Rolling Resistance – I thought slower grippier and more aggressive tyres made a huge difference to rolling resistance, but I put some Forekasters on the Starling (which are known for being faster rolling than an Assegai) and the Starling just felt sluggish to me on my first outing. One my second outing with the Starling I was with a mate who was on an old 26″ bike. We swapped bikes a few times. His old bike felt like a race car. The Starling felt like a powerful luxury car. No doubt about it, the Starling rolled faster but it didn’t feel faster.
27.5″ vs 29″ – For the record I’ve never gotten along with 29″ wheels. I’ve always felt like they make a bike feel like a tank. I gave up on them years ago and stuck with 26″ up until late last year when I bought my 1st new MTB since my 2008 Giant Reign. Since then I’ve had an Amflow (settled on mullet and I love it), 2 x Norco Torrent Hardtails (tried both in mullet and 29″ front and back) and the Starling Murmur (29″ front and back).
Today I felt that sluggish feeling again on the Chisel with a 29″ wheelset. It wasn’t the tyres, it’s the wheel size. I failed to get up a pinchy tech climb that I easily got up yesterday on the 27.5″ setup because I lost momentum and I didn’t have enough power to crank it up. I think there’s something in this. IE: I don’t make enough power to get the most out of a 29″ setup. I feel that as soon as I slow down the bike asks me for more power to get the wheels moving and each pedal stroke just feels more laboured than when I am on the 27.5″ setup. Fire trails are where I like to recover. On the 27.5″ setup I can just spin (I’m a spinner more than a grinder), but on the 29″ setup I feel like I need to get it up to a certain speed in order to spin.
Frame Size – One thing for sure is that I’m really happy to have sized down to a small frame from a medium. The 27.5″ felt really playful yesterday but way less playful on the 29″ setup today. The bike felt more like any other bike to me today with the bigger wheels. Yes I could bomb down the rocky descents more comfortably with the 29″ wheels, but the bigger wheels just make the whole bike feel bigger.
Strava – looking at the data from yesterday’s ride and today’s ride my average speed was 1.6km/hr faster on the 29″ vs the 27.5″ setup but I was still faster on the tech climbs with the 27.5″ setup, but overall I got a PR for Cliff Trail so I was faster on the Chisel with 29″ wheels than the Starling or the Torrent hardtails. So no doubt about it the 29″ setup is faster but I also feel way more wrecked after today’s ride than yesterday’s ride.
OK that’s my brain dump. My brain is fried and I’m quite confused. I don’t race. I make little power and I just want this bike to be super fun so I’m going to stick with the 27.5″ setup. The smaller wheels lower the BB by a huge 18mm. I can put the flip chip in the high position to get 5mm back. I’m already running HT pedals which have a super low stack height. The massive 2.8/2.6 Specialized tyres measure 5mm taller than the 2.35 Hans Dampfs but I’d low this 5mm if I went for some fast rolling XC tyres (not that I need them as the bike just feels so fast on these fat tyres but I am curious). If I was to get some 160mm cranks I’d actually have more clearance than the stock 29″ setup but the only 160mm crankset as light as my 170 SRAM XX1 Eagle Carbon cranks are the Race Face Era SL’s which are damn expensive. That said, as a weight weenie it hurts me to say this, but maybe I’m starting to believe that weight doesn’t really matter as the bike just felt so much more fun on the smaller wheels (heavier setup by 200g).
