What do you guys do with your unused 26inch gear?

I managed to sell on most of my old bits when I broke down a couple of old bikes but couldn’t bring myself to part with my old wheels for stupid low money. So now I’m left with old hope pro 2 wheelsets which are essentially gathering dust. Is it worth stripping them to the hubs to sell those separately or not really worth it? Or do people use them to build up 650b or 29er wheels?

What rims and conditions? Pro 2 or pro 2 Evo?

Decent hubs should sell.

I took apart one set of wheels and built the hubs onto 29 rims, then also bought some hubs from someone a bit like the OP and built those into 29 wheels.
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Now have a set of posh 26 rims and spokes no-one seems to want. (Alex XCR Pro scandium rims, 320g each and about 80 DT Aerolite spokes and alloy nipples, over £600 of stuff I’m struggling to shift, £50 posted if anyone want’s them?)

PMd you andrewh

I’ve put a Turbo tyre on one to slot it into the back of my Gravel bike in the past; worked a treat, saved me getting a second wheel or needing to change the tyre on my normal rear wheel (tubeless), plus 26″ trainer tyres seem to be cheaper because no bugger wants them generally…

I’m also saving one last pair up for when my eldest needs a 26er…

I am after a set of 26″ wheels, mine are coming to the end of their life. I busted another spoke on the rear at the weekend. If anyone wants to flog any….

[EDIT] Turns out people are interested in decent 26″ stuff. Or at least they are when it’s less than 8% of the retail price…[/EDIT]

build a dirt/pumptrack bike

Turns out people are interested in decent 26″ stuff. Or at least they are when it’s less than 8% of the retail price…

Well, seeing as no one sells it anymore that’s 8% more than £0.

Still useful to build up into bikes for commuting, or riding around town etc. The “problem” is it’s really a buyers market. A buyer might take pity on the OP and pay him £300 for his £600 rims and spokes, but really they’re more likely to just go on ebay and pay 50p for any old kit.

Stripping if they have nice hubs might get some value from them, but even that’s less appealing now most frames are boost spacing. I’ve got a whole drawer of my tool cabinet filled with Hope and other bling hubs!

Stealth wanted ad. for a black Pro 2 9mm front hub…..32h

Plenty of people ride 26″ bikes, just stick them on ebay and they will sell.

Stealth wanted Ad for a basic 26 rear qr wheel (eg Shimano Hub) for my 26er rigid SS. Not desperate but think my current freehub is likely to die this winter!

@hardtailonly – may have one in my shed that you can have for buttons (plus postage!) – let me look when I get home and I’ll post up.

It’s annoying isn’t it. I bought some alloy tubing to allow me to convert 135 hubs to 142, works a treat.

Stealth ad, I have hope bigun hubs on d321 rims!!

Pump track/dirt jump bike. Great for skills practice!

Stuck all the bits off my mega tr frame onto this stanton.

Or a 26″ trials bike.

I’ve been looking for some 26” wheels but people seem to want silly money for them.

I’m after some dark/anodised 26’rim brake wheels if anyone can help.

26″ trials bike

^ this is what I’ve done with a Cotic BFe and some 26″ wheels I had lying around 😀

Stealth ad.

26” Sun Singletrack rims on Hope Pro2 hubs. Currently 20mm front (although have adaptors for 9mm QR) and SS / Trials rear. Black rims and hubs, 32 hole, white spokes!

Perfect for a pump track or jump bike.

I’ve been looking for some 26” wheels but people seem to want silly money for them.

Depends how you define “silly”, I’ve got a set of Pro2 Evo wheels, which I no longer use, but at some point I’ll take the hubs for another bike. There’s no way I’d sell them for less than £150 as that’s what a set of hubs would cost and so that’s what they’re worth to me (if someone wanted them they can effectively have the spokes/rims for free). Someone looking for a bargain would probably think I was being “silly” though (I did post them in the classifieds and immediately got about 10 people telling me there was no market for them and I should swap them for a Snickers bar).

OTOH I’ve seen QR non-disk chris king wheelsets go for £50 on ebay. For building onto a road bike that would be a steal! So I think the sellers of that sort of thing are being silly.

I’ve just stripped down a set of 26ers to get the hubs (Hope) for a 650B+ build I’m doing.

Dunno what I’ll do with the spokes or rims, but they pack down small now they’re not a wheel, so they don’t take up much space.

Buy an old 26inch frame and build yourself a nice bike that you’ll can have multiple wheelsets with tyres of your choosing ready for any eventuality

And where are all the nice steel 26” frames ?

I’ve had an eye open for a couple of small / extra small steel frames, eg: Cotic Soul, for my two lads but; they are like hens teeth. They were all over the place once. You were literally tripping over them on Ye olde forum. Folk were literally offering hard cash for people to take them off their hands.
But now……..nothing. Presumably they’ve all rusted away, to dust.

I bought a 650b frame and run it even lower than it was intended 🙂

I sold everything I could sell for a good price, then I either sold off for peanuts or kept the rest. Then I built myself a fantastic 26er Soul for peanuts. And now I’m doing the same with a 224 Evo. Both bikes I had back when 26 Was Alive and can now afford to have again for like 1/4 the price.

Honestly the time to get out of 26ers alive was at least 2 years ago, now you either have to just sell it for peanuts or make good stuff out of it.

Is really no one riding 26 inch bikes any more then?
In the group I ride with generally there are half of us still on 26ers. I still can’t convince myself that another inch and a half (ooh err missus) can really make a night and day difference, although not being able to afford a new bike may be clouding my judgement. I don’t see any difference to any of the others riding now they’ve gone 650b. No one’s got any quicker.

Out of the 10 people I generally ride with only 3 of us are still riding 26. With varying abilities, it doesn’t seem to make a massive difference. I do notice that my mates on the big wheels seem to have less concerns over line choice to me when I follow them over some stuff!

As for rust: I changed my bottom bracket last night expecting 6 years of rusty water to come out – but nope clean as a whistle, (so no excuse for anew bike there then)!

I got some great 26″ wheels and forks from on here when I was building up bikes for the kids. There are people still wanting decent so-called “obsolete” bits, though not got great value.

My 26er is now my lads bike. We also use it for the turbo as we had a spare rear wheel.

And guess what…..i just built up a pair of 26 inch rims. I got the rims and hubs for about a tenner each in a CRC sale, all in they cost about £70. Madness maybe, but i fancied trying wheel building, this was the cheapest way and i now have a lovely set of rims with a gravel/road tyre to use the old 26er on the roads/commutes.

If the Vintage DH group is anything to go by people are paying increasingly silly amounts for old stuff, those biguns on 321s would fetch good money despite the fact its the one and only hub Hope don’t support any more. Marzocchi forks as well.

I’m actually after a set of 26″ wheels with Pro 2s for the Pitch I’m building up but need to sort the forks first, 150-160mm 1 1/8 straight steerer. Le sigh.

Also, plenty of decent frames out there, they’re just either lying waiting to be cleared out, bring used or being hoarded by dickheads taking advantage of the whole bubble going on right now.

A stealth wanted ad perhaps but I’d love to pick up a pair of wide and light 26″ rims (or wheels).

I’m a regular rider but not like I used to be or would like to be, and not a big seller of stuff, so bikes last me a long time. I’m probably always going to be 5 years behind a big change in standards. Both my mountain bikes I still regard as decent kit even if their wheels, BBs, headsets etc are the “wrong” size. One I’d like to move on to bigger tyres though. Needless to say both are 26″. I’m also a short-arse, so it all just feels a bit more in proportion…