Viewing 6 posts - 81 through 86 (of 86 total)
  • 27.5/Dirt a bit biased?
  • RustySpanner
    Full Member

    Very possibly.
    I’m getting my b’s and c’s mixed up.

    And I thought that 27inch wheels in the uk were a very different diameter to 650b?
    I certainly have no recollection of 650b being the default UK size for British adult bikes – thought it was 27?

    Northwind
    Full Member

    For everyone but racers, the question isn’t “is 650b better”- it might be, it might not, but it’s certainly not a big enough difference to justify replacing a quality 26 inch bike.

    And there are other disadvantages for the consumer, companies have thrown effort into 650b that could have gone on improving other products- for example tyre companies have had to redesign and re-release their whole range just to stand still, the number of decent new designs in the last year or so are tiny. And despite that there’s still less choice for 650b than there is for 26- there’s just 1 halfdecent hard-use mud tyre, for instance, and even that’s come after a winter of people making do with stuff you’d never choose if you had the choice of 26.

    Shops have been stuck with artificially obsolete stock and the need to buy in new stock that is basically identical in order to sell it for the same amount.

    molgrips – Member

    Wait, what? Are 29ers no good now then? What was MBR’s original position?

    Nah, for ages they said they were rubbish. Then something happened to make them change their minds. Jury’s out on whether they just discovered they were wrong, or, it may have coincided with Specialized going all 29er 😉

    molgrips
    Free Member

    Here you go, a 1961 British mountain bike, when fitted with Avon cyclo-cross tyres:

    Wow, that’s almost EXCATLY the same as a modern 650b MTB. Oh wait, I meant exactly not the same 🙂

    It makes no difference that that size has been popular in the past on different bikes. Point is, it’s ‘new’ for MTBs because for years 26 was the standard.

    However the marketing is bollocks, of course it is – it’s marketing. That’s not even a debate 🙂

    The choice could be a good thing but I’m quite concerned that 26 support is going to dwindle. I have four 26er bikes that used to be high end, there’s no way I am going to replace them all. I don’t want to replace any of them.

    That’s what I mean by forced onto the market.

    Who really needs a 26er instead of 650b? The short, I suppose.

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    chipsngravy
    Free Member

    It makes sense. 27.5 is a good wheel size for the type of riding Dirt promotes.

    spchantler
    Free Member

    supply and demand innit, same reason you struggle to get decent acid these days, whose gonna make it when all the kool kids are chomping that mcat stuff… o sorry wrong decade 8)

    cfinnimore
    Free Member

    Terribly 2012 this. Inverse argument.

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