RIP 26"

650b will be the default. Makes no sense manufacturers doing 2 versions of the same frame to support 27.5″ and 29″

29″ will become as obsolete as 26″. One ring to rule them all.

I just want to be able to buy and ride a bike without having to stress about which bl00dy wheel size to go for.

Too much to ask?

EDIT: Oh, and what he said^^^

As I mentioned, I care because I think a 29er or even 650b is likely to be too big for me, if I was tall I wouldn’t be concerned.

Without wishing to be rude, how tall are you Toys19?

Hey! Let’s not forget that this another totally sexist bike industry initiative.

Girls need smaller frames. Those flipping big wheels don’t fit into smaller frames without looking proper comedy. I call paternalistic conspiracy to keep girls off the trails.

😉

What are you saying. Ms Batty fits on a 29er just fine 😉 (there’s no tounge-in-cheek smily)

The wonderful thing about bikes is that we use wheels with spokes and rims. if you buy a 650b and decide you’d rather have a 26″ then it’s fairly straightforward to swap rims. They’re so close you might not even need new spokes.

I’ve actually just swapped my mk1 nomad’s 26″ rear rim for a 24″ rim since I wanted to slacken the head angle and lower the bottom bracket. It also has the benefit that I get to feel all superior by being more niche than everyone else since i’m doing the opposite 🙂

What makes it all so funny is that overnight the MTB press has decided that 26″ wheels are dead and everyone believes it, worse still people of less robust constitutions immediately think their current wheels are out of date and they have to rush out and buy a new setup.

I see that Devinci (makers of my current bike) and Nicolai (makers of my next bike) are making 26″ bikes this year. Two of the finest examples of hand built frames and some of the best handling bikes available.

If you want different sized wheels great but stop ramming this rubbish down our throats.

duir +1 pretty much says it all.

if you buy a 650b and decide you’d rather have a 26″ then it’s fairly straightforward to swap rims. They’re so close you might not even need new spokes.

12.5mm difference in bead seat radius. would need to be quite a radically different rim profile to have a compatible spoke seat diameter.

plus there’s BB height difference to think about.

wrecker – Member

They just needed something new to sell to those of us who don’t like 29ers. Almost every review I’ve read has stated no or very little discernible difference between 650b and 26″.
I understand 29ers, they are different enough to co-exist with 26″, but 650b is purely here to get us to part with our money. Pretty shameless IMO.

+1

I was thinking of a fixed geometry frame that accommodated both, but you make an even better point, you could easily “Future proof” a current design 26″ with some type of swapouts that simply adjust Chainstay length and BB height by ~19mm in either plain retaining the static geometry and ride height for both wheel sizes…

Make that 12.5mm adjustment required – that’s how massive the radial difference is between 26 and 650b.

They’re so close you might not even need new spokes.

you’d probably get the first 9 or 10 installed before you realized.

12.5mm – massive – radial difference

So when I run 2.5’s instead of 2.1’s I’m already 650bing? (until they go bald anyway)

i think the 19 is a bit of pythagoras? ie 12.5 extra in chainstay length, and 12.5 difference in BB drop, and a bit of rounding up (although 1-2mm is hardly going to affect things). so the axle position will move by about 18-19mm relative, to keep everything else in the same place (although I think that’d be a worst case, so long as seat tube is no issue).

saying that, I was looking at a FS 650b and the CS length was a whopping 3mm more than what I thought my 26er HT is.

I have ridden both 29 and 26 recently. My first go on a 29 was a fully rigid single speed and it was brilliant! so fast up hill, rolled over all the roots and rocks I thought might send me over the bars no problem and generally coped with everything I thought I needed suspension up front for. I was impressed. It was bloody harsh though.

Then I got a go on a Yelli this weekend and went for some fast times on various bits of trail I know well (Strava content beware!) and I went faster everywhere but in all honestly I was trying harder and it was a perfect weekend for it! It went over rocks and roots nicer (Not necessarily faster) and cornered well with predictable slides where I thought maybe a 26 would have washed out. This was first thing in the morning and was fun but not wow this is the future fun..

That evening i went and did the same trails on my 26 (C456) and was near as damn it the same time down everything, I can’t say I noticed much more harshness in ride and got to the bottom just as out of breath as the 29.

So in summary. I’ll most likely get a 29 single speed rigid for most of the riding round the surrey hills and hold on to the C456 for everything else.

Not tried a 650b so can’t comment.

FWIW ^^ i know this rider, this rider got skills, this rider would be fast on a baking tray.

what size baking tray?

Non stick ?

I like bikes. They go as fast as I pedal them.

As to the pressing baking tray issue – non stick 10 inch round for me with a sprung clip on the side to get the sponge out. All other trays are wrong and to be discontinued.

Expect massive Yorkshire Puddings. Ace!

Any baking tray, read his post, size doesn’t matter!

As to the pressing baking tray issue – non stick 10 inch round for me with a sprung clip on the side to get the sponge out. All other trays are wrong and to be discontinued.

This is clearly a tin. Tin’s are unrideable unless the press tell us they are better.

oliverd1981 – Member

So when I run 2.5’s instead of 2.1’s I’m already 650bing? (until they go bald anyway)

See, if I was pushing 650b, this is the truth that’d bother me- with 29ers, it’s a big difference, you can’t really predict how it’ll feel til you try it. With 650b, it’s a small difference, everyone who’s ridden small 26 inch tyres and big 26 inch tyres knows exactly how much difference it makes, and therefore knows it’s ****-all, and lost in the noise.

I can’t remember anyone ever saying they preferred bigger 26 inch tyres because of the better roll-over, that’s a comment reserved for wheel sizes… But the difference is the same.

Oh and cheers Mattjg, for the compliment and the bikes!

560b Northwind? Is 650b over already? I can’t keep up! Have all those gullible fools that bought into 650b been shafted yet again by the industry great and good?

So what do we call a 650 front 560 rear bike then?

65056

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palindrome

560b

is that like 559 (aka 26er), but just fractionally bigger, making it a right pita to fit tyres on? (bit like Schwalbe on Stans?)

26,27.5, or 29? Do i care? no. My bikes last me for 10+ years so if 26″ goes i’ll take advantage of the clearance prices of tyres and tubes and deal with changing my bike in another 10 years.

Non-ninja edit!

Seeing as you mentioned Yorkshire puddings – whats best, tin or tray.

Am wanting big ones.

Tray – tin is just skill compensation.

I just bought a 26″ hans dampf for 20 bucks. sweet. let the trendies pay through the nose for the new stuff.

Where?

I live near Malaga where there are roughly 50% riding road bikes and 50% riding mtb’s.Everyone seems to have the latest Fox front forks and many full suspension.Thing is that here people are not all 6ft plus so 95% ride 26ers.In my LBS today he has 21 mtb’s with 26″ wheels and only 3 29ers.As for 650B’s they have never even heard of them.The market for cycles is much bigger here than the U.K so chances are nothing much is likely to change.I rode the competition course where the BBC soap Eldorado was made today and it is hard enough with small wheels so dread to think how a 29er would cope.

Which baking tray for Spanish rocky technical courses ?

rode the competition course where the BBC soap Eldorado was made

Those aren’t rocks – they’re the crumbled dreams of so many soap stars

I rode the competition course where the BBC soap Eldorado was made today

Can’t find the Eldorado ‘downhill race’ scene anywhere on YouTube? 😉

Now just waiting for 25″ wheels to be made for especially for the vertically challenged as another marketing gimmick.

Without wishing to be rude, how tall are you Toys19?

No rudeness, I’m 167cm, or 5ft 5 3/4, but I have short legs 27 ish inside leg..

I asked cy about 29ers (like the solaris) he pointed me towards the soul or my current BFe.
It worries me that people think 26er tech will become deprecated as TBh I love MTB and it is a big part of my life. I dread not being able to enjoy it as much as I currently do, just because of the whim of a marketing dickhead.

Toys19 – I wouldn’t worry – there will be plenty of riders who see 26ers as being more “core”. They are more fun, turn quicker etc. So i doubt, in the next 15 years the supply of 26er tyres and rims will dry up.
And if it does , there will be someone old skool offering stock.

TBH – it makes a lot of sense – taller riders having 29ers, mid/norm size 26ers , and maybe those of a more compact stature should be having 24 inch wheels and tyres developed ….