The Philadelphia Mountain Biking Association

I do work at a special(z)ed shop and I have worked with the big s for many years. They are not my favorite bike/markerting company, but the Brain technology is some of the coolest stuff there is.

I have stayed away from full squish bikes, since I like riding my steel(sometimes rigid) bikes, but the brain gives some squish with the ability to move like rigid bike. I know i can get that in a softtail, but nothing is as tuneable as the Brain, and with my size, I have never really trusted softail bikes, but if you have an old Ibis laying around, I will take it for a few laps.

I am really waiting for the Epic 29er as it is EXACTLY what I have been waiting for. I wanted an Epic, but I knew they were going to have a 29er soon enough, so I built up a "budget" 29er to make sure I liked it. Now I can save my pennies and get an epic 29er.
I do not know specifics on the 29er singlespeed yet.

When they staterd making 29er tires and then sold out of them for the year, the writing on the wall was clear that they were going that direction. Mike makes good choices, but sometimes takes a while to make them to make sure they are going to be right.

Ned has been a test rider for 29ers for a while now. He will take any step to keep his game as elevated as it is. My source on the "inside" said that Ned emailed him and said there is no Epic for this year, but I have another source on the "inside" that said the epic travel will be 3 and 3. When the official word is released this week, we will see!

I think many people will jump on the 29er thing now. With cannondale, raleigh, trek, gf, specialized, etc all making a 29er bike, they are not looked at as freak bikes any more (it is kind of sad). It is just like cross and track. Only a few folks were making cross bikes and track bike, and mostly it was just bike nerds and shop folks buying them, now shops are filled with choices of cross bikes and fixies.