My last hard tail was my fist ever mountain bike, over a decade ago now. The whole bike cost less than some single components on my current bikes and when I saved up and moved to a dually a couple of years later, I swore I would never ride a hard tail again. With the Mawson Marathon only a few weeks away and my team mate for the event, Brett Bellchambers, already on a hard tail 29er, it only made sense that I should ride on one too, so it was time to get my hands on a Giant XTC 29er and try one out...

I love the look of this bike, they have gone to a lot of trouble with the little details, like the hints of blue to match the blue frame paint, from the blue seat clamp to blue spoke nipples and even blue cable end caps! It really makes the bike look awesome I think.

On the trails in Stromlo and the first thing I notice is that it rips up the climb to the observatory like a rocket. I expected it to be tough to get through the switchbacks with those bigger wheels, but it goes through there as well as my Anthems, then accelerates out of the corners and up the hill like no dually ever could and you're at the top with ease.

On the way down it's pretty good, the ride is obviously harsher than a dually if you pick a bad line, but those big 29" hoops soak up a lot of the little bumps; For example the rocky section just before the downhill bridge at the end of skyline is much smoother on the 29er than on my dually 26" bikes, which took me by surprise, it just railed straight through there like a hot knife through butter!

Out of the box and ready for a ride, this large frame version weighed in at 12.0kg, which is amazingly light when you consider the retail cost of these bikes is a mere $2K. You're getting one hell of a bang for your buck with these babies.

There will be some mods for the Mawson ofcourse, but so far, I'm pretty impressed with how it handles.