy situations. Captain Bob says, ” I know they float over sand better than other tires I have.” I’d have to agree, and since they did so well in the snow, this shouldn’t be a surprise. Captain Bob calls the Racing Ralphs, “The best sand tire out there.”

Final Thoughts: We like the Racing Ralph as a front tire on a rigid bike because of its volume. The Racing Ralph has an uncanny ability to “float” over trail obstacles and sand/snow as well. Although it is claimed to have a low rolling resistance in hardpack and fast trail conditions, we didn’t notice anything noteworthy there. The casing seems very flexible and it may not hold up to sharp rocks and abusive trail conditions because of this. We have not ridden in these sorts of conditions, but we have heard reports of such instances. The tire comes highly recommended if your trails are buff, tacky to dry with little loose debris over the top. In these conditions the Ralph rails turns and has great stopping abilities. Anything beyond tacky makes the performance fall off dramatically. We do not recommend the Racing Ralph for anything resembling mud.

This ends our look at the Schwalbe Racing Ralph 2.4 inch tires. Thanks for reading!

Added to Marin’s two existing 29″er models, (the two urban models that accept 29″er tires not with standing) will be the Nail Trail and Pallisades models. The Nail Trail will retail for approximately $1965.00 and the Palisades for $1395.00.

Look for coverage on these two new models as we are able to get more information. Certainly, we will be checking into these bikes and more during our annual trip to Interbike………in only a little over two months!

We decided to kit our Dillinger out with a recent set of BBB Components we recieved for review on The Bike Lab We combined these parts with some of the things Captain Bob and I had lying about and came up with this, pictured below. For more on the BBB components used in our build, see this. (Photo Credit: Captain Bob)

Stay tuned for a First Impressions post soon!

First of all, I must address the J.E.T. 9 issue, as I am sure many of you are out there wondering what is going on. I can tell you that Niner is doing all it can to get this situation resolved. I can’t tell you when that will be yet though. Obviously, Niner wants this over as much as you riders out there with J.E.T.9’s do. Even Steve lamented, “I mean, it’s a bummer for me too, because I can’t even ride my own J.E.T.9, ya know?” Steve, Chris, and the rest of the Niner guys are all nuts about riding, so they “get it” when they see the frustrations of riders out there. Trust me, they are doing their best to resolve the issues. Nuff said.

Now on to some other stuff Steve and I touched on. While I can not divulge details yet, I can say that Niner is going to drop a couple of bombs at Interbike this year. Of course, Niner has done some show stopping at the big dance in Vegas before, but I know this will be huge news for 29″er freaks everywhere.

Not only will they be showing something pretty special, ( Steve shared some crazy details on the project), but Steve promises that there will be something rideable at the Outdoor Demo too. So, be on the lookout come the end of September out Bootleg Canyon way.

Finally, I will say that during the course of our conversation, (which consisted mainly of Steve going on about technical details and me saying “Wow!” and “That’s cool!” about a million times), I learned that Niner has made an even more dedicated commitment to research and development in regards to new designs and testing of products. You’d think you were talking to the head of a big bicycle manufacturer if you could hear all the things Niner is doing to test and research their designs. I was duly impressed.

I know this isn’t the detailed post many of you would like to read here, but really…….if I told you, Steve would throw a pedal wrench in my spokes at Outdoor Demo! So, I ain’t talkin’ just yet. Just stay tuned, I promise you…..it’ll be worth the wait!

Updated 7/15/’08: In an e-mail from Chris Sugai of Niner Bikes I learned that the rocker links for the J.E.T.9’s will be in the hands of owners of J.E.T.9’s very soon. Here’s the quote from the e-mail: “We are (due) to send new links to riders near the end of this
month. We have been updating people on the process and know where we
stand as far as meeting our posted schedule.”

Great news for owners of J.E.T.9’s and for us actually, as we will now be able to continue the test of our J.E.T.9 for this site!

Here we have the odd shot showing a few very interesting things. First, note the bottom bracket. That’s a BB-30 folks. Cannondale’s idea is spreading with FSA, Specialized, Jamis, and others on board with the bottom bracket. Putting it on a 29″er makes sense. Next, although not Cannondale specific, we have our first look at a Continental Race King in 29″er size. (To be honest, I thought it was a Vapor at first!) Finally, clearances around that Continental look pretty healthy. This frame should accept some pretty big meats if so desired.

Here’s a shot of some more Race King action sandwiching the newly redesigned chassis of the Lefty. It is now a “one piece Lefty lower”, as it was described to me.

Here’s a great shot showing the new graphics, which look to be a take on 40’s era Schwinn bike decoration replete with “refrigerator style” lettering. New colors showing here appear to be on the retro side of things, as well.

In the foreground we have the “29er 1″, which appears to have a healthy dose of XT along with the aforementioned BB-30 bottom bracket. The bike next to that appears to be using a Deore level Octalink crank, suggesting that it might be one of the more “entry level” offerings. Then beyond that we see a single speed. A single speed 29″er, perhaps? Most likely.

No word on whether or not these are the only 29″er offerings or if the elusive, much rumored Scalpel 29″er will finally make a public appearance. Stay tuned for more as we get new information.

I’ve been busy off and on with this bike, trying out diffrent versions that implement some things I’m testing or theories I’m checking out. More on that later, this is about a really nice steel bicycle frame.

Once I got a chance to ride this on some “real” offroad trails, I could start to see the “real” Blackbuck shine through. I can’t really go on without a bit of comparison here. The bike the Blackbuck replaced in my stable was an On One Inbred. I really, really liked the Inbred, but it had to go to make room for the Blackbuck. I was sure hoping the Blackbuck would be something as nice, but it’s one of those things you never know about until you’ve been deep in the throws of blasting some single track. Well, the Blackbuck is more than a worthy replacement. Yes…..it is a great single speed 29″er. Here’s why I think that……….

Many folks point to the funky rear end and ask if “that makes it ride better”. Well, I don’t know about that, but the Blackbuck is smooooth! Is it the seat stays? The smaller diameter top and down tubes? Heck…..I don’t know, it just plain feels good. That’s really all I can say. It’s a steel frame. Either you are into that, or not. The Blackbuck is one of the nicer riding ones that isn’t a custom.

I like the way it handles as well. Under power mashing climbs, it behaves itself very well. The single frame size offered just happens to jive with my body, but obviously, it may not work for you. I found the top tube rangy enough to make weight adjustments easy, but not so long that I couldn’t pin the front down in corners and steep climbs. Seated the Blackbuck doesn’t have those sharp, jarring hits, but make no mistake- it is still a hard tail. You won’t mistake it for a soft tail bike. Still, it’s a nicer ride than some.

I paired the frame up with the On One Carbon Superlight fork we’ve had on test and the longer 47mm offset works just fine with the Blackbuck. I am planning on using a Reba, the Blackbuck rigid fork, and a few others to get a handle on what different fork geometries do to the handling of a bike. Next up is the Blackbuck fork. More on that later.

The Blackbuck has an eccentric bottom bracket insert to tension the chain. Much has been written and said about EBB’s and I guess you either love or hate them. Me? Hey, they’ve been around for years on tandems, so they can’t be all that bad. The Blackbuck actually has an EBB that is a take off on an old tandem idea, the split shell. Instead of using set screws/bolts, which can deform a bottom bracket shell, or a wedge type affair, which is prone to creaking and slippage. The Blackbuck’s split shell is simple to use, and resists slippage, creaking, and won’t deform the shell. Plus, it is easy as pie to disassemble, clean, and re-grease. I found it to be a snap to use in the field and a two tooth change in gearing was no problem and all without breaking the chain to do that. I’ve used other EBB’s that wouldn’t allow that!

So far, so good. I’ll be swapping out forks now and doing more Blackbuck riding real soon. Stay Tuned!

This is the new 2009 Raleigh XXIX+G. Now sporting hydro brakes and a bigger front rotor, the bike is spec’ed here with the Tora for ‘09, (which looks identical to a Reba SL ‘08 vintage) and otherwise appears to be relatively unchanged besides the orangy-red paint job and new graphics.

Here’s the single speed, the XXIX, with the new longer axle to crown fork and a look at the cool BMX inspired graphics. I like the look and the new longer fork should impart a smoother ride than the old XXIX fork could ever think of doing. I have questions regarding the specifics on the changes, (ie: axle to crown height, offset, head angles ) in to the proper folks at Raleigh, so when I hear about the details, I’ll post an update.

I didn’t recieve any images on the confirmed XXIX Deluxe, but it is coming. When I get anymore information on it, again, I will post an update.

Through axle hubs: With Rock Shox’s excellent Maxle and now, the Maxle light, there isn’t any reason to not have 20mm through axle front hubs and put them on all front suspended 29″ers. The effects of having a rock solid connection between the fork legs and wheel are immediately felt and make a 29″ers front end more predictable and fun to ride. I would even suggest that many rigid fork options have 20mm through axles. Especially lightweight carbon ones.

Full suspension bikes could really benefit with the addition of a through axle on the rear of the bike. In fact, Salsa Cycles is currently working on through axle rear drop outs for it’s upcoming Big Mama full suspension 29″er. That should tell you something right there.

Tubeless Ready Tires: There is no question that 29″ers benefit from ditching the archaic tube and going sans bladder. To do this though, you have to either “buy into” a current system such as Stan’s, Bontrager’s Tubeless Ready System, or Mavic/Hutchinson’s set up. You could go to the “ghetto” tubeless set ups, but sometimes certain tires are not so friendly, shall we say?

Anyway, my suggestion is to have all future tire introductions be of the tubeless ready type. Why not? If your tires, (as Continental’s already are) are rated for use with sealant, have a tight tolerance, consistent bead that is strong, why wouldn’t you do this? The tires could be used with tubes or run tubeless. A “win-win” for tire manufacturers and riders alike. This should be done ASAP.

Along with this, rim manufacturers should also be doing things to get their products ready for tubeless use. Bead locks, consistent, tight tolerances, and specific rim strips could go along way in making products more attractive to riders who are obviously looking for solutions to tubeless set ups.

Tapered Steer Tube Technology: My take on the front ends of 29″ers is that they could stand to be stiffer and stronger. A great solution to this problem is the tapered steer tube. The 1 1/2″ to 1 1/8″ taper on the steer tube provides more strength with a minimal weight gain, and with upper end forks and headsets, it could be the same weight as a traditional head set in 1 1/8th inch size. The bigger diameter on the bottom of the head tube means a bigger weld interface for down tubes and allows for larger diameter down tubes in the first place. Both would make the front ends of 29″ers stiffer, stronger, and steer more precisely.

Those are a few things I think should be widely implemented into new 29″er models. All three would enhance the performance and lessen the negatives of any 29″er.

We are hearing that there will only be a very limited number of these rigs made, so stay tuned for further updates.

As far as the remaining models of 29″ers in Raleigh’s line up, we’re hearing that the XXIX+G will be back relatively unchanged, (perhaps some spec changes and color differences). The XXIX single speed will be changed significantly.

The XXIX has always been offered with the shorter axle to crown rigid steel fork as opposed to what other companies have been doing with their rigid fork 29″ers. Raleigh’s axle to crown measurement on the XXIX has been approximately 440mm versus others 465-470mm axle to crown forks. Now Raleigh plans to change the fork on the XXIX to reflect what other companies offer on their rigid fork 29″ers. As far as we are aware, no other geometry changes are in store for the XXIX.

Our take at Twenty Nine Inches on this development (if true) is mixed. We welcome a longer legged fork on the XXIX since in our experience, the previous short, beefy CroMoly legs on the XXIX fork were a bit too brutal. On the other hand we are wondering if the front end handling will be “helped” by including a longer offset on the new longer legged fork. One of the joys we experienced with the XXIX in ‘07 was the snappy handling that the shorter axle to crown measurement, and resulting steeper head angle, imparted.

As far as the new “Deluxe” model, we are very curious about it. It promises to be a very nice steel frame, and well spec’ed. If it is as nice as it is rumored to be, we will not be surprised to see a price tag well north of 2G for such a rig. Especially considering the uptick in prices coming in 2009.

Stay tuned for more as we recieve word.