Open up any mountain bike magazine or website and you’ll be hard-pressed to ignore the fervent appetite for 29ers, with new bikes, wheels and forks being released seemingly every day to feed the frenzy.

While the big-wheeled bikes are still dividing opinions, it’s not difficult to see that they are winning many hearts and minds, especially noticeable at the Bedgebury round of the Demo Series where 29er demo bikes were in high demands and enduro racers like Ian Leitch and Rob Dean singing their praises.

So it’s safe to say that 29ers are here to stay, with the bike industry firmly getting behind the new format and current proponents increasing their range of 29in wheeled bikes while previously reserved company’s are quickly bringing to market 29ers, keen to not miss out on the rush.

With all this in mind, will your next bike purchase be a 29er? Or will you stick to the trusted 26in wheeled bike? To find out, we asked the Bikemagic forum where they’ll be spending their money, here’s a few snippets from that discussion. If you want to join in, follow this link now and get talking.

Karlos kicked off the discussion saying: “I’d like to try a few 29ers, they are beginning to look nicer, they all used to look a bit weird. A 29er would certainly suit a lot of the training rides that I do. As for my next bike it would probably be a full-susser or a new road bike, the 29er would have to be awesome to draw me away from those!”

But Serge the Seal of Death wasn’t quite as positive: “No I am short and it will make me look like a 9-year-old riding an adult’s bike.”

Meanwhile, it seems Mike S is sitting out the whole 29er movement: “Err, no but the one after the next one might be a 650B.”

There’s undoubtedly a lot of hype swirling around the 29er thing, and it seems Alx is finding this hard to digest: “I should suit a 29er perfectly, but haven’t investigated one due to the apparent number of evangelical pillocks who claim their superiority to any other bike created.”

With limited room for loads of bikes, The Big GT made a wise observation: “With only room for two bikes, a 29er isn’t going to get a look in. In fact, I’d probably need room for about 20 bikes before one got into contention and I’m over 6ft tall (supposedly towards the ‘ideal’ height for a 29er rider?).”

Daniel Prendergast commented on the different ride qualities of the two wheel sizes: “29ers are faster through on smooth straights but slower on technical corners. Also 29ers have a high centre of gravity more easy to fall. I value my neck so I go for the 26er. but it depends how you ride I suppose.”

Of the converted, Neil Helks hasn’t looked back since adopting the larger wheels for his riding, saying: “Well I bit the bullet and bought a fairly cheap Cannondale 29er and after a couple of rides I am much more confident on it in all sorts of situations, and have cleaned a few sections of my local trail that had me beaten before , even cleaned a steep section full of switchbacks that I only ever cleaned once before and thought I would really struggle on with the bigger wheels . Still miss the full suspension and I would dispute that having a 29er feels like 2ins of rear suspension but am very impressed so far, and that’s coming off a high end full susser. ”

Tim – base phase has gone all scientific on us, conducting the most thorough test on the forum so far: “I’m sure there will be situations where a 26 inch wheel bike is faster, but in the only scientific test I have conducted the rigid over geared 29er was 3 minutes per 15km lap faster than my full suss. (Same race same course, 1 year apart, run times indicate identical fitness.) – The big question is would I be just as quick on a 26inch hardtail?”

Lastly, and interestingly, Hans Frii said: “No. However, I am waiting for the CX frames to start appearing with disc mounts and the various wheelsets to match. For me, my ideal do-anything bike for my regular riding would be a flat bar CX. That way I can just fling on some really skinny tyres for the tarmac and some 35mm knobblies for the looser stuff, even going so far as changing the cassette for different gearing.”

So that’s a snapshot of the Bikemagic community and their views on 29ers. But what do you think? Let us know in the forum below, or via our Twitter.com/Bikemagic feed.