Lately Ive been riding this 1999 GT XCR 1000, and Ive been having a lot of fun:And of course part of the fun is that its a full-suspension bike, and therefore a novelty to me, as I tend to avoid that sort of thing. Still, fun is fun, and riding an old full-suspension bike I sometimes cant help wondering if Id have even more fun on a new full-suspension bike.But then I remember the bike that compelled me to get rid of my other mountain bikes in the first place:By the way, fittingly, Jeff Jones started out at GT, and while they eventually figured out how to put an iDrive in a full-suspension bike to make it ride somewhat normally, he went on to figure out how to make a bicycle that does everything a full-suspension bike can do yet doesnt need suspension at all.I hadnt ridden the Jones in a little while, but from the moment the wheels touched dirt I felt like I was back home:The GT is, as I say, fun. Its nimble and its plush. But the JonesIts just a better bike than the GT. It doesnt coddle you, nor does it egg you on; instead it encourages you and reassures you in that way someone does when they truly have your best interests at heart. Its like a grandmothers chicken soup, a fathers firm and guiding hand, and a mothers comforting bosom all in one. Sure, its not all that exciting aesthetically, but it does look great next to that totem pole:I dont know why there was a quarter on it, but maybe someone was looking for a coin slot:Meanwhile, everyones trying to figure out this whole 32-inch wheel thing, because supposedly theyre faster:At the same time, Jan Heine maintains size doesnt matter (we all tell ourselves that) and that its tire volume that makes a bike roll over stuff better:The truth is, nobody knows for sure.But what if you took a 29-inch wheel and put really wide tires on it?Seems to me it would have the same effective diameter as the supposedly faster 32-inch wheel while also rolling over obstacles in the way Jan Heine describes.And what if, instead of making a generic gravel bike or cross-country mountain bike chassis fit around it by resorting to stems with erectile dysfunction and other strange workarounds, you designed a really versatile frame from scratch?Something tells me a bike like that would work really well.