29er (bicycle) - Origins

Origins

29er rims have a diameter of approximately 622 millimetres (24.5 in) and the average 29" mountain bike tire has an outside diameter of about 29.15 inches (740 mm). The typical 26" rim has a diameter of 559 millimetres (22.0 in) and an outside tire diameter of about 26 inches (660 mm).

In the early 1980s, the size of the wheels for the emerging mountain bikes was undecided. So when English off-road cycling pioneer Geoff Apps contacted Gary Fisher and Charlie Kelly with news that he had built a prototype off-road bicycle that used large diameter 700Cx47 Nokia, (now known as Nokian) Hakkapeliitta snow tires from Finland, they were intrigued. In a letter to the December 2006 issue of Bike Biz magazine, Gary Fisher, speaking about the growing popularity of 29ers, gives his perspective: "We got some tires from Geoff Apps really early on and we said ‘Holy Toledo!'" But the poor supply situation of the larger diameter tires meant the fledging MTB industry stuck with the smaller wheel size." The first Geoff Apps-designed 700C wheeled off-road bicycle was made in 1981. However the bicycle marketed as the Aventura by Apps' own company, Cleland Cycles Ltd, between 1982 and 1984 used the more readily available Nokia Hakkapeliitta 650Bx54 tires.

Various people claim to or are attributed to be the originator of the term "29er", the most plausible being Wes Williams of Crested Butte, CO. The US division of Bianchi Bicycles offered a line of 29" wheeled off-road bikes beginning in 1991 called the Project bikes. Their 1992 product catalog raved about the advantages of the larger wheels and showed three different bikes, the Project 3, 5 and 7. The original company Klein produced a small quantity of a 29" wheeled version of their successful "Attitude" MTB racer, and named it the Adept. It failed to find a market and was discontinued. In the mid-1990's, Diamondback Bicycles made their Overdrive bike, and Specialized made their Crossroads bike with 700c wheels, but they were actually hybrid bicycles with frame and fork clearance for larger tires. The Project and Overdrive bikes were not a success for many reasons, primarily a lack of proper off-road tires and suspension forks competitive with the 26" offerings of the time.

A key product release, the first true 29" tire, was produced by an early supporter of the 29" movement Wilderness Trail Bikes. The company introduced the first true 29" tire, the Nanoraptor, in 1999. At about the same time, White Brothers produced the first commercially available 29" suspension forks. Before then suspension forks used were forks designed for trekking bikes or hybrids. For many years 29" frames and bikes were usually only available from small little-known manufactures like Niner Bikes. Surly Bikes introduced their 29" frameset, the Karate Monkey, in 2002. Gary Fisher Bicycles, then a stand alone firm, now a division of Trek Bicycles, became the first of the major manufactures to offer a line of 29" bikes. Their lines never sold well until the introduction of single-speed 29" bike the Rig, in 2004. Today most bicycle manufacturers in the US market offer at least one 29" bicycle or frame. Even companies that openly dismissed 29" as a bad idea or passing trend, Specialized and Turner, are bringing 29" wheels to market.