anyone considering 26ers still?

diy

I have started to conclude that the bike industry may not wake up in time to the fact that not everyone wants a 29er. But increasingly fewer manufactures are sticking with 26ers. There is a lot of talk about 650bs, but I have to say surely that is the industry refusing to accept that 26ers were fine to start with. So are there any manufacturers sticking with decent 26 inch Mtbs? I was looking at my lbs stock considering what I might buy and got so annoyed looking at all the silly 29ers that I went to look in the road section instead.

Or do I buy a new road bike?

hopper1

Not sure how the 29ers will continue. I think there is more scope for 650b.
But, I still just bought a new 2012 Scale 20. I'm not convinced with 29ers for the smaller frame sizes.

Barteos

In case you haven't done it yet try some 29ers and 650bers first.

WindyG

I've tried a 29er but as I'm 5'6 and generally a small frame, not only does it look a bit daft it didn't feel right to me, I'm happy to stay with 26" bikes.

oxocube1

Personally I am not and never will give into the the change. The trouble with changing a wheel size is the money that has to be spent. You need to get new everything to cater for the change. The only place i would like a 29er or even a 650b would be on smooth, swooping, flowing trails that are made faster because your wheel rolls further for longer. I personally don't think that the decent trail and all mountain terrain in this country is suited for the bigger wheels. Only if the trail has had a lot of 'man made' influence would it be suitable. The really natural stuff that you find by exploring with roots, rocks, drops and unpredictable terrain I think is only suitable for 26" and is what we have most of here in the UK. For XC racing yes maybe, as lots of climbs and speed is required but other than that, for riding in the UK, I will always stick to 'normal' size wheels.

diy wrote:

Or do I buy a new road bike?

That is blaspheme in this part of the forum!

Unclejonny

Well I recently ordered a KHS Alite 2000 with 26" wheels, can't say I have a problem, guess it's a case of what feels right and makes you smile

diy

I also tried a 29er and found it a solution to a problem I don't have. It also made the bike a bit daft. I am a medium frame on full sus and large on hard tails but I like both to be nimble. I can climb 30+ %ers on my 26er and doubt the higher centre of gravity a 29er would have, would make it any more likely that I could get up something steeper.

Torres

oxocube1 wrote:

The really natural stuff that you find by exploring with roots, rocks, drops and unpredictable terrain I think is only suitable for 26" and is what we have most of here in the UK. :

I can't say I completely agree. In terms of getting a bike in the air I personally find it easier and funner with smaller wheels; however, when things get rocky and rooty I find my 29er makes it more manageable to hit lines I've never tried before.

downhillbike

cant be bothered with all the wheel sizes when 26in works fine

.blitz

Personally I've got too much investment in 26" running gear to change anytime soon. A stack of tyres, four pairs of forks, four sets of wheels and seven bikes I can swap parts around as easy as Lego

I would have to start all over again with a 29r and unless someone is willing to lend me one for a year I won't be making the change

pilch

oxocube1 wrote:

I personally don't think that the decent trail and all mountain terrain in this country is suited for the bigger wheels. Only if the trail has had a lot of 'man made' influence would it be suitable. The really natural stuff that you find by exploring with roots, rocks, drops and unpredictable terrain I think is only suitable for 26" and is what we have most of here in the UK. For XC racing yes maybe, as lots of climbs and speed is required but other than that, for riding in the UK, I will always stick to 'normal' size wheels.

It's good to see you have an opinion about this, but I would question how much your opinion is based on actively riding technical terrain on 29" wheels?

The Rookie

I've ridden 29ers on demo's and just find them too cumbersome (personal choice) although they certainly carry speed better, not tried 650B but they do look promising as offering 95% of the benefits (Matt's excellent MBUK article) for only at most 1/3 of the downsides.

I've checked the 26er frames we have at home and 3 of the 6 will take a 650B wheel with a 2.3 tyre although on one of them the clearance to the seat tube would be sub 10mm, so I could rebuild mine as 650B with just wheels/tyres and forks, I dare say some 26er forks will take 650B but not my Manitous which have less than 1/2" clearance to my 2.3's (just as well I use 2.1's through winter!)

ddraver

I thought for a long time that although there may be a dearth of 26ers for a while, if enough GB people bought them from small UK frame builders (Cotic, Genesis etc) then eventually the bike industry would see the light

What I ve heard from the US about manufacturers throwing everything behind 650b has made me more worried though. There was one story of a particular company scrapping a whole new range of 26ers just as it was about to go to production because they see 650b as the future. The chips seem to be falling in favour of 29ers for XC race/short travel trail riding, 650b for longer travel trail bikes and 26in on DH, jump and cheap as chips entry level bikes.

Which makes me sad...I suspect what we might end up with are frames with adjustable dropouts to allow either 26 or 650b wheels, which is a compromise, but maybe the best we ll get.

rockmonkeysc

It's only the mainstream manufacturers cutting all their 26" wheels. Plenty of other manufacturers still have a good range of 26" bikes.

chez_m356

RockmonkeySC wrote:

It's only the mainstream manufacturers cutting all their 26" wheels. Plenty of other manufacturers still have a good range of 26" bikes.

specialized are still playing it slightly safe with their top and bottom end bikes, they are doing hardrocks and stumpjumper fsr's in both 26" and 29"

G3neral Banter

I think 29ers have their benefits - I saw an article this month comparing 26, 650b and 29ers and the 650b and 29ers completed the same circuit in comparable times quicker than the 26inch bike, but from memory there was only around 20 seconds in it and I for one don't compete so it comes down to which I feel more comfortable on.

Im 5ft 11in and 29ers just don't feel or look right for me, although a friend is 6ft3in and he loves his.

Comes down to personal preference as far as I am concerned, there are pros and cons to both.

Having recently just purchased a new bike (26), it appears you get less for you money on a 29er, but im sure this will change as popularity grows.

Long_Time_Lurker

G3neral Banter wrote:

Having recently just purchased a new bike (26), it appears you get less for you money on a 29er, but im sure this will change as popularity grows.

This is my deciding factor when I bought my bike. The time savings that I got from a 29er on the trails that I ride are miniscule - certainly not enough to justify purchasing a lower specced bike.

rockmonkeysc

The Beginner wrote:

excellent MBUK article{quote]

That can't be right

The Rookie

:evil: :evil: Yes a good MBUK article :evil: :evil:

G3neral banter - that's the article I'm referring to, been a big discussion on it already on here!

rockmonkeysc

Is that the one with the out of scale graphs which make the 26" bike look a lot slower than the 29er when the difference is actually a lot less.

The Rookie

The graphs have the normal fudge on where the X-axis crosses the Y (not 'out of scale' though), yes, but the times for the 26er are still markedly slower than the other 2.

cooldad

Deja Vu anyone?

BlueAdvocate

He rides his Dad's bike
He rides his Dad's bike
He's got a 29er
He rides his Dad's bike

diy

The bit that is missing is the analysis of the rider. If 29" is better than 26" then why not 32" or 34", the reason is it would make the bike so tall in relation to the other geometry that you'd need to be 6'5" to get one big enough to work.

ddraver

^Its just not an argument that, its the logical fallacy known as reductio ad absurdam.

There is a balance between the good points or larger wheels vs the bad/good points of larger/smaller wheels. For most human beings, which are about 160-200m tall, a wheel somewhere between 24-29in fits best. Just because for some people a larger wheel is better than a small one, it does nt mean that a bigger one still will be even better.

The balance for some people is 26", some 650b, some 29" depending on what you want from your ride, be that speed/fun/exploring nature or whatever...

Thewaylander

once i have as much fun flinging a big wheeler about as a 26er then there in, but they aren't there quicker on pretty bog standard xc stuff, but steep techincal fast stuff i don't think so.

marz

ddraver wrote:

^Its just not an argument that, its the logical fallacy known as reductio ad absurdam.

There is a balance between the good points or larger wheels vs the bad/good points of larger/smaller wheels. For most human beings, which are about 160-200m tall, a wheel somewhere between 24-29in fits best. Just because for some people a larger wheel is better than a small one, it does nt mean that a bigger one still will be even better.

The balance for some people is 26", some 650b, some 29" depending on what you want from your ride, be that speed/fun/exploring nature or whatever...

Wheel diameter has almost nothing to do with rider height. The pros and cons of a 29er wheel are the same if the rider is 5`1" or 6`5".

To the OP, yes I'm still considering a new 26er, but also a 650b and another 29er. For me wheel size is like tyre choices, pick the right one for the riding conditions and objectives.

What would be cool is an adjustable frame could be made to take the different wheel sizes.

ddraver

marz wrote:

Wheel diameter has almost nothing to do with rider height. The pros and cons of a 29er wheel are the same if the rider is 5`1" or 6`5".

I never said it did (the opposite in fact)...

If Human beings were 3m tall not 1.5ish, do you think 26in wheels would be the best ones to use? No...

alas58

I have both a 26er and a 29er, but have no plans to go down the 650b route. Both have good merits and meet a number of different situations. Moda seem to still follow the 26er route, and do not at the moment have a 29er.

leaflite

From what ive seen, there is very little difference between a 26inch wheel and a 650b one. It certainly isnt half way between 26 and 29. I dont really see the point in buying new forks, tyres and wheels for so little benefit.

Im happy riding my 26inch bike. 29ers may be better in some ways, but currently all the ones ive seen are more expensive, heavier and fugly. Until this changes, im going to stick with what ive got.

All the mags ive read, whilst praising the new 29inch versions of bikes, are mourning the loss of the 26 inch versions(Eg MBR over the spesh camber). This says it all I think-there is a place for both in the market.

bennett_346

ddraver wrote:

For most human beings, which are about 160-200m tall

I'm about 1/100th of that.