It’s official, Giant’s got a 29er Mountain Bike.
OK, so to clarify, Giant has a PROTOTYPE 29er XTC mountain bike, and here’s proof.  Spec’d with their ALUXX aluminum frame material, a Fox F29 fork, XT drivetrain, RaceFace cockpit, and what appear to be house-brand wheels rollin’ on Maxxis CrossMark tires.
So, will it go into production?  Well, my little readers, you’ll just have to listen to our 2nd podcast when it posts tomorrow to get the word straight from Giant’s all-knowing brand guru!  We’ll even do a reminder post just to let you know the podcast is live!
In the meantime, click the image above to enlarge and hit “more” to see frame only proto renderings…
Now wipe that drool…
UPDATE: Then there was this (thanks to TwentyNineInches.com for the tip) posted on Giant’s facebook page prior to the images above:
This one is decidedly different than the one above, showing a blend of carbon and alloy tubing, with replaceable (and adjustable?) dropouts, meaning it could be run as a singlespeed and/or fixie.  Given the propensity for people to run 29ers as SSers, this actually makes more sense and perhaps we’ll see some mix of both designs in the final product.
