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Aaaaaarrrgggg I can't help myself, I always end up reading these 26er v 29er debates. I really must resist.
I'm saving my money for the arrival of the Specialized Brain wheel system. This will automatically detect the rider's height and the terrain on which they are riding and adjust the wheel size accordingly.
Blimey...I opened a can of worms there!
My point in a nutshell, was that I want to continue with my 26 but if wheel, tyre and fork manufacturers all jump on board and effectively discontinue making these parts for 26 and ONLY focus on 29, then will people like me be forced to accept the, quite frankly, ridiculously looking 29er (only my opinion)? - as we'll be unable to keep renewing bits as and when they wear out.
I accept that some (a lot) of people love 29ers, but how many of them thought 'I really could do with a bigger wheel' before the bike companies decided they were going to inflict it upon us? Bet there weren't that many.
rascal, I don't think you'll be lacking 26" options anytime soon. but what was niche 8 years ago maybe mainstream soon and 26" may become more niche. for riders wanting parts for self-build bikes, demand will dictate what's available. you keep buying it, people will keep selling it. product sales aren't pushed generally, it's more of a pull market and specialized's take on 29ers is a pretty extreme example.
I think a lot of people simply buy the bike they like the ride of. wheel size is just a part of that. or they try a friend's bike and like it, read a good review etc. if there wasn't demand for 29ers there wouldn't be the growth there - in a flat market like this brands will sell what they can / what customers want and only big players will try to steer it, it's a higher risk approach.how many of them thought 'I really could do with a bigger wheel'
if wheel, tyre and fork manufacturers all jump on board and effectively discontinue making these parts for 26 and ONLY focus on 29
I dont think this will ever happen and if it does it will take ages[decade minimum].
For example you can still buy non disc brakes if you want them and the wheels though not necessarily the makes you want and that is because no one who really MTB's wants non disc [ ok there are some but they stop due to lack of demand not just their desire to stop - basically if they can make money they will sell it.]
Its not worth worrying about yet but it may happen but i very much doubt it.
I'm saving my money for the arrival of the Specialized Brain wheel system. This will automatically detect the rider's height and the terrain on which they are riding and adjust the wheel size accordingly.
If does not adjust pressure and knobble pattern for the terrain then I am not interested.
Aaaaaarrrgggg I can't help myself, I always end up reading these 26er v 29er debates. I really must resist.
😆 It's a brilliant thread! It's [i]the[/i] debate in MTBing, like it or not. In amongst some excellent flaming here, there are some very interesting points being raised.
For me the debate isn't about the abilities of 26 vs 29 ( that Ritchey youtube clip shows 29ing at its best), its about the binning of an entirely fit-for-purpose format. For a lot of us who went through the last decade and a half where frame geometry was king, and riding a hardtail was a badge of hardcore-ness, seeing it all routed by a change of wheel size is just bizarre.
"I didn't notice any differences, apart from this (positive) difference."
Note the words "maybe", considering Brendan is payed by Scott to say great things about 650b it isn't exactly a glowing endorsement is it?
Kona Operator £2400
-Specialized Status £2500
-Nukeproof Scalp £2200
-Scott Gambler £2600
-Norco Aurum £2100
-GT Fury £2300
-Canyon Torque £1700
Not top 10 competitive which is the level my brother used to race at, although eventually the costs were lowered by sponsorship. Expensive light builds make even more of a difference with smaller/lighter youngsters as well.
The costs are becoming prohibitive towards youngsters who aren't from really privileged backgrounds - the issue isn't entirely the cost of the initial purchase of the bikes - you're lucky to make a frame last two seasons at that level. It's more that when you come to replace your frame, forks and wheels because the competitive frames have all gone 650b the replacement costs are going to be nuts.
I just think it's typifies what the sports become, lots of people willing to splash out a lot of money for very little differences - like with road cycling where you can buy road bikes that cost 10k etc. Where the **** is there 10k of technology in a road bike? The cost just reflects idiot rich folk who drive the costs of the sport up by paying ever more ridiculous amounts of money for status symbols.
650B I feel, falls into that category of superfluous crap designed to be sold to idiots with more money than sense.
No opinion on wheel size is interesting, the whole discussion is a snooze fest.
I dont think this will ever happen and if it does it will take ages[decade minimum].
For example you can still buy non disc brakes if you want them and the wheels though not necessarily the makes you want and that is because no one who really MTB's wants non disc [ ok there are some but they stop due to lack of demand not just their desire to stop - basically if they can make money they will sell it.]
You're right, parts won't suddenly disappear but I think the increased costs of manufacturing even more genres of bikes/sizes is going to drive costs up.
I'm going to quit flogging the dead horse now.
That's not changed by having 2 more wheel size options though? I see it as a rethink of the only thing that hadn't been tinkered with fully until fairly recently. 'Binning' seems like a strong word, only the mainstream brands have moved away and there was / is always more choice than that. I know with the bikes I work on, demand for 26" is falling and 29" is selling well - and we don't push / market anything really )For a lot of us who went through the last decade and a half where frame geometry was king, and riding a hardtail was a badge of hardcore-ness, seeing it all routed by a change of wheel size is just bizarre.
It could well swing back a bit from 29ers anyway, the 'change / novelty value' effect balancing out or people buying into mainstream brand bikes realising the big wheel's not for them.
26 and 29 seem to be co-existing quite nicely in my opinion, well they do in my shed anyway. They're different enough to make two standards worthwhile.
If anything kills off 26" wheels it'll be the push for 650b by the bike brands.
However, in the end simple demand for 26ers will keep them alive in my opinion. If people want them then at least some manufacturers will continue to see them.
However, in the end simple demand for 26ers will keep them alive in my opinion. If people want them then at least some manufacturers will continue to see them.
Yeah I think so too. The lads getting in a big flap about it all need to chill out I think.
For me 29 is clearly better, and I think the doubters should give it a good go.
But there are millions (?) of 26 bikes out there being ridden. Businesses will exist to serve that market for as long as there is demand, and of course the second hand market will be there for a long time after that.
Nowt to get in a stew about.
Ride what makes you happy y'all!
[i]What I don't understand is why everybody seems to feel the need to be so absolutist about this.[/i]
human nature innit, and folks tendency to go to the nuclear option straight off the bat, and the need to re-inforce a buying decision, so having bought a new wheel size it is off course "the best thing EVER, and 26" is dead in water fools"*. which set the hackles up of people who like their 26" bikes justfinethankyouverymuch.
*who wants to ever read that 29ers are in fact, a 'bit' better? which lets be honest, is what we're talking about here...
you can't make a 29er ride like a 26
Of course you can - you just increase the size of the bike and rider by the same amount.
A 29in wheel is about 10% bigger than a 26in wheel. This equates to the difference in size between someone 5'9 and someone 6'3 (assuming everything increases proportionately).
The taller rider would feel no different on his 29in wheels to the shorter rider on 26in wheels.
A bigger wheel means greater inertia which in tern means greater stability but decreased chuckability (trust me this is a word) since the greater the inertia the more difficult something is to throw of track. This in a nutshell highlights the advantage and disadvantage of bigger wheels - but only for the same size rider. Our taller rider has proportionately greater mass which cancels the increased inertia to give the same overall stability. He also has increased strength to overcome this inertia giving no net decrease in chuckability.
29er not for me, not what i want i don't buy into any of it.
cant afford to keep changing every god damn year to keep with the new formats instead of it standardized more.
i like my 26" and well it has worked well for my time riding this sport.
if it comes obsolete i shall give up probably, carry on with bmx as its cheap as and maybe take up somet else new aswell.
*who wants to ever read that 29ers are in fact, a 'bit' better? which lets be honest, is what we're talking about here...
😆 very amusing!
This is why I've been so confused with what to buy! Mountain biking 15 years ago was simple really, now I'm faced with three wheel sizes, and magazines telling me the way forward is bigger wheels! I do think a lot of this is the industry running out of ideas, my old riding pals won't have any of it and tell me that the wheels aren't strong enough for real mountain biking as they know people who've had and bent them! But if I buy a 26er and in a few year they stop making parts then I'm wasting my money! I work hard for a living and really can't afford buying new parts or bikes just because the industry is forcing us to. I feel I may give it a miss and perhaps buy a motocross bike.
That sounds like a much cheaper option 😉
As others have said, they won't stop making parts. I just reckon wheels will go up in price and you'll lose a bit of choice when it comes to components and certainly framesets.
Eg I can't see Fox and Rockshocks producing 26 inch and 650b 160mm forks. The 26inch Lyrik will go as will the current 36 unless they make trade off(in terms of offset) dual use forks like X-fusion.
ron, don't worry about it.
if you're so tall* that your 26er would look a bit like this:
[img] 
[/img]
then you may like a 29er.
(*i've never seen a 20"+ framed 26er on a manufacturers website, perhaps that's because they're bloody hideous)
With the fork things, I doubt you'd have any bother sticking a 650b fork on and using that with 26" wheels. It'll probably keep your bike up to speed with geometry in the future.
I just realised my last post sounded like I wanted 650b wheels. I don't. Not at all, really. But by the time I buy a new bike in 7 years time folk are saying 26" won't exist on bikes above a certain price/below a certain travel, and so, in order to keep the feel, I'll have to get 650b.
I am, I admit, baffled by 650b- the big marketing point seems to be "it rides like a 26" bike". Well, er, why not just make it 26" then?
Like one of the posters above the current uncertainty over which size will be normal longer term really puts me off buying anything new. I am recycling and hammering into the ground everything I own in the hope the market will stabilise.
I dont care where it settles but I do suspect if most of the medium to large builders go 29r we will see price increases and reduced choice in the 26r market as demand for bulk oe purchases will reduce driving up batch costs for aftermarket.
bwaarp.
I'm still waiting for you prediction as to when you'll be riding the ISDE*.
*Event not bike that's standard with a name tag on it to get nobbers to pay a bit extra. 😉
I just realised my last post sounded like I wanted 650b wheels. I don't. Not at all, really. But by the time I buy a new bike in 7 years time folk are saying 26" won't exist on bikes above a certain price/below a certain travel, and so, in order to keep the feel, I'll have to get 650b.
Even as a 29er convert from the early days of wagon wheelers i can't see 26ers ever becoming obselete.
People will allways have a choice.
Imagine how difficult it was when there was hardly any choice in 29er tyres in the early days.
It didn't stop people riding them.
If the demand is there manufacturers will make it.
Just like they did eventualy with 29er stuff.