Tight twisty single track, roots, natural jumps (old tree stumps etc), Loamy, muddy, sandy etc etc

I’m next to Epping forest, tiny, but lays claim to being the oldest forest in England or even UK!

I have been waiting to update my bike, but I’m hesitant at leaving 26″ behind me…

I have never ridden anything larger than 26″ for more than a few mins.

I want a playfull hardtail that i’ll probably keep on the smaller frame size, due to the tight nature of the local single track.

My question is, if you take away the dream trails of your Welsh and Scottish and N English trail centres…. does the larger wheel thing really work? I’m always relying on the wonderfully skilled reviews on STW and Pinkbike and Bike Radar etc etc… but they always test bikes in pretty ideal conditions. 90% of my riding, is tight, twisty, rooty etc etc.

26″??

Or will the new geometry of a frame like a Ragley or a Stanton really negate any offset of a larger wheel and just give me the good bits of a 27.5??

Any experiences of people that have really ridden both back to back, would be mightily appreciated. All my buddies are on 27.5, but their bikes are all too big for me to get any comparison.

Honestly, there is so little difference between a 26 and 27.5 wheel, you may notice it but you’re not likely to hate it.

(I ride a big honkin 29er most of the time now, even with the clownwheels it works brilliantly on tight-and-twisty. Wheel size is far from the defining factor for this stuff)

Northwind +1

I have a large mid travel FS29r its great fun in the twisty stuff. I would say it needs a little more exaggeration in moving it around compared to my 26″ hardtail but there’s geometry and build playing a hand in that too.

27.5 is not half way in between, it’s more towards the 26″ size (I’ve not ridden a 27.5 yet just the “extremes” either side).

Personally the only thing I wouldn’t buy is a new 26r as the industry’s not really supporting them much with tyres, forks etc. Unless they’re coming back for 2017???

garage-dweller, the life expectancy of 26″ is a concern… It also offers some good bargains at the mo.
Northwind, It’s good to hear your take. What are you riding and where out of interest?

It’s really hard to gauge the differences with my riding buddies, as they ride very differently to me. I try and pop off every root and mound I can see, drop my saddle whenever I can and tend to throw the bike around. They all ride 27.5 full sussers and tend to ride ‘through’ obstacles, rather than over them and only get air when the terrain forces it… like a drop off.

I’d love to hear from someone who has ridden both versions of a bike/frame that has been updated to 27.5.

Slackline
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Soul/Bfe

In all honesty I would not be putting good cash down the 26″ route these days. Nothing wrong with the stuff just forks mostly will be the hardest thing to find. This years bargain nexy years impossible.

There is so much more to a bike than wheels

I’d love to hear from someone who has ridden both versions of a bike/frame that has been updated to 27.5.

Slackline
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Soul/Bfe
Thats assuming no other changes, you could make a bike better by giving it 26″ wheels with a geo correction for instance. You could also make it worse, just scaling up to 650b might not make it any different or really different. Not much use other than to say it’s about way more than the wheels

I’d love to hear from someone who has ridden both versions of a bike/frame that has been updated to 27.5.
Slackline
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Soul/Bfe

I’ve ridden 26″ and 27.5″ versions of the Chromag Samurai, which is similar to the bikes you list. I really don’t think the wheel size is anything to get too agitated over. A 29er feels genuinely different to both 26″ and 27.5″, but they feel pretty similar to one another. For the little it’s worth, Ian Ritz of Chromag supposedly reckons 29 is where it’s at for hardtails.

🙂

Sound advice! Thanks guys.

Personally the only thing I wouldn’t buy is a new 26r as the industry’s not really supporting them much with tyres, forks etc

really? plenty of forks, tyres, wheels can be bought in 26 inch size. Even new tyres come in 26 size.

You don’t tell us what you are riding now.

If it is a £400 ht from 10 years ago then the geometry changes will be the big difference.

The question of 26” becoming defunct is not really an issue, plenty of kit still around but forks tend to have tapered steerers now.

For where you are riding and for your favoured style the 26 v 650b debate is not really important, just get the geo you want.

I still love my Evil Sov on the terrain you describe, short front end and a very short back end, like riding a bmx on steroids… for me long slack modern geo is something of a fun killer at places like Epping, bloody great at other times though.

As long as you get a 26″ frame with a tapered steerer, forks won’t really be an issue, you can just run 650b forks with slightly longer a-c, though the axle will be nearer the ground, so negligible difference, and stacks of clearance.

There can be very little difference between 26″ & 27.5″ depending on the tyres being used, I’ve seen some combinations where just from a cursory look you’d be hard pushed to tell the difference. Obviously the “27.5” on the sidewalls is a bit of a giveaway but in terms of actual diameter there was less than 10mm difference.

As above – current forks *tend* to have tapered steerers, not all do but if you’ve a particular model in mind you could well be out of luck.

A couple of years ago I demoed some hardtails with different wheel sizes – couldn’t tell the difference between 26″ and 27.5″ but there was a definite difference between those and the 29er.

I’ve no comparison with 27.5 to add any insight to but your riding sounds like most of mine op, and I love my 26″ slackline for it.