If Kevin could have taken pictures this is what he would have taken; Darrin getting loose - courtesy of Transition Bikes
Normally I have the resources to grab a friend and talk them into going out and taking pics with me for reviews. The percentage of nights I was sleeping in my own bed and not traveling while I had the Bandit was somewhere between zero and eight. I prioritized ride time over anything else squeezing in whatever I could get during that period. So I unfortunately don't have much outside of stock photos and some artistic awesomeness of my own as far as things to look at.
I agreed to put some ride time in on this bike because Lee thought it would be funny. I am the proto-typical downhiller/dirtjumper type who's always talking smack about 29ers and the people who ride them so I agreed to the novelty. There were only two or three bikes being made that I'd even consider bothering with based on geometry numbers, and Transition's Bandit 29er was one of them (Kona Satori and Specialized Stumpy EVO the others). Put simply, for me to plop my butt on ANY road bike misplaced in the woods it was going to have to have a bottom bracket lower than the axles and a short rear end. Chainstay measurements are relative when talking about road bikes but the Bandit looked reasonable to me. And to be honest, I just kind of trust Transition. They have one of the higher mustache rates of most small businesses in the US outside of Pawn shops and Hunting supply stores and most importantly, they have dirtjumps outside the office. There's nothing that indicates a company's dedication to their own sanity than some dirtjumps outside.
If Kevin could have taken videos of himself riding the Bandit 29er this is what he would have shot (he's the rider in blue)
I rode the Bandit 29er pretty much exclusively for about a month and a half. I got lots of time in Tahoe and a little in Mammoth Lakes/June Lakes area where it's a little less rocky but much more loose. The most striking and surprising thing by far any downhiller experiences when hopping on a well thought out 29er is exactly what I experienced. Yup. It's a bike. It goes up. It goes down. Contrary to everyone telling me I'd be flying off trails out of corners and getting caught up in switchbacks, it just never happened. In fact I was immediately comfortable on the thing. It just fit. And with the ability to go super low with bottom bracket heights between big wheels, this bike had something a lot of people work hard to achieve.....a really planted feel. With your feet rotating a circle that has a center below the axles, there's a stability and calmness offered that's rarely found in most 26" wheeled trail bikes. This is mostly because the majority of people whining about hitting their feet on climbs tend to be pretty vocal. It can be done with smaller wheels, it just isn't and people are too whiny about learning how to time their pedals on climbs and have no idea how much more stability can be achieved on the descents. But it can be done easier with bigger wheels because the effective contact patch of the bigger radius wheels achieves the same goals as all those short wheelbase Jeeps used off road. The less room there is for an obstacle to to reach between the wheels, the better effective clearance you'll get. Here's a highly technical diagram to illustrate this.
That's good. And I really really like that about riding this bike. I pedaled up and over things a little more sloppily and could get away with it, and being literally between two gigantic wagon wheels instead of over them, made the bike really comfortable.
Now the reality check. Crappy tires are crappy tires. There's no magic voodoo involved in a slightly bigger tire patch that makes a crappy tire work better. So when you go to look at buying some burly treads for big wheels and realize that they all look like **** made for bike paths, file that away somewhere in the back of your mind so you can spit a full beer in the face of tire manufacturers who absolutely refuse to make real tires for 29" wheeled bikes. That's certainly what I did when I got tired of sliding way too far outside of turns on trails I ride weekly and would just flat out end up in the woods because the lame Maxxis Ardent treads have no place in high alpine desert riding after a weak winter. That's not the "big wheels don't turn" phenomenon I was warned about, there's just no traction. It's dusty here and those tires just suck. And the best part is, when I went to BUY some other tires for this bike, I realized that yes, in fact, every single 29" tire made these days would probably do well in the Tour de France on pavement. Don't send me emails about some stupid WTB tire you have on your 29er. I looked at it. It doesn't work. You just haven't figured it out yet because either you ride a 29er and probably don't go that fast, or you just ride somewhere that gets some semblance of moisture at some point in your life where tires don't matter that much. The entire time I had this bike, I got really really comfortable on it, but just knew that I was riding sections of trails slower because there was just no traction to be had with these tires at the speed I was used to. That's incredibly unfortunate but I do know that some of the more aggressive and extremely popular treads for 26" wheels are about to be embiggified™ for the road wheels. It only took 10 years for good frames and good tires to exist in this wheel size but hey, we're almost there.
If Kevin could have taken pictures this is what he would have taken; Bandit 29er in the subalpine - picture courtesy of Transition Bikes
29er diatribes aside, the Bandit is a really smooth ride. It came with a Kashima coated RP23 rear shock with an external sleeve (this increases air spring volume) and this combo has what most call a very 'linear' feeling ride. It gives up its travel pretty easily. I kind of despise this sort of suspension setup on any bike I plan on jumping or pumping a bunch but it has its place in fast chattery terrain. I did feel like it blew through its travel a little too easily on harder impacts but that's a personal preference thing. Setup stock, it remains really supple on rough climbs. Out of curiosity, I put in a volume reducer spacer for the shock and did prefer the ride. You can get a kit of 3 different sizes from fox for about $25 if that suits your fancy as well. One thing the suspension of the Bandit did surprise me with was just how easy it was to manual (that means 'wheelie without pedaling' if you own a 29er). Even with longish chainstays, a low BB and big wagon wheels, it's no problem at all for my 5' 9" lank to get that thing on its rear wheel and stay there. It probably has something to do with science, but that stuff is hard.
The frame did bob a little bit under pedaling loads, and this was easily remedied by some switch flipping on the RP23. I preferred to keep the suppleness on climbs around though so I just left it wide open. The suspension compression under mashing the pedals was there but not anywhere near enough to be a deal breaker.
This is what people Lee's and my height look like on any 29er.
Okay, back to 29er diatribes now. With big wheels comes big lateral leverage. When I got the bike, it had been beaten on some rough North Van trails so I had to true them up a bit. Even so, I **** you not, I knocked them out of true again in a corner. It was a hard corner but also something I ride several times a week. But the shape of the wheels was different after that corner. I've never in my life had that happen. When I got home I trued them up again and to Transition's credit, they build their wheels with 2.0 spokes so I could tension the crap out of them. I did this. Life got better. The bike tracked a little better and I felt like I could lean on them and feel where the wheels were going to be. I got a chance to fondle some ENVE wheels a buddy of mine had who's by no means small in stature or a gentle rider. He's an ape, but a very competent bike riding ape who knows equipment. And he showed me his rear wheel he rode on a flat for an 8 mile descent and the thing barely had a few dings. Trying to flex them, they were as stiff as any dh wheel I've ever built. I hate to say it but for wagon wheels, this kind of thing is even more important. My buddy praised the ENVEs and I could see why. If I were keeping the Bandit as my primary trail ride, I'd be looking at a pair of these.
If Kevin could have taken pictures this is what he would have taken; Kyle getting rowdy - picture courtesy of Transition Bikes
Something worth noting is that since I've put a taint spanker on my personal ride (that means adjustable seatpost), I'd kind of gotten used to using the thing pretty regularly. I still don't think I need it per se, but it's a nice guilty luxury. Call it the ability of big wheels to roll over things, call it the low BB, whatever, I never felt like I needed to lower the seatpost on the Bandit. It's low enough, it's slack enough, and gosh donnit, it rolls over things. Never once did I feel like the seat was keeping me from getting my weight back far enough to plow over some rocky steeps even at full climb height. This struck me as remarkably awesome.
One of the most informative juxtapositions in testing a bike is giving it back and getting back on your own ride, on which you've personalized every detail. The guilty pleasure of just how stiff my normal trailbike is (a 2011 Turner 5.Spot), reminded me why I built it the way it is. Some of it is wheels, some of it is the frame itself but the Bandit had just enough wobble in quick direction changes and hard corners that there's no way I'd own that bike without at least dropping some serious coin on wheels. The frame flexes a bit but if I could limit what was happening in the wheels, I'd be a happy camper. As received, some changes would have been in order. I certainly did miss the planted between the wheels feeling that's just not possible with most, if not all normal production 26" wheeled bikes available right now.. Even with the big somewhat flexy wheels, the Bandit just does something for stability at speed that my bike will never do. If you're a die hard 26" rider, this above anything is the big reason to look at one of these bikes. If you're a 29er convert already, I'd be surprised if you'd ridden a bike that feels quite this stable yet able to put you over the rear wheel manualing or yanking the front end out of a tight corner as nimbly.
Follow Transition Bikes owner Kyle Young and product and international sales manager Sam Burkhardt as they show everything you need to know about the Bandit Two9 full suspension trail bike.
Transition is changing up the Bandit 29er design for next year to avoid too much overlap with their coming 29er Covert. It'll have 130mm of travel but the word from Transition is that with a 140mm fork, you can duplicate the geometry of the 2012 B29. That's a good thing because other than the wheels and maybe a little more beef on the rear end, there's not a whole lot I could see changing for the better in this frame. Tire and wheel issues aside, Transition done real good on the frame.
Normally I have the resources to grab a friend and talk them into going out and taking pics with me for reviews. The percentage of nights I was sleeping in my own bed and not traveling while I had the Bandit was somewhere between zero and eight. I prioritized ride time over anything else squeezing in whatever I could get during that period. So I unfortunately don't have much outside of stock photos and some artistic awesomeness of my own as far as things to look at.
I agreed to put some ride time in on this bike because Lee thought it would be funny. I am the proto-typical downhiller/dirtjumper type who's always talking smack about 29ers and the people who ride them so I agreed to the novelty. There were only two or three bikes being made that I'd even consider bothering with based on geometry numbers, and Transition's Bandit 29er was one of them (Kona Satori and Specialized Stumpy EVO the others). Put simply, for me to plop my butt on ANY road bike misplaced in the woods it was going to have to have a bottom bracket lower than the axles and a short rear end. Chainstay measurements are relative when talking about road bikes but the Bandit looked reasonable to me. And to be honest, I just kind of trust Transition. They have one of the higher mustache rates of most small businesses in the US outside of Pawn shops and Hunting supply stores and most importantly, they have dirtjumps outside the office. There's nothing that indicates a company's dedication to their own sanity than some dirtjumps outside.
If Kevin could have taken videos of himself riding the Bandit 29er this is what he would have shot (he's the rider in blue)
I rode the Bandit 29er pretty much exclusively for about a month and a half. I got lots of time in Tahoe and a little in Mammoth Lakes/June Lakes area where it's a little less rocky but much more loose. The most striking and surprising thing by far any downhiller experiences when hopping on a well thought out 29er is exactly what I experienced. Yup. It's a bike. It goes up. It goes down. Contrary to everyone telling me I'd be flying off trails out of corners and getting caught up in switchbacks, it just never happened. In fact I was immediately comfortable on the thing. It just fit. And with the ability to go super low with bottom bracket heights between big wheels, this bike had something a lot of people work hard to achieve.....a really planted feel. With your feet rotating a circle that has a center below the axles, there's a stability and calmness offered that's rarely found in most 26" wheeled trail bikes. This is mostly because the majority of people whining about hitting their feet on climbs tend to be pretty vocal. It can be done with smaller wheels, it just isn't and people are too whiny about learning how to time their pedals on climbs and have no idea how much more stability can be achieved on the descents. But it can be done easier with bigger wheels because the effective contact patch of the bigger radius wheels achieves the same goals as all those short wheelbase Jeeps used off road. The less room there is for an obstacle to to reach between the wheels, the better effective clearance you'll get. Here's a highly technical diagram to illustrate this.
That's good. And I really really like that about riding this bike. I pedaled up and over things a little more sloppily and could get away with it, and being literally between two gigantic wagon wheels instead of over them, made the bike really comfortable.
Now the reality check. Crappy tires are crappy tires. There's no magic voodoo involved in a slightly bigger tire patch that makes a crappy tire work better. So when you go to look at buying some burly treads for big wheels and realize that they all look like **** made for bike paths, file that away somewhere in the back of your mind so you can spit a full beer in the face of tire manufacturers who absolutely refuse to make real tires for 29" wheeled bikes. That's certainly what I did when I got tired of sliding way too far outside of turns on trails I ride weekly and would just flat out end up in the woods because the lame Maxxis Ardent treads have no place in high alpine desert riding after a weak winter. That's not the "big wheels don't turn" phenomenon I was warned about, there's just no traction. It's dusty here and those tires just suck. And the best part is, when I went to BUY some other tires for this bike, I realized that yes, in fact, every single 29" tire made these days would probably do well in the Tour de France on pavement. Don't send me emails about some stupid WTB tire you have on your 29er. I looked at it. It doesn't work. You just haven't figured it out yet because either you ride a 29er and probably don't go that fast, or you just ride somewhere that gets some semblance of moisture at some point in your life where tires don't matter that much. The entire time I had this bike, I got really really comfortable on it, but just knew that I was riding sections of trails slower because there was just no traction to be had with these tires at the speed I was used to. That's incredibly unfortunate but I do know that some of the more aggressive and extremely popular treads for 26" wheels are about to be embiggified™ for the road wheels. It only took 10 years for good frames and good tires to exist in this wheel size but hey, we're almost there.
If Kevin could have taken pictures this is what he would have taken; Bandit 29er in the subalpine - picture courtesy of Transition Bikes
29er diatribes aside, the Bandit is a really smooth ride. It came with a Kashima coated RP23 rear shock with an external sleeve (this increases air spring volume) and this combo has what most call a very 'linear' feeling ride. It gives up its travel pretty easily. I kind of despise this sort of suspension setup on any bike I plan on jumping or pumping a bunch but it has its place in fast chattery terrain. I did feel like it blew through its travel a little too easily on harder impacts but that's a personal preference thing. Setup stock, it remains really supple on rough climbs. Out of curiosity, I put in a volume reducer spacer for the shock and did prefer the ride. You can get a kit of 3 different sizes from fox for about $25 if that suits your fancy as well. One thing the suspension of the Bandit did surprise me with was just how easy it was to manual (that means 'wheelie without pedaling' if you own a 29er). Even with longish chainstays, a low BB and big wagon wheels, it's no problem at all for my 5' 9" lank to get that thing on its rear wheel and stay there. It probably has something to do with science, but that stuff is hard.
The frame did bob a little bit under pedaling loads, and this was easily remedied by some switch flipping on the RP23. I preferred to keep the suppleness on climbs around though so I just left it wide open. The suspension compression under mashing the pedals was there but not anywhere near enough to be a deal breaker.
This is what people Lee's and my height look like on any 29er.
Okay, back to 29er diatribes now. With big wheels comes big lateral leverage. When I got the bike, it had been beaten on some rough North Van trails so I had to true them up a bit. Even so, I **** you not, I knocked them out of true again in a corner. It was a hard corner but also something I ride several times a week. But the shape of the wheels was different after that corner. I've never in my life had that happen. When I got home I trued them up again and to Transition's credit, they build their wheels with 2.0 spokes so I could tension the crap out of them. I did this. Life got better. The bike tracked a little better and I felt like I could lean on them and feel where the wheels were going to be. I got a chance to fondle some ENVE wheels a buddy of mine had who's by no means small in stature or a gentle rider. He's an ape, but a very competent bike riding ape who knows equipment. And he showed me his rear wheel he rode on a flat for an 8 mile descent and the thing barely had a few dings. Trying to flex them, they were as stiff as any dh wheel I've ever built. I hate to say it but for wagon wheels, this kind of thing is even more important. My buddy praised the ENVEs and I could see why. If I were keeping the Bandit as my primary trail ride, I'd be looking at a pair of these.
If Kevin could have taken pictures this is what he would have taken; Kyle getting rowdy - picture courtesy of Transition Bikes
Something worth noting is that since I've put a taint spanker on my personal ride (that means adjustable seatpost), I'd kind of gotten used to using the thing pretty regularly. I still don't think I need it per se, but it's a nice guilty luxury. Call it the ability of big wheels to roll over things, call it the low BB, whatever, I never felt like I needed to lower the seatpost on the Bandit. It's low enough, it's slack enough, and gosh donnit, it rolls over things. Never once did I feel like the seat was keeping me from getting my weight back far enough to plow over some rocky steeps even at full climb height. This struck me as remarkably awesome.
One of the most informative juxtapositions in testing a bike is giving it back and getting back on your own ride, on which you've personalized every detail. The guilty pleasure of just how stiff my normal trailbike is (a 2011 Turner 5.Spot), reminded me why I built it the way it is. Some of it is wheels, some of it is the frame itself but the Bandit had just enough wobble in quick direction changes and hard corners that there's no way I'd own that bike without at least dropping some serious coin on wheels. The frame flexes a bit but if I could limit what was happening in the wheels, I'd be a happy camper. As received, some changes would have been in order. I certainly did miss the planted between the wheels feeling that's just not possible with most, if not all normal production 26" wheeled bikes available right now.. Even with the big somewhat flexy wheels, the Bandit just does something for stability at speed that my bike will never do. If you're a die hard 26" rider, this above anything is the big reason to look at one of these bikes. If you're a 29er convert already, I'd be surprised if you'd ridden a bike that feels quite this stable yet able to put you over the rear wheel manualing or yanking the front end out of a tight corner as nimbly.
Follow Transition Bikes owner Kyle Young and product and international sales manager Sam Burkhardt as they show everything you need to know about the Bandit Two9 full suspension trail bike.
Transition is changing up the Bandit 29er design for next year to avoid too much overlap with their coming 29er Covert. It'll have 130mm of travel but the word from Transition is that with a 140mm fork, you can duplicate the geometry of the 2012 B29. That's a good thing because other than the wheels and maybe a little more beef on the rear end, there's not a whole lot I could see changing for the better in this frame. Tire and wheel issues aside, Transition done real good on the frame.