29'ers are a fringe spec on the edge of the showrooms around here as well. But then I live in the land of The Shore and other areas similar to the North Shore. Also the cities and municipalities around here have gotten on board by building Parks Board built and maintained bicycle jump parks.

So yeah, 26'ers and serious urban jump BMX'ers are the rule around here. 29'ers are all about going fast over relatively smooth trails. And we just don't have a lot of that sort of riding around the lower mainland. And on what trails we do have that would cater to that sort of bike everyone just uses a basic lower end 26 inch hardtail.

I strongly suspect that it's all about marketing. They want to push the 29'er to move stock. So the big makers that invested heavily in the dream flash them up on the websites and make it easy to find them. Same in the magazines. But look on the showroom floors of the LBS's. They are only going to stock what they can sell in the proportion that moves. No dealer wants to see stock sitting and collecting dust.