700c Wheels on a 26'' Frame – Commuting purposes……

Just got a pair of basic 700c disc wheels for a 69er experiment but think that the rear wheel will also fit in my 26'' frame all be with a racing tyre.

Obviously this will not work for off road, due to tyre clearance, but presumably there would be no problems with 23mm tyres and on road use…..

Anyone else tried this?

Have a 29er on the front of my 26" hack bike, tried to fit in the back tyre as well but was 2/3mm too big. Don't think it'll cause you any problems as long as you're staying on the roads. May just need to look out for feet clearance on the front but most frames i'm sure will be fine.

Thats what I'm doing with this, although with CX tyres to enable a vernture off down any interesting trails that I pass.

its now fully built up so i'll take a pic when i get home.

I didn't get on with a proper CX bike but liked the idea of it so I thought I'd try this hybrid attempt.

Have recently been messing with 69er concept and swapping wheels between Road rat and SS 26er.

Big wheel in the back won't be a problem if you have clearance – why would it?

Raises the BB a bit but you'll cope if running such a skinny tyre.

As an aside, the 69er thing works well. On one carbon 26er forks and a 2.1 29er tyre on my road rat wheel was quite a bit better than same fork and a 2.1 26" wheel/tyre. 440 a-c rigid fork with big wheel and tyre sitting a smidge lower than unsagged 100mm maguras I usually run.

Felt stable, sure footed and worked in mud no problem but 26" wheel and a suspension fork still makes for a nicer ride on the whole.

My mates who tried it also liked the way it handled.

I should say the bike frame it's fitted to has a very steep head angle, high BB and it's also a compact frame purpose built for my 5'6" stature. I did not have toe overlap but clearance was much reduced to my size 7 tootsies.

May consider getting a new wheel and fork to suit next winter – the open pro rim being a bit narrow for the tyre I used, a 2.1 Schwalbe Little Albert.

Jumping onto a 140mm full susser afterwards reminded me how things have progressed and how much quicker down hill we are since the days everyone rode rigid by necessity though.

Running discs I presume?

This works perfectly. The 69er idea does upset your geometry if the frame is designed for equal sized wheels both ends, so it's best to use a pair of 700c's. Obviously bear in mind that you'l need a 135mm rear hub, not 130mm (the standard road width). Sorry if that is a bit patronising, I'm not trying to teach granny to suck eggs!

Your only problem will be running out of gears. Even with a road cassette, you will find that the extra speed quickly exceeds even your fastest spinning.

The CX tyre idea is a good one. At least you aren;t completely restricted to the road if you fancy a 'soft road' route. Having said that, there's nothing better than pure road tyres for cornering if you just want to use it on the road.

Upset the geometry? Surely that depends on what you want?

In my case I wanted to try a rigid fork on a bike that ended up feeling a bit too twitchy with a regular 26" wheel. As I only wanted it for use in muddy winter conditions a bit of extra slack was welcome rather than upsetting.

Surely that depends on what you want?

If you want something that handles slower, is higher at the front end, and puts more stress on the headtube than the bike was designed for, voids your warranty and looks a bit like a penny farthing then it wouldn't really matter I suppose.

Nevertheless, running a shorter length rigid fork instead of a suspension fork is a good enough reason to want to raise the front end a bit with a bigger wheel.

I've done it!

Kona Caldera from 1998 (disc tab added by Argos in 2008) running 700c wheels on mtb hubs and 23mm tyres.

Phew.

Loads of room all around.

Just have to swap out my discs and I'll post a pic.

I've done it on the Ti hardtail. Loads of room in the frame and on the RC31 forks. Definitely a bit faster – for less effort.

I did it on this frame and used long reach caliper brakes.

You can. I have been building up this mean bad ass mofe machine…

Yes, you're right. It's a Townsend Mango Creek with 700 wheels (fixed)

It's my last resort, as this beauty died.

works fine

Aye – 700c on MTB Works a treat.

Running an old skool Ti Inbred/Pace RC31s which alternates between 700c Mavic Open-Pros (Skinny tires are Continental Gatorskins, chunky tires are Schwalbe Marathons) and Mavic 717s whenever the mood takes, as the hubs/disc rotors are the same on both wheelsets.

Variety is the spice of life

: )

i considered going to big wheels however decided to try this out first. slicks on existing 26" wheels but with a close ratio cassette and road chainset so shouldnt run out of gears on the fast bits

As i'm now down to one bike i've just done this with a spare pair of wheels i had.

Bike is a 2010 giant x4. The rear only just misses the frame with a 32 cx tyre on it , but its great with a closer ratio cassette on.

I'll put a pic up later when i'm next in the garage.

Iain

It gives an idea of the clearance.

Although I prefer this pic 😉

Are you still using those tyres in the first pic RD?

Thanks for all the replies – seems pretty common 😉

Here are couple of pics taken today. I have still yet to ride her properly and the mahoosive pedals are just temporary 🙂

Looks okay to me 😆 Make the 19'' frame look tiny though:

Loads of clearance too. May even be enough to get a 32mm cross tyre on 😕

Air horn is just meant for the London to Brighton but its soo much fun 🙄

Here's an up to date photo from the weekend.

rides great, the 80mm of travel at the front takes the sting out of the trail a little bit, its feels super fast though 🙂

Ran 700c discs on my old inbred for quite a while, rode fine and was pretty damn fast.

Also fitted 700c disc wheels and Pace RC31's to my Ti Pipedream frame ! my mate rode it when we did our 135 miles charity ride last year and had no problems at all !

Rob Warner Pedals – ace!

jackthedog – Member
Rob Warner Pedals – ace!

Cheers fella, my shins don't always agree!