This is a bit of a random thought I’ve had while pretending to slave away over my keyboard at work….

When trail centres perform maintenance on their trails these days do any of them take the opportunity to ‘upgrade’ the trails to make them more suitable (i.e. provide bigger challenges for) to the newer larger wheel sizes or are the technical features still based around your average riders 26″ wheels?

As 29ers are supposed to roll over smaller bumps easier and 650b apparently makes the trails come alive surely as they become more popular the trails will need to be made more difficult to provide more of a challenge.

Funny enough I was speaking to Bob the South Wales Mountain Bike Ranger the other day, he was coyly talking about a ‘big bung’ he’d been given by ‘the industry’ to upgrade all the trail centres to 650b spec, further making 26″ wheeled bikes obsolete – he said the changes would be subtle but soon 26ers would actually become ‘less fun’ as we were all told they would be.

I’ve heard that they have upgraded the gaps between the rocks and jumps to suit 650b.

Much tougher to ride a 26″ bike round the trails centres that get loads of maintenance now.

Edit: damn, beaten to it.

Yes, they’re going to make the uphills steeper so it appears that the trails are ‘harder’ for those bigger wheelers who’ve gone 1×10/11 and don’t understand gearing 🙂

It really is a slow day at the office, no?

Were any trail centre features actually designed for 26″ wheels in the first place?

Okay Rob Hilton, fess up – who do you work for? Santa Cruz, Giant, Orange or MI6?

Don’t come around here spreading your misinformation!

Yeah all the wheel grabbing holes at the bottom of step downs are all 26″ specific until they have eventually been upgraded to 29ee specific then we will all be doomed 😆

I’ve seen some “features” that weren’t actually designed at all 🙂

All them mountains and tracks in the lake district/peaks/south downs/scotland etc certainly weren’t designed with any wheel size in mind. I don’t think there’s any need to start worrying if you ride a 26″ wheelend bike. I won’t.

Rob Hilton – Member
It really is a slow day at the office, no?

😆 how’d you guess? 😉

So lads who ride with 26″ wheels are going to struggle more then lads with 27 or 29 ? what a load of old bull shit .

So lads who ride with 26″ wheels are going to struggle more then lads with 27 or 29 ? what a load of old bull shit .

totally agree, i have never heard of a trail being built for a wheel size that has to be BS

cubemeup – Member

So lads who ride with 26″ wheels are going to struggle more then lads with 27 or 29 ? what a load of old bull shit .

totally agree, i have never heard of a trail being built for a wheel size that has to be BS

Just you wait and see, the power to change the contours of the earth is insignificant compared to the power of the force bike industry.

Some of the nu-skool stuff you could ride on a Brompton. Just won’t look as stylish when do a table top.

i have never heard of a trail being built for a wheel size that has to be BS

I’d never heard of vegan cheese til recently – God! that stuff’s awful…

Wow some people don’t get irony

i really cant see how you can build a trail around a wheel size but then im just a dull old sales rep

All them mountains and tracks in the lake district/peaks/south downs/scotland etc certainly weren’t designed with any wheel size in mind.

Oh I dunno. I’ve encoutered a couple of waterbars put in by “Fix” The Fells in the Lakes that made me wonder, they were suspiciously *exactly* the right size to grab MTB wheels and stop them dead…

i really cant see how you can build a trail around a wheel size but then im just a dull old sales rep

C’mon! Sell the idea to me – don’t go all Willy Loman on us

Edit: You’re a tiger – grrrr!!

Too many people being suckered in by this!

Okay – hands up, who is/was taking this seriously?

Did some people have a sense of humour bypass over the break? Anyway, I’m about to ride my 29er on some 650b specific trails and kill some kittens

Edit – P Jay beat me to it

Yeah, they’ve taken all of the corners out so that there actually is an advantage to 29ers.

Don’t fat bikes make better kitten killers than a 29er due to the wider width?

P-Jay – Member
Okay – hands up, who is/was taking this seriously?

WTF?!? This was a joke? I’ve just been on the phone to the trail crew @ CyB warning them they’re in danger of becoming a white elephant if they don’t keep up with the modern trends.

I thought I heard laughing in the background…:/

i have to say this did suck me in but you never know!! plus its my first day back in work!

cant wait for the 29er trails to get braking bumps so i can use them as rollers on my 26″ wheels

Laugh it off now but wait until they start only selling 27.5/29er specific cakes in all trail side cafés.
Then the revolution will come.

Laugh it off now but wait until they start only selling 27.5/29er specific cakes in all trail side cafés.

But surely this is a good thing. Bigger cakes at trailside cafés can only be an improvement….

29+/B+ cake FTW surely?

superstu – Member
Wow some people don’t get irony

POSTED 1 HOUR AGO # REPORT-POST

😀 😀

I heard from a reliable sauce in the aggregate industry that all newly upgraded sections of the red trail at Swinley are having a surface dressing of 21mm to dust, making them only rideable on 29ers. The blue will still be graded with 20mm to dust for at least 1 more year, so that riders of 26ers have somewhere to ride until the new government scrappage scheme is enforced. By then 20.31mm to dust will be being produced by most quarries, meaning that it can then be ridden on by 650b riders.

I know of some holes which are comically 29 inch sized, everyone else can roll in one side and out the other but 29ers need to put some effort in or they get nicely trapped. So ideally, when you have a 29er in your group, you want to have them 3rd or 4th in line so they can see everyone else just trundle through them.

The only noticable differences between a 26 inch trail and a 650b trail, will be that the latter has enormous logos and is covered in journalist spaff.

reliable sauce

Heinz?

Now now BR…. it’s all about whether the rider can push em…. even on your flipping hill affected rides!!

Will be back up later in the year… hope to catch up.

Swinley….. Definitely has been upgraded for 29ers and road bikes. Do any of you remember the 29 killer switchback on blue 17 climb? Used to amuse me greatly to sit at the top and watch all but the most gnarrrr 29ers make the bend. I am now faster on all sections on my rigid 29er than I was on my 26er. But you know what….. I have more fun on my tiny wheel bike than my clown bike. Clown bike good for miles…. Old school for smiles 🙂 you should all try little wheels 🙂

They already sell enduro cakes at Cannock Chase cafe bright coloured icing and way overpriced!
[url=https://flic.kr/p/qmVQrG]daisy-cupcakes-bright-colors[/url] by Richard Munro, on Flickr

I think the OPs suggestion is ridiculous

All the money went to local authorities to smooth out bridleways so that they would only be interesting on a cylocross bike

jekkyl – Member

All them mountains and tracks in the lake district/peaks/south downs/scotland etc certainly weren’t designed with any wheel size in mind. I don’t think there’s any need to start worrying if you ride a 26″ wheelend bike. I won’t.

This is the main reason why some manufacturers are still selling 26ers, because it’s too labour intensive to upgrade the natural trails to suit the larger wheel sizes.
Another thing is some of the more popular trails have put up signage next to features that are deemed not suitable for 26ers, with 26er chicken runs off to the side.
I’ve also heard that some trail centres are considering setting up 26er specific parking which is closer to the trail-head and, in some cases, futher along the trails to compensate for the extra pedaling diastance 26ers cover. Madness, all this expense, must be getting some serious back handers from the manufacturers.

I do volunteer trail maintance at my local trail centre. We have been given secret training, paid for by a “very” large manufacturer ( sorry can’t say anymore), to build trails that only “come alive” on 27.5 wheels, they don’t even seem to care about 29 any more. I cant say to much about the details, but suffice to say that the new trail is virtually un rideable on a 26 bike.