So this is the bike I have scooted around on recently.
Thought I’d post a little review on it as well.

The bike’s specs are as follows:
Gary Fisher Superfly Carbon frame 17.5”
Carbon Truvativ Noir Crankset with Ceramic Bearing BB
Fox F29 RL
Sram X.O Rear Derailluer
Sram X.9 Front derailluer
Sram PG-990 Cassette
Sram PC-991 Chain
Stans/Notubes.com ZTR 355 29er wheelset
Bontrager XR1 Team Issue tires
Bontrager Race lite X Stem 90mm
Easton Monkey Lite SL Carbon Bar
Easton EC90 carbon Seatpost
WTB Rocket V with Ti Rails
Magura Marta Brakeset
Sram X.0 Grip Shift
Ti Water bottle cage :P

Current Weight: 21.5lbs

Bike at first Glance:
The bike when you first look at it it doesnt even look like a 29er. It has Tons of standover and a reasonably short wheelbase. The weight of it is obviously mind boggling and you could spend an hour just staring at it, but I didnt, I rode it.

The G2 geometry and custom offset crown on the F29 fork moves the front wheel in toward the bottom bracket while still providing extremely adequate toe room. And you find yourself sitting quite low between the wheels as you would on a DH bike. It seems alot of the issues of 29er bikes feeling big Gary Fisher has got around by the seat stays having a sharper angle on them and the top and down tube meeting quite early in the frame construction. The frame also has a full integrated headset for a nice low stack height. keeping the front end and bar height low! The frame you see is a 17.5 and Im 5’11”

Climbing:
So immediately I head for the hill, its definitely true, bigger wheels have more grip, no doubt. I was rolling over huge roots, powering up the hill in the big ring and 4th gear on the back. The craziest thing is where the hill mellowed out and i started to coast uphill expecting to have to shift down and sprint up but the wheels carried up very nicely maintaining momentum.

I quickly gained confidence to hit some sketchy root lines where i was sure i would be defeated. The bike had a huge footprint and made a lot of hard lines pretty easy.

You quickly gain speed and a lot of faster flatter single track with the big almost road size wheels you gain speed fast and luckily i had some pretty good brakes on my side.

Descending: (yesss, my favorite part)
Again, like a big wheeled truck alot of the natural “steps down” roots the wheels rolled from point to point not really dipping down as i expected, and i gained a little too much speed going down. Keep in mind this bike is pretty new to me, so I wasnt used to being able to just plow over things without having a few more inches of travel.

Descending was my favorite part just cause as i did get more comfortable i found myself pushing the speed a little and with a big grin on my face as the big logs came flying under me.

I ended up at the bottom of the trail laughing out loud as my friend pulled up behind me. Its was humorous how easy the 29ers are to ride, and how much fun you have with a bike that is this light but still capable of cleaning up a line that a normal 4 inch full suspension ride would have a pretty hard time doing.

The mix of the nice moderately stiff carbon with the nicely tight laced wheels which had the right amount of give to them to make up for the stiff frame that really just dampens the whole ride down. Going through corners and rocky areas the vibration is dampened through the frame and the Fox fork which was a treat to have on the front.

Overall:
26” wheels have their place in freeride, and trails on the shore and the majority of bigger stunts for high demand situations.
As far as cross country goes, Ive been converted, this 29er thing is pretty impressive. Ive ridden a few now and really gotten a feel to how they perform. NOT every 29er is the same, keep that in mind that alot of companies are just photocopying frames at 110%. Geometry is very important. Ive found that alot of early generation 29ers feel big(like for tall guys) but with the thought that has gone into this bike with the custom crown and a standover height that size for size is about a cm of difference to a regular 26” bike, this bike lets you reap all the benefits of having a big wheel but sitting low between them and having the wheelbase of a 26” and standover of a 26”. Its an unreal combo.