got an email from cy talking about wheel sizes and he says that cotic will continue to support 26ers for many years yet . This is good news to me as I love my soul and wouldnt want anything else TBH but its LBS that tell a different story and get me thinking ! Long live the 26er !!

I’m quite looking forward to being a wisened eccentric on his old fashioned small wheeled mountain bike

I find it quite hilarious that people not only listen to what an LBS say and also there are people who think 26″ will disappear. Wake up folks, there is a world out there beyond what the English speaking countries decide is cool.

I just want one of the beanie hats 😀

yes but the 26er , 650b and 29er debate is front page news still 🙂

My interpretation of the email was that their future is with larger wheeled bikes, but they will continue to support and produce 26ers, which is fair enough. I can envisage and feel comfortable with a world with more than one wheel size. Afterall cars come with about six or seven different wheel sizes with their own pro’s and cons.

I’ve been desperate for Cy to announce a 29er (or 650b) Rocket but I can wait no longer and have gone with another bike. Maybe in a few years when i’m looking to re-frame i’ll get my wish.

I don’t mind 29ers and 650b’s but I like my 26ers (especially my BFe 🙂 ) and I dont want someone else to decide that I cant have 26ers anymore. (not that I can see that happening anytime soon)

Well said 😉

waved a pair of 650b hoops at my new soul today and they fitted real nice….

Cy also said that there was no point in a Small Solaris and look what happened….

He didn’t change his mind did he 👿 Where did I put that pitchfork.

But more upsetting for me is the news that there will be no more black Rockets once this batch is sold. Can’t afford one at the moment but always thought I would like one at some point. Oh well….

Well said Richie!

The marketing storm created by the whole 29er / 650b affair is unreal – giving some LBSs and most magazines the chance to go into a money spinning frenzy

Yes, they probably ride faster, but i don’t do XC races, but do enjoy thrashing people on their super lightweight 29er carbon w*nk machines on my all mountain 26er

I ride for fun, not to win races – i enjoy thrashing my bike and it feeling alive – which in turn makes me feel alive

However – Richie – if you don’t replace the Soul in the next 6 months – i’ll lick your bike clean after a ride around Swinley! 🙂

Only one of my mates rides a 29er, and he hasn’t been out for over a year now, all the rest of us ride 26 and I never see any on the trails we ride , chilterns and Woburn,

I won’t be changing,

I tried the big wheel thing, oh, let me think, when I was about 14. That was a 28″ wheeler, with uber wide cow horn (sorry ‘riser’) handlebars and 10 gears (sorry 2 x 5) – we called them trackers. I’m quite happy now (30 years later) on 26″ wheels thanks.

It’s a bike FFS, not a pair of shoes, I don’t need it in half sizes.. 😆

Cheers Clucas it’s my last bike , he says 🙂

Yesterday in Evans I noticed 2 things… One, if you sneak a single 650b bike into a row of 26 inch wheel bikes, it makes all the others look a bit odd. But also, two, they really didn’t have very many 29ers despite all the hype, and those they did were mostly very xc. Couple of 650s, but maybe 19/20 of all the mtbs were 26ers.

Now maybe that’s just because they don’t carry Specialized or something, but it’s not what Teh Internetz says is happening.

I wish cotic would put my mind at rest and tell me they’ll have my orange rocket in soon! 😀

I have to say being fairly new to using this forum I’d seen a few 29ers and 650b’s but thought of them as fad novelty bikes for people who have bike stables that need filling up.

Having read a few threads on here over the last couple of weeks I’m now paranoid the 5k’s worth of bikes in my garage are all going to be obsolete and worthless in 12 months. I think a large proportion of the rumour mill is fairly localised to a number of people using this forum and a few local bike shops.

Personally I’m just fed up of the whole thing. Why can’t we just have some bikes that have 26” wheels some with 27.5” and some with 29” all over the full range of styles?

I don’t want to be forced onto a different wheel size because some bloke in California thinks that is what all 140mm fs bikes should be. I’m looking at you Specialized!

They have 26er bikes so dialled now so why change

I am not as lucky as some, especially some of you northern types who are blessed with such big scenery, cram packed with large rocky outcrops and steep rooty hills.

Most of the local woods I ride are really quite boring by comparison and if I was to iron out the bumps any more I may aswell hit the Tarmac.

That is a good point , how smooth does the trail need to be

richieokeefe1 the fact that 26″ bikes are so dialed now is exactly why they are pushing different wheel sizes so hard. its an easy way for them to shift new product, its very hard to sell someone something they already have.

Yesterday in Evans I noticed 2 things… One, if you sneak a single 650b bike into a row of 26 inch wheel bikes, it makes all the others look a bit odd. But also, two, they really didn’t have very many 29ers despite all the hype, and those they did were mostly very xc. Couple of 650s, but maybe 19/20 of all the mtbs were 26ers.

Now maybe that’s just because they don’t carry Specialized or something, but it’s not what Teh Internetz says is happening. Evans do carry spesh, it’s just that Evan’s bike buyers have their heads screwed on and ride a lot, they buy what they believe in and what the staff say people want. That seems to be 29ers in some areas, the Norco 650Bs and 26″ FS, etc. They can be pretty flexible rather than following any big-brand’s pitch.

wheel thing is boring

Cy will make them while he can make money /shift them, as soon as he cant he ant (like his 21″ soul)

Slightly upset that Cy’s dropped me off the newsletter email list. Must toddle off and sign up again

Remember being told a soothsayer at a lbs (Keswick) that all bikes would made in aluminium in the future and steel was finished. Soon all bikes will be 29s, well till the year after the next big thing.

why would any small manufacturer stop making a successful product. While mainstream goes off on one the likes of Mavic etc will still keep churning out rims and maxxis tyres for those of us who don’t change our bikes as often as our pants. If Spec/Giant wont make a 26″ ht them people who do will make money (although the demographic is different there 🙂 )

Just as there is plenty of scope for selling nice well made 26″ FS bikes.

I live in a racer town where most of the riding is xc racing and 29 has taken off but the rest of us who just ride are happy enough where we are. Also looking at the results training still seems to make more difference to people rather than the bike.

fud.

26″ isn’t going to be obsolete but I’d be buying the high range wheels and forks now to put away for the future for the time when companies stop making stuff

Really? You really think 26 wheeled stuff will become obsolete and unsupported during our lifetime? I think there is more chance of wheels becoming obsolete altogether in favor of hover bikes before that happens in our lifetime. There will alway be manufacturers out there making 26″ stuff even when the main manufacturers completely stop producing it. I don’t think there is any need to start hoarding stuff just yet.

souldrummer – Member
But more upsetting for me is the news that there will be no more black Rockets once this batch is sold.

did they say what colours they are going to do? Just Orange from now on?

I would have thought it would have been orange and either blue or green.

Nice to have the feedback on here backing up my suspicions regarding 26″. I just thought having had to have this “your Soul isn’t going to be obsolete in 3 years” chat with a couple of customers it struck me that they could well be the tip of the iceberg so wanted to put peoples’ mind at rest. We still sell more 26″ hardtails than anything else, so clearly we aren’t stopping doing them anytime soon.

Rockets-wise, the other colour will be green. Too many people asking for it not to do it. Sorry to anyone who wants a black one. We still have mediums and larges in stock, but sales have slowed significantly since we ran out of orange ones, and we have back orders on orange Rockets with black ones still in stock whilst people are asking for green ones. It’s not hard to see why we’ve switched.

Considering all I read about 29ers in the press I was surprised at one of the crc marathons last year of all the bikes there I only saw around half a dozen 29ers.

I’m genuinely baffled by the huge amount of binary thinking shown on stw about wheel size.

Anyone can see that 26ers are still the lions share of the market. It only feels like 29ers are taking over the world because they’re new and its what everyone is talking about.

To me its just another choice. Hardtail or FS? short travel or long travel? Carbon, steel, alu or Ti? Fat tyres or thin tyres? Risers or flats? 1×10, 2×10, 3×10? Big or small wheels? It’s just down to what you like and what you want.

It only feels like 29ers are taking over the world because they’re new

i think a few riders would dispute that. my comment about stock piling 26″ stuff was meant to be tongue in cheek, i should have realised it would be taken as gospel! 26″ will be around for a while yet, if that suited my size I’d be on one, I’ve ridden 26″ for a lot longer than 29″ (15/5years) but when I tried the larger wheel it felt instantly right

I’m with scienceofficer on this one. It’s just another choice when I’m going for a ride.

Though must admit that the marketing may be having an effect on me as I reckon 29ers now look right and 26ers look a bit small wheeled 😕