Its hard to say without trying a bunch of different things. Every bike is different. I love some of the 29ers I've ridden, but others I could never get to feel right. The lack of saddle to bar drop on some 29er's felt a bit weird to me. I think the -17 degree stem may help. A lot of the pro's resort to stuff like this to get the position right on the big wheels.

My Niner Sir9 with 90mm 0 degree stem and Reba 80mm fork (46mm offset) feels like a tank. Slow steering and very sluggish. Not a big fan of this bike at the moment, and will be swapping the suspension fork out for a shorter rigid fork shortly.

The same fork on my Misfit Dissent 29er with the same stem and bars (albiet slightly different geometry) felt much snappier.

My Ragley TD:1 29er has a longer TT and a 70mm stem with more saddle to bar drop, and a short rigid fork (what is really a suspension corrected 26" fork with a 29er wheel in it), and this is without a doubt the fastest, best handling 29er I've ridden, and thats with 37mm offset.

Hopefully you can get the handling dialed in!

Hey guys

thanks for all comment

I played with my fork settings a little bit and it improved the ride a lot:

I removed a few psi in the fork, going for 30% sag
I turned the rebound adjuter all the way toward the fast setting and unscrewed one turn. Dramatic improvement I'd say.

Now I will still buy a -17d stem. Would you guys have any suggestions? Looking for the ritchey 4 axis. The syntace is very nice but seems hard to find here in Canada...

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2013 rocky mountain vertex 29er
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just for fun, if any of your buddies have a 650b front wheel, throw it on and see what a steeper head tube angle does for you.

Not exactly weight weenie, but a Thomson X2 road stem would give you the -17 degree option, and readily available in Canada. At least its easy to find and resale value is great to see if it gives you the feel you are looking for.

yup did consider it, but is there any issue riding the thomson road stem on a MTB given is has a 2 bolts design?

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2013 rocky mountain vertex 29er
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It's fine if you're not hucking your bike and you don't have crazy wide handlebars.

ordered a KCNC arrow black stem, good price, good weight and will match the seatpost!

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My friend rides a Thomson X2, 120mm, -17 on his Niner. No problems with bars slipping or stiffness.
Too late though, considering you ordered one already

Two other options...

1. Try a Cane Creek angleset which allows you to "change" the headtube angle.

2. The other option is to find a fork from a Gary Fisher bike with the "genesis" geometry. These have a unique-to-fisher rake/trail combination designed to work with the longer front end and shorter stem on the Fisher bikes.

BVut I think option 1 is a better choice.

Good luck.

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TED ESSENFELD
Schoorl, Noord-Holland, Nederland
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I was going to mention the G2 fork as well. I recently put an 80mm G2 Reba on my 29er and the handling is much quicker than the previous 100mm standard rake fork. It takes some getting used to though. I almost went OTB a few times on the first few rides.

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Trek 5500 - 13.75lbs on a $1400 Budget
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Lol no way im gonna swap form. My sid rl is brand nee, as is the rest of the bike.

Reducing form pressure and adjustint rebound did help a lot. Now to put the neg stem for a final touch

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Hey guys,

I am considering a very similar mod for my monstercross build, I have already reduced the fork from a 100mm to a 80mm and feel I still could use just a little quicker steering.
Therefore I second the Cane Creek adjustable headset mod. It would take a 71 degree headtube to 72.5 degrees. Adding 1.5 degrees to the front end geometry would quicken things up for sure
One thing I can comment on that I have tried was going to a narrower bar it definately quickened up the steering.
I,m interested to see how the stem option works out for you
Let us know how things work out.

thx
Dave