I have a Independant Fab with29" wheels. The bike is set-up with an XTR drivetrain. When I try to use the larger gears the chain rubs the outside wall of the front derailleur. I have tried to adjust this to no avail. The gears shift perfectly and yet the rub persisits. Is there any way to widen the deraileur cage? What I think has happened is that Shimano made this derailleur for 26" wheels and did not take into account the longer wheel base and chainstays of a 29" wheel. Any thoughts or help would be appreciated.

I dont think thats it. Your front derailleur needs adjustment. There are good instructions on how to do this on parktool.com. if the bike is new, you might be able to take it back to the LBS you bought it from and have them adjust it for you. Many shops offer free or reduced-price tuneups for a year or so after you buy the bike.

You might want to try looking at the cage on the front derailleur in relation to the chain rings, (As I recall, shouldn't it be roughly parallel with the chain rings?)

Yes, you can widen/pinch the front derrailleur cage, but I would personally try to adjust everything perfectly first. Check out the ParkTool link and the info that Sheldon brown has on his site. You should definitely be able to find something here to help you. Does the chain only rub in the extreme combos, like the biggest chainring/biggest cog and smallest chainring/smallest cog combos? If so, the small amount of time that you will/should use them shouldn't be a problem because it's such a small amount of time. I would think though, that with enough tinkering, you could all but eliminate the noise except for maybe these combos. You mentioned that the bike still shifts good, so I would avoid playing with the der. cage for now.

-Moab