26" wheels in a 650b Mega TR - thoughts? - Singletrack World Magazine January 27, 2016

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This topic has 19 replies, 13 voices, and was last updated 8 years ago by hora.

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26" wheels in a 650b Mega TR – thoughts?
core
Full Member

Self explanatory thread – how do we think it would ride? BB too low?

Posted 8 years ago

craigofscotland
Free Member

but why???

You could, you know, put the correct size wheel on the correct size bike . . you know . .for a laugh . .

Posted 8 years ago

Bagstard
Free Member

As long as you don’t get pedal strikes it will be fine, great around corners! I’m currently running my on one 45650b with 26 inch wheels, because I was building a cheap hardtail with bits from the shed and it’s great.

Posted 8 years ago

honourablegeorge
Full Member

There was a thread on here a while back asking this, it referred back to the questions on the CRC site, where someone from CRC was saying that it would be fine with 26″, if a bit low

Posted 8 years ago

core
Full Member

craigofscotland
but why???

You could, you know, put the correct size wheel on the correct size bike . . you know . .for a laugh . .

Because I a have a decent set of 26″ wheels already and am toying with the idea of building a full sus up as cheap as possible as an experiment.

I’ll have a look at crc, thanks George

Found it:

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/nukeproof-mega-tr-275-rockshox-monarch-2014/rp-prod106879?gs=1&gclid=CLzH_vXlycoCFSsOwwodkwQEBQ&gclsrc=aw.ds

Posted 8 years ago

Speeder
Full Member

I was going to ask if anyone had had any success with a 650 frame 26″ wheel combo as it could tick all the modern geo – long, LOW, slack boxes without meaning you have to replace the whole bike.

What difference in height are you looking at anyway 26″ to 650? I assume less than 10mm.

Posted 8 years ago

honourablegeorge
Full Member

12.5mm exactly, assuming tyres are equal (they’re probably not, but close enough)

Posted 8 years ago

roverpig
Full Member

So a 6.25mm drop in BB height (or less if you fit a wider tyre) right?

Interestingly there was something in the latest cotic email about running 26″ wheels in the Rocket 275. Somebody tried it and really liked it, but the BB on the Rocket wasn’t super low to start with.

Posted 8 years ago

baddddad
Free Member

Will be absolutely fine. My son did this with no issues whatsoever until he could afford 650s

Posted 8 years ago

DaveyBoyWonder
Free Member

Maybe Hora was onto something…

http://www.cotic.co.uk/news/

Posted 8 years ago

chakaping
Free Member

Maybe you could go up a size, since it’ll be slightly lower anyway.

I love a nice low BB myself.

Posted 8 years ago

honourablegeorge
Full Member

roverpig – Member
So a 6.25mm drop in BB height (or less if you fit a wider tyre) right?

No, a 12.5mm drop – those are diameters. But yes, less with a bigger volume tyre.

(It took me two edits on that other post to get to 12.5mm)

Posted 8 years ago

honourablegeorge
Full Member

It really depends on the bike – if it’s already low and slack and pedal strikey, then 26er tyres will create a problem, otherwise should be good.

Posted 8 years ago

mattyfez
Full Member

The bike equivelent of…?

Posted 8 years ago

roverpig
Full Member

No, a 12.5mm drop – those are diameters. But yes, less with a bigger volume tyre.

Yes, sorry, my mistake; a 25mm difference in diameter, so 12.5mm BB drop.

Not quite the same, but I’ve been playing with B+ wheels in my 29ers which drops the BB by ~7mm.

On the Solaris it’s been great. The BB was probably a bit high (with a 120mm fork) so the smaller wheels let me keep the travel and angles I like while lowering the bike a bit (plus a bit more comfort and grip from the bigger tyres).

By contrast it doesn’t really work for me on the Smuggler. The BB was already low and gets too low for my liking. Being a full suss I don’t get as much benefit from the extra cushioning of the bigger tyres and the heavier wheels make the steering (on what is a pretty slack bike) too sluggish.

So, yes, it does seem to very much depend on the bike and on you of course.

Posted 8 years ago

hairyscary
Full Member

A mate has done it. Xl frame, 170mm lyric, angleset and offset bushings. Very long and low. A trail bike with the same feel as a DH bike he reckons.

Posted 8 years ago

core
Full Member

What are people’s thoughts on standard BB height on a mega TR with 650b wheels then, is it already regarded as low?

Posted 8 years ago

chiefgrooveguru
Full Member

Depends on how big a fork you’re running, how much sag you run, how long your cranks are, where you ride and if you’re used to riding ‘around’ a low BB. Probably fine, possibly awesome, possibly annoying. Mega TR has a 13mm BB drop which is pretty low already but not crazy low – so with 40mm sag that’s 53mm BB drop once you’re on it.

My new hardtail has a 55mm BB drop and I think that would be too low for 26″ wheels as that’s at about 65mm BB drop once I’m on it.

Don’t forget the BB height changes constantly when you’re riding, especially with a full-sus.

Posted 8 years ago

roverpig
Full Member

Personally (and it’s all personal preference, of course) that BB would be too low for me to want to just stick 26″ wheels in a stock bike. However, that’s assuming the same fork. Run a longer fork (as in longer A-C) and it would probably be fine.

EDIT: For comparison the BB drop on the Rocket 275 (which seems to work OK with 26″ wheels) is only 3mm.

Posted 8 years ago

hora
Free Member

I remember posting up that Meta v4 was ace with 26’ers and I loved my old Blur4x yet anonymous bicycle forum experts showered scorn on my personal preference.

The same folk who have fluffy white bodies and graze in fields.. 8)

Posted 8 years ago