DH will go 650b, they just need more equipment choice and time to adapt, which will both be influenced by 650b in Enduro due to the rider crossover. The results will come, and it will be especially influential if they come from riders on the way up or jumping out of mediocrity.

The results will come, and it will be especially influential if they come from riders on the way up or jumping out of mediocrity.

any chance of this weeks lottery numbers, i just checked but my balls are hairy not crystal.

All the top DH guys will be on 650b this year.

26″ is done as far as the industry is concerned. A lot of manufactures who were late to the 29″ market or have suspension designs that lead to unfashionably long rear centres are drunk on 650b but companies who have killer 29″ have a big advantage as they can do the 650b thing and say they’re great but if you want the faster bike you want our 29″. Trek have already said much the same.

IMHO if it makes you feel better mikewsmith. I’ve never really been convinced though that stating that is necessary when most posts contributed in a forum discussion are going to state or reflect an opinion. I did so with my earlier post, but CBA last time.

Funnily enough I was previously pondering starting a thread on whether STW had finally maybe reached a consensus on what wheel sizes will survive and in what disciplines. That’s not the same as saying everyone might agree why. 650b seems to be succeeding despite us. IMHO 😈

And for that there needs to be a performance advantage of heavier wheels

If those wheels are the same but just heavier, no advantage. If they’re heavier as a side-effect of changing dimensions, it can be a non-issue. Especially when you don’t have climbs in an event where momentum is so important.

JCL you keep on comin on here ans saying that 29er are faster but whats the evidence for that? – we’ve done this point many times in all the threads before – there isnt any evidence for it – its just wishful thinking/ marketing BS/ trolling

Jonesy from Dirt is fully convinved that big wheels are faster – so much so that he’s banging on about how the DH teams are out of sync (or just plain wrong in his eyes) for still using 26inch. He also struggled to get his head around why Clementz wasn’t on bigger wheels (and came across like a bit of a tit) in the interview with him a few issues ago.

Whether or not they’re faster or not, 26inch is pretty much dead as far as the industry is concerned and I’m guessing this move by Spesh means that the Evo models will move to 650b from 26inch.

I’m quite happy on 26inch, but am aware that I’ll probably end up being forced to change at some point. The annoying thing will be when I have one bike on one wheel size and one on another because at the moment I can pass stuff like forks, wheels and tyres from the posh bike to the hardtail as I change or upgrade stuff.

its just how the sport is, wheels are a big one but look at

axle standards qr, 9, 10 135 or 142×12, 150×10, 20mm, 15mm
steerer sizes 1″, 1.5, 1.125, tapered
bbs; pressfit, threaded pf92, ht2, isis, octalink, bb30, square, 72mm, 83mm
8,9,10,11,12 speed, sram or shimano
chain guides/front mechs; iscg, isg05, bb mount, s3, seat tube
seatpost sizes – in my shed i have bikes with 27, 27.2, 30, 31.6, 25
handlebars; 25.4, 31.8, 35
saddles/posts- i beam, railed
spds vs crank bros vs time
and probably loads more

all of these have varying degrees of compatibility between standrads (with shims and adaptors)

why is that wheelsize in particular has upset everyone so much?

Axle? My hubs accommodate all bar 150mm which is an older DH idea
Head Tube? Tapered does all a right PITA and the reason I upgraded my frame, not happy really but tapered now covers most of the options.
BB’s yep PF is stupid and a bad idea, I’m just sticking with the ones who don’t do it.
Number of gears? Up to 10sp it’s no different and easily convertible, SRAM VD Driver makes a 10sp wheel into a 11sp one.
Chain Guides – fairly cheap really
Seat posts? Most have settled on 30.9 really. It was just the out of date guys with smaller
Bars – simple stem change sorts that out
Pedals – hardly a big compatability issue

Wheel sizes for no real good reason? New frame, fork and wheels needed for no really measurable difference.

kimbers – Member

why is that wheelsize in particular has upset everyone so much?

Because it has a bigger effect than any of those. In fact probably a bigger effect than all of those combined. See your bike? Obsolete. You want to replace it? Ah sorry, it’s worth half what it was yesterday Oh you want a new part for your existing bike? We stopped making it in that size. That new cool fork? We’ll never make it for you. Serves you right for choosing the wheel size absolutely everyone uses eh.

it’s like vhs, except your vhs player cost £4000 and actually worked pretty much identically to the new format which has tapes which are 0.000001% bigger.

kimbers – Member
why is that wheelsize in particular has upset everyone so much?

Because it has a bigger effect than any of those. In fact probably a bigger effect than all of those combined. See your bike? Obsolete. You want to replace it? Ah sorry, it’s worth half what it was yesterday Oh you want a new part for your existing bike? We stopped making it in that size. That new cool fork? We’ll never make it for you. Serves you right for choosing the wheel size absolutely everyone uses eh.

it’s like vhs, except your vhs player cost £4000 and actually worked pretty much identically to the new format which has tapes which are 0.000001% bigger.

If wheel size has more effect, that’s MORE reason to keep more sizes to suit the type of bike (and bike size) being designed.

pjbarton – Member

If wheel size has more effect, that’s MORE reason to keep more sizes to suit the type of bike (and bike size) being designed.

Which isn’t what’s happening, what we’re actually going to end up with is a narrower choice- 2 mainstream sizes which are closer together, and a remnant 3rd size.

Im not so bothered I suppose

My bike was at the end of its life cycle as well -2008 bike

frame, forks and wheels, meh I bought them all second hand anyway and they cost less than an XX1 groupset!

Id trashed the wheels
Id realised I wanted a different frame, plus bearings and shock needed servicing
Forks were OK though
I was still running 9speed and wanted a clutch mech

Initially I was going to get a new frame and swap bits over but realised I could get a shiny new bike, that was 650brilliant for not masses more than I was going to have to spend anyway.

So I sold the old stuff, only kept the brakes for my new bikes, bits and bobs will go onto my other bikes

Im getting my old hubs built onto some maybe carbon? new rims when I can afford it

I tend to keep bikes for a good 5 years so it didnt really work out so bad

Ive still got a 26inch hardtail and dh bikes Im more than happy with

and if in 5 years time the new standard is 31.25 inch wheels Ill probably by a new bike then
Ill just have to suck it up, MTB components only have a finite lifespan stuff needs replacing, deal with it 😉

kimbers – Member

MTB components only have a finite lifespan stuff needs replacing, deal with it

That’s kind of the thing though isn’t it? If existing parts lasted forever it wouldn’t matter if you can’t buy them any more 😉

http://www.vitalmtb.com/product/feature/Its-Official-Specialized-Goes-650B-with-Stumpjumper-EVO-Models,235

Because it has a bigger effect than any of those. In fact probably a bigger effect than all of those combined. See your bike? Obsolete. You want to replace it? Ah sorry, it’s worth half what it was yesterday Oh you want a new part for your existing bike? We stopped making it in that size. That new cool fork? We’ll never make it for you. Serves you right for choosing the wheel size absolutely everyone uses eh.

But does it? My hardtail has a 1 1/8″ headtube – this means it won’t accept most of the nice new forks on the market. It would happily run a 27.5 fork and I’d like the extra mud clearance to be honest. Its old style dropouts won’t accept my 12×142 rear wheel on my full-sus. Rims are dead easy to make and there’s a vast choice of tyres out there – tapered forks seem a more significant backwards compatibility and longterm support problem than 27.5 wheels are.

One other thought – can the average rider feel the upside of 27.5 vs 26 wheels more obviously than the upside of tapered vs 1 1/8 forks?

Does this mean Specialized will continue with both 26 and 29 as well as the new 650B Stumpjumper? Or does the 650b replace the 26 and 29? And will the 2015 Enduro be 650B?

The Pinkbike Antur Stiniog BDS video highlighted a few 650B wheeled bikes for Danny Hart – Giant, Gee Atherton – GT and Manon Carpenter – Saracen. There may have been others…

650b is replacing 26 end of story.

I think you will see 650 DH predominate most of the bigger teams bikes for the 2014, even the STW much hallowed Cotic Soul has gone 650.
For me going from same model 26 to 650b despite still recovering from a prolapsed intervertebral disc, my Strava postings ( for what they are worth) are all improved, given the muscle bulk loss and reduced fitness, please explain how this can be?. However I feel some of it is the geometry of the 650 bike rather than the wheel size per se!