Having gotten all hot under the collar about this initially I’ve come to the conclusion that all “The Industry” are really going to be flogging are 26″ frames and forks with a bit more mud clearance, it’s not actually an issue really, but they just can’t say that outright or the Swizz is up…
X-fusion, as mentioned above, already started labeling their forks as dual 26/650b compatible ages ago as the A-C dimension can be the same from one to the other, so why not just make a single variant, Job done.
Frames with Swapouts rule here, if you really need to tweek the rear axle position between 26″ and 650b it’s not a massive change, but more than likely you can just flog one frame for both sizes, people were already cramming 650b wheels in to certain 26″ frames anyway, the difference is marginal enough that you may already own a frame able to take 27.5″ and just not know it…
A sensible company would simply support both wheel sizes in one pretty straight forward product, rather than support only 26″ or adopt 650b exclusively and basically bin any share of the other market…
It’s have your cake and eat it O’Clock, you can flog it as 27.5″ compatible to the car park Bitches, and 26″ compatible to the old stick in the Mud types, and not affect your cost of goods one jot…
Hurrah for “Change!