Malmesbury Bikes

The joy of 29”:

Took my hybrid around the Malmesbury Lungbuster route again and was staggered by the way that it carries speed cross-country. Bearing in mind that it was wearing the old hybrid slicks, so there was no chance that it was going to tackle any of the muddy slopes (upwards, which meant running with it, or downwards, which avoided a painful crash), it disappeared like a scalded cat on the flat.

The problem we find on The Common is that the first third is flat and well-drained allowing you to get up to speed and carry that speed. But then you hit a stretch of very muddy paddles, which decimates the speed and from there on through the next third it’s a struggle to keep regaining that initial speed. The last third of The Common is a gentle rise, but by then your legs are so wasted from trying to sprint through the “battle of the puddles” that there’s nothing left for the climb.

The difference on the hybrid is that it gets up to a higher initial speed and crashes through the mud & puddles, carrying the speed more effectively, reducing much of the legwork to get back up to speed.So I’m pretty sure that I’ve proved to myself that a 29er would work brilliantly as a cross-country device – but I’m not convinced that, with a smaller frame, those wheels would work well in an all-round MTB… I do miss my MTB 26er.

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