I picked up the Hightower LT from Ryan at Golden Bike Shop; he had a mechanic set up the brakes to my feel and set the tires and suspension up to my weight (this required more effort than I expected, thanks Ryan). After the initial setup, I headed out to ride Chim-pex, North table, and Golden Bike Park. 

First impressions – feels light, but solid. I was apprehensive about the 2.4 in the front with a 150 mm fork because I ride a 2.6 with a 160 fork, and I ride quite hard. I was also excited to test out the 29 inch wheels because I am not a 29 fan boy. I expected them to ride well over chunk but to feel bulky and hard to maneuver, but once I got used to how they rode I just noticed being faster.

Climbing – I liked the way the VPP made the sharp edges of Chimney feel vague or muted. Like, it didn’t interrupt your pedal stroke/cadence. This made me faster overall. You could say this was also because of the 29 inch wheels. I was really surprised that tight corners were not more of a problem.The 29 inch wheels also gave me a nice bottom bracket height, which made climbing easier on Chimney Gulch, which has a lot of sharp square edges to stop your momentum if you pedal strike. The drawback to this is that you are definitely higher up, but if you have good balance, it isn’t detrimental.

Descending – by the time I had climbed Chimney, I had gotten somewhat used to the 29 inch wheels and how they felt through corners and tech. Coming into and out of corners required that extra little push of the bike down into the corner to get those big wheels to take the turn at speed.

I noticed that I did really like the added traction that the 29ers provided and that helped when I would get “on the edge” at speed and started throwing the bike around.

You could tell that the suspension wasn’t being tortured as much as with my 27.5 – it was literally dealing with about 30% less obstacles because of the bigger wheels. I think the carbon rims also played a role in this; they seemed to keep their shape over the rough stuff and roll rather then bounce.

 It felt like this bike wanted to go straight. If you were at speed and approaching sharp turn,you really needed to pay attention to the right line to make it or else you would have to slow down. So, the feeling is that you need to exaggerate your turning technique to get the big wheels to turn sharp corners. I could definitely see the added grip being useful in areas like Fruita/Grand Junction that have dirt/sand corners.

Jumping – I took the bike to Golden Bike Park and did a couple laps. I was, again, surprised that the bike did well at this too. I put it in trail mode (for a little more compression) and it was fine. I could feel that it was a bigger mass while in the air, so if you wanna throw down sick whips, maybe it’s not the bike for you.