Mountain Bike Reviews Forum banner

29er Cornering Tips

28K views 146 replies 37 participants last post by  AndrwSwitch 
#1 ·
I've been thinking (again), the theory is that bikes with 29 inch wheels don't corner as well as say a 26 inch bike. I have a 29er and love it but it does seem to not corner as well as the 26" bikes I had. Now to start I don't want to start a war about which bike is better, I am looking for tips for better riding. And I'm not a hard core mtb rider, I'm a "weekend rider" how likes to go off the paved trails a lot.
I have looked into this subject, better turning, on the internet and the main thing I don't see mentioned is that a 29er bike is longer, that's why it doesn't turn as fast as a bike with smaller wheels/shorter frame. I tried to figure out how you could make a bike with larger wheels as short as say a 26 or 27.5 but I can't. The extra size goes out as well as up.
I have heard where they say the larger tire has more contact area but does this help in a turn? Since a 29er is taller does it take more lean to achieve the same turn as a smaller bike?
 
#2 ·
Little confused on what you are asking specifically... In general, yes a 29er is going to not turn as tightly as a 26 or 27.5" bike simply because of the longer wheelbase making longer all together.

The larger wheel/tire will have a larger contact patch to the ground which means you SHOULD have extra traction/grip/etc. to allow you to stay connected longer. However it is not as simple as that since there are other variables such as terrain, tire type, rider skill, etc. that play into all of it.

And yes, being that you are higher off the ground (taller BB) then you will need a little more body English to get the bike around. However, this should be nothing more than a few rides to get it into normal muscle memory. Weight transfer and proper cornering technique will play more into it than anything else.

Sounds more like you may need to focus more on your cornering technique and skills than what the actual bike will do. More than anything you will be able to FEEL how the bike turns, corners, etc and make adjustments from there. Checkout Fabien Barel's videos on Youtube and some of the ones on SingleTracks.com or by the MTB Dr. or GMBD. All of them have great information on how to properly turn the bike, look for exits in switchbacks, weight transfer,etc.
 
#8 ·
It wont have a larger contact patch. You weigh the same on 26in and 29in. Therefore the force of gravity acting on you into the ground is the same. your contact patch will be longer and narrower. So you will want to lean more to engage those side knobs.

You cannot just say that 29in has a longer wheelbase than 26in. My XC 29er has a shorter wheelbase than my 26in AM bike. Two totally different bikes. Also, the geometry plays a huge role in turning ability.

The biggest thing to help you make turns on a 29er is to stop reading online forums and actually go ride the d*mn thing.
 
#10 ·
It wont have a larger contact patch. You weigh the same on 26in and 29in. Therefore the force of gravity acting on you into the ground is the same. your contact patch will be longer and narrower. So you will want to lean more to engage those side knobs.

You cannot just say that 29in has a longer wheelbase than 26in. My XC 29er has a shorter wheelbase than my 26in AM bike. Two totally different bikes. Also, the geometry plays a huge role in turning ability.

The biggest thing to help you make turns on a 29er is to stop reading online forums and actually go ride the d*mn thing.
Build in some elasticity and deformation on the contact patch edges of the tire, and because of the lower AoA/AoD the 29er at the same rim standoff is actually going to have slightly more contact patch, which is much longer and somewhat narrower. Totally dwarved by other factors like rubber compound, grip surface, tread patterns at various angles, and especially air pressure, but the contact patch is slightly larger overall... still totally on point about leaning more, engaging the side knobs, and getting a feel on the real deal doing that enough that it starts to feel comfortable.
 
#100 ·
For me 29ers corner a lot better, they rail fast corners very stable. Tight corners are more a function of wheelbase than wheel size, and 29ers today are about the same wheelbase of 26ers of the past. If anything I would actually prefer the tallboy to be longer than it is.

Because of the heavier wheel the steering feel is different, but that's just the feel, not the actual performance.

IMO most of the complaints about 29er cornering are perceived performance rather than actual.
 
#3 ·
It's probably about initiating into the corners - longer wheelbase and higher stack/seat position can make a bike feel like it doesn't want to corner - instead, do an exaggerated version of the aggressive cornering technique (outboard pedal down, lean the bike over, and point hips towards where you want to turn) and I assure you the 29er will turn brilliantly, with more grip.

For now, practice just leaning the bike over without leaning yourself over - this will take away that weird sensation where you're too high up and the bike isn't making much yaw - get the bike leaned over and it'll turn itself really well, and as greg alluded to a bit of body english to come up out of the turns means you'll be carrying speed forward on that. The Fabien Barel video is an excellent starting point.
 
#5 ·
I believe the difference has more to do with the feel of the bike...the 29er carving the circle and holding speed, the 26er ducking in and then out and quick to accelerate. Better or worse would be hard to determine...mostly different.

The most important part of cornering is looking through the turn and down the track. You got to lead with your head...your body, the attitude of the bike, everything follows leading with your head.
 
#6 ·
The key I found to turning a 29er better was three things.
1. Practice: just do figure 8s in your driveway, it helps a ton.
2. Look through the corner. The further you can look down the trail, the better you will get your bike through the corner. If you look right in front of your tire, most likely you will run wide on exit.
3. Slow in, fast out. The old racing term works great on a 29er. Yes your friends on a 650 or 26 bike can fly into the corner, but if you do your breaking early, get the bike turned, and get out with faster speed, you will be keeping up just fine and find that a 29er can make those tight twisty switchbacks.
 
#9 ·
I find my 29er demands a little better cornering technique than my 26" bike. Both are XC bikes, but the 29er has rear suspension and a higher bottom bracket, so it's not totally apples-to-apples but it's not apples and grape fruits either.

The biggest difference I notice is that my 29er really rewards counter steering. I suspect the higher bottom bracket is a lot of that.
 
#13 ·
Thanks for the help and the video links. The first video I've seen and been trying on the trail. Still working on all the points he gives there but my cornering is better. I practice when ever I can. I found two trails just a couple of miles down the road that have a lot of curves on flat ground that I can spend all day riding through. They also have a lot of roots, mud and downed trees to add to the fun. I think right now it's the tight turns between a couple of close trees that concern me the most, a lot of them I can't lean too much through.
 
#15 ·
This will take some getting used to and also depends on your tires grip on the outer edges of the casing, any transitions in tread pattern and how they handle the terrain. You can find a tire that you REALLY like on just about anything you are riding but will completely suck when you lean the bike over because of transitions in the tread and voids. Also be sure that you PSI is setup correctly too, thus allowing the tire to roll out some. If your too high then the contact patch is different and will not engage all the knobs at certain times or will engage them at different times.

This is something that I have figured out over time, I used to LOVE the GEAX Saguaro for more XC riding. That was until I started to learn to lean the bike more, lean the bike do not turn it, and when that happened I found that the outside grip really gave way as you started to progress outwards. Luckily this was very predictable and you could feel it letting loose, not just suddenly BAM and you had no traction.

So I guess what I am saying is try the tires you have in those areas, which is AWESOME that you have them, scrub some speed BEFORE you hit your turns to where you feel you have good control and then start playing with PSI. I run my tires, On-One Chunky Monkey Trail Extreme 2.4 Front and GEAX Goma 2.4 Rear, pretty low whether tubed or tubeless... like 18psi front and 20psi rear. One thing I have found out about GEAX/Vittoria tires is they LOVE lower pressures (I ran my Gato 2.3 at 16psi regularly).
 
#19 ·
Tire pressure, yes, been working on that one, Tire Pressure. I am using 24 psi in the rear and 20 in the front, mainly to conform to obstacles, and now it's time to work on the lean, see if those pressures work.
I have all-terrain tires that came with the bike but since I'm riding trails so much I am thinking about changing to a more aggressive kind.
The 26" was a Walmart special, a Huffy Rock Creek (I think). The new one is a GT Backwoods Sport, GT Backwoods Sport Mountain Bike - 2015 Performance Exclusive , a nice entry level 29er. I like the disk brakes on it.
 
#26 ·
I don't know what kind of tires your bike came with, but my GT Sensor came with Maxis Aspen 2.1s. They are not much good for real mountain biking, they are just on the bike for display purposes and pavement rides.
 
#29 ·
For clarification - those are places I've taken my bike despite the lameness of the 2.1 Asspens - both of those rides, including over snow and ice for the former and some rough rocks on the latter, were remarkably trouble free... but I then proceeded to wipe out at walking pace on flat terrain within a week of each of those pictures.
All are various foothills around Albuquerque, NM - the angles make them seem far more remote than they really are.
 
#30 ·
It's funny to read this subject, as I was just thinking about this. I've owned several 29ers over the years, and while I liked certain properties a lot, tight steering wasn't exactly one of them. I chalked it up to the tire being almost half my height, such is life.

Obviously technique and practice are the main factors for everything, however I recently got one of the new breed of modern geo HT 29er's, and it's been an eye opener for me. This bike threads needles like my 26ers, it amazes me every time I hop on it. I still own several 26ers, and try to ride them consistently, but it's becoming harder as there's a lot of things I miss now. I can ride the 26er for a week, and hop on the 29er and I sometimes think it might even handle better. It doesn't even make sense to me, with the slacker HT angles and increasing travel, but the new school 29ers are really dialing in the handling for the wagon wheels IME.
 
#32 ·
It's funny to read this subject, as I was just thinking about this. I've owned several 29ers over the years, and while I liked certain properties a lot, tight steering wasn't exactly one of them. I chalked it up to the tire being almost half my height, such is life.

Obviously technique and practice are the main factors for everything, however I recently got one of the new breed of modern geo HT 29er's, and it's been an eye opener for me. This bike threads needles like my 26ers, it amazes me every time I hop on it. I still own several 26ers, and try to ride them consistently, but it's becoming harder as there's a lot of things I miss now. I can ride the 26er for a week, and hop on the 29er and I sometimes think it might even handle better. It doesn't even make sense to me, with the slacker HT angles and increasing travel, but the new school 29ers are really dialing in the handling for the wagon wheels IME.
Yea I rode my buddies hardtail 29er like 6 years ago and then was like, yep these 29ers suck. Then I rode the crap out of my 26ers, and then I was like lets try the 29er thing again....this time with new geo...and yep it outhandles all my 26ers. Its a 69* HT 73* ST, short chainstay switchback machine.

I have a 27.5 trail bike as well, and its awesome too....but a 29er that fits you correctly and is set up with the right geo can thread the needle just as well IMO.
 
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top