27.5 vs 29er - Danny Hart's Mondraker Summum 20

Let's take a moment to compare the World Champ's Mondraker Summum with 27.5 and 29-inch wheels. Danny rode the 27.5-inch version at the first World Cup in Lourdes but swapped to 29-inch wheels this past weekend at the British Downhill Series race at Fort William. With the Fort William World Cup just around the corner, it seemed like the perfect time to get some testing and training on the bigger wheels. Danny ended up winning the race by 1.6-seconds over Loic Bruni, who was on 27.5-inch wheels. While we can't get in the racers' heads to see just how hard they were pushing, the gap between the 29's and 27.5's didn't seem insurmountable, especially when we've heard reports of 5- to 10-second advantages on courses that are 4 minutes long. All we can do is check out the differences and get stoked for the World Cup where we expect to see even more big-wheeled machines.

A quick and dirty video comparison of the two bikes.

Here's what Danny said on May 5 about 29ers and DH.