69er!

Ever since fitting my Specialized with a rigid fork I’ve thought that a 29er wheel could fit nicely in the fork and was unlikely to affect the handling much. After test fitting another wheel last night I posted to the MMBA forums looking for a 29er front wheel and picked one up today^†. While finishing the swap of drivetrain components from the Titus to the Specialized I put the wheel on, and it all seems to work nicely. For the $45 and time spent shuffling components I think this bike is ending up as something rather interesting. It may even work out to be a good winter bike.

I also fitted the bike with plain lock-on grips for this weekend’s cyclocross race as the only other grips I have include bar ends, which aren’t permitted equipment. The bottle cage was removed to make carrying the bike easier and I’ll switch the pedals from platforms (which were for testing) to Eggbeaters before then. I’ll probably also take this for a test ride at River Bends tomorrow, if weather permits. A fatter front tire would have been nice as well, but as I’m just playing around with my old bike I didn’t want to spend any more money.

^† I purchased a WTB Dual Duty rim / Shimano Hub with straight silver spokes, fitted with a 160mm Avid rotor, and a practically-new Kenda Small Block 8 tire all assembled together for $45 total.