To 650b, or not to 650b?

davenewcastle1973

With my impending 40th birthday on the way, my good lady wife has agreed to me getting my 'forever' bike.
I currently ride a 2007 Yeti 575, which is fantastic but I yearn for something newer and in the pursuit of the perfect bike I test-rode an SB66 a short while back - awesome machine, fantastic feel and grinned like a loon.
I therefore decided to buy a frame and transfer my existing gear on to that - its all good stuff, XT mostly including brakes and 717 wheels.
However - all I read these days is 650b this and 650b that, Yeti have just brought out the 575 650b and the SB75 to confuse the issue further.

So, the dilemma is this - do I go for the SB66 and avoid jumping on a band wagon, or do I wait and go for the 650b option (NORCO Killer B1 is a realistic option as the SB75 would be WAY too expensive).

Is there really that much difference to warrant giving up on my dream bike and going with 650b? I dont want to be struggling with tyre/wheel options in a few years if 26 inch goes the way of the dinosaurs...

cooldad

There's no such thing as a forever bike.

gt3point0

Forever bike at 40. Ha I thought the same , past 50 now and I have had 4 forever bikes in the last 10 years .

jairaj

davenewcastle1973 wrote:

Is there really that much difference to warrant giving up on my dream bike and going with 650b? I dont want to be struggling with tyre/wheel options in a few years if 26 inch goes the way of the dinosaurs...

Why don't you try it and find out for your self? There will be 26 options available for a while yet.

davenewcastle1973

I'm struggling to get a 650b test ride, a mate rides a Bronson but its XL, and I'm not... Evans sell the Norco but a test ride around the car park doesn't really tick any boxes.

The forever bike thing, I know that this is nonsense but its my selling point to the missus...

notax

I've just taken delivery of one of my 'forever; bikes - a very nicely specced Santa Cruz Bronson (650b) Not sure how long forever will be, but I rode my SC superlight until the frame cracked and still have my Blur after about 8 years... Anyway, I test road 29ers and 650b and while I liked both, the 650b seemed to give much of the benefit of 29er but without feeling noticably different to 26" wheels - whereas the 29er certainly rode differently. When I test road the 650b the biggest benefit I could sense was better traction when climbing. This was proved on a ride last week when I was one of only two (from 12) to climb a vicious, loose slope. Obviously I felt my superior ability was the cause, but then lent my Bronson to everyone else and most could then climb it too! The 650b seems to have few drawbacks (tyre choice the only one so far) and better rolling, better traction without sacrificing the feel of a 26"... I'd go 650b.

Dick Scruttock

I have a forever bike every 6-12months LOL

ej2320

Notax wrote:

I've just taken delivery of one of my 'forever; bikes - a very nicely specced Santa Cruz Bronson (650b) Not sure how long forever will be, but I rode my SC superlight until the frame cracked and still have my Blur after about 8 years... Anyway, I test road 29ers and 650b and while I liked both, the 650b seemed to give much of the benefit of 29er but without feeling noticably different to 26" wheels - whereas the 29er certainly rode differently. When I test road the 650b the biggest benefit I could sense was better traction when climbing. This was proved on a ride last week when I was one of only two (from 12) to climb a vicious, loose slope. Obviously I felt my superior ability was the cause, but then lent my Bronson to everyone else and most could then climb it too! The 650b seems to have few drawbacks (tyre choice the only one so far) and better rolling, better traction without sacrificing the feel of a 26"... I'd go 650b.

Lucky.. A Bronson is my dream ride! Should have an absolute blast on it

kajjal

davenewcastle1973 wrote:

I'm struggling to get a 650b test ride, a mate rides a Bronson but its XL, and I'm not... Evans sell the Norco but a test ride around the car park doesn't really tick any boxes.

The forever bike thing, I know that this is nonsense but its my selling point to the missus...

Got a "mid life crisis" Carve MTB for my 40th. Really enjoying riding it but will upgrade the brakes at some point. At the moment any wheel size carries some risk but I would consider how often do you need new wheels and what other impact does wheel size have on components and their upgrade / replacement. My 17 year old Orange C16r is only on its second set of wheels and my wife is looking at a 26" hard tail as she doesn't want "Big wheels".

There is no definite answer unfortunately.

robertpb

What boys will do for an extra inch.

bluechair84

I did a Stiff test day recently, and loved the Bronson so much I hired it for the day at Dalby along with a Tallboy LT for comparisons sake. Whilst the Bronson was a brilliant bike, the larger wheels offer negligible increase over my 26er shod with large volume tyres. And seeing as Conti haven't released there 650b tyres yet (but they have been announced), and both Maxxis and Schwalbe 650b tyres max out at 2.3, I couldn't release the potential of a 650b over my current set up (2.4 Rubber Queens and 2.5 Schwalbes). The Tallboy LT thought was a brilliantly different bike. Not for me, but still loved it.

davenewcastle1973

Your blog makes interesting reading bluechair, the only difference for me is that I can't run big tyres at the minute - a 2.3 hans dampf was rubbing badly on my chain stays on the 575.

So, the question is, if you were buying new from a position of not having the bigger tyre option, would the 650b be the way to go? I can't imagine that it will be long before the bigger tyres become available....

bluechair84

Hard to say, if you were buying new you'd have the choice of a 26er with more clearance. The bigger tyre should theoretically give you more absorption on big impacts, but the larger 650b should be lighter as alu is lighter than rubber... same tyre widths should mean the 650b feels better on chatter bumps. But it comes down to riding style. The larger the wheel, the harder it is to adjust your direction.
Personally, I'd go down the 650b route for my next bike. But, only when some larger volume tyres come out, otherwise I'm just running the same diameter. FYI, I've just asked some people to measure up their 650b dias to compare to my own which should be interesting as I don't know exact figures really.

thelonegroover

I think you are focusing on wheel size too much. Yes I know the thread title is ‘To 650b or not to 650b’ However all bikes are a sum of all their parts. A bike designed with 650b wheel will naturally have some traits from a bike designed with 26” and one designed with 29” wheels.
Personally, I find my 29er simply doesn’t turn as tightly as a 26er. Also, if I was looking for a bike now, I wouldn’t let the lack of large volume tyre put me off a 650b.
I think, if mountain bikes were being designed from scratch the natural wheel size choice would be 650b.

ddraver

6 months ago I'd have said that 26in bikes would be around for a while yet. Today I'd say that you re taking a real risk buying a 26in bike as in 5 years you may not be able to find decent wheels/tyres etc for it any more.

For example i was looking at getting the 120mm Canyon Nerve, but I could only get that as 29 or 650b now...

I'm very surprised at how fast it's changing...

lawman

bluechair84 wrote:

Personally, I'd go down the 650b route for my next bike. But, only when some larger volume tyres come out

A 2.35 Hans Dampf is a bloody large volume tyre I can tell you! easily as big, if not bigger than a Maxxis 2.5. Conti 650b tyres should be available in the next month or two. There is plenty of choice out there, but for 650b bikes around 140-160, I can't see a reason not to run Hans Dampfs unless you have clearance issues. On paper 650b looks like it offers some advantages, and my next bike wlll be 650b for sure. I'd be interested to ride one back to back with a similar 26er on my local trails to see if there is any measurable difference between them.

bluechair84

Tis very true that Schwalbes are massive compared to Maxxis... I certainly liked the 650b bikes, but that's coming from a 'getting-on-a-bit' 26er. I think just the modern design of the frames made a bigger difference to me than the wheels and tyre combo.

lawman

bluechair84 wrote:

I think just the modern design of the frames made a bigger difference to me than the wheels and tyre combo.

Too much emphasis is placed on wheelsize for sure. It's the bike as a whole that really counts, doesn't matter what size wheels it's got, if it's sh!t, its sh!t and if it's good... you get the idea. I honestly can't see why some would discount 650b just because it's 650b. Not a huge amount of people have ridden them yet and it will take time to be accepted, but it's the overall ride of the bike that really matters, not what wheels it has. They're just a small part of the bike and there are many other things that contribute to how it rides. Heck 26ers of today ride a lot differently to 26ers from 10 years ago and the wheels are still the same.

Moreyn

What is the actual size of the 650B Wheels?? Are they the same as the Road Bike Wheels at 700c? or closer to the 29er wheels? I'm looking at getting a 29er? but maybe I should consider a 650B?

cooldad

A bit bigger than 26, a bit smaller than 29, which are aka 700c.

Alitogata

davenewcastle1973 wrote:

With my impending 40th birthday on the way, my good lady wife has agreed to me getting my 'forever' bike.
I currently ride a 2007 Yeti 575, which is fantastic but I yearn for something newer and in the pursuit of the perfect bike I test-rode an SB66 a short while back - awesome machine, fantastic feel and grinned like a loon.
I therefore decided to buy a frame and transfer my existing gear on to that - its all good stuff, XT mostly including brakes and 717 wheels.
However - all I read these days is 650b this and 650b that, Yeti have just brought out the 575 650b and the SB75 to confuse the issue further.

So, the dilemma is this - do I go for the SB66 and avoid jumping on a band wagon, or do I wait and go for the 650b option (NORCO Killer B1 is a realistic option as the SB75 would be WAY too expensive).

Is there really that much difference to warrant giving up on my dream bike and going with 650b? I dont want to be struggling with tyre/wheel options in a few years if 26 inch goes the way of the dinosaurs...

What is your hight? The size of the wheels that you' ll choose, has a lot to do with your body type, hight and the style that you prefer when you cycling. If you are not that tall and you want agility from your bike then go for 26". Don't believe the rumors who say that you will not be able to find tires in a few years. They said the same some years ago when they got on market 29ers.

Now if you are really tall and you want to be able to jump and climb over everything, go for a 29er, but have in mind that 29ers miss the agility of 26ers especially in narrow trails.

27" now is something in between, a nice addition to the market, but it will not be the panacea for everything. There are people who can't ride and thus they will not buy neither 27ths nor 29ers simply for fitting reasons.

So get what you like and you feel that will make you enjoy more your bike rides and don't worry.

P.S. There are not forever bikes. There are forever till you fall in love with the next one..

cooldad

Nonesense. Body size has no relation to wheel size.
Unless you are 4 and need tiny wheels on a tiny bike.

And what on earth does this mean.

Alitogata wrote:

There are people who can't ride and thus they will not buy neither 27ths nor 29ers simply for fitting reasons.

thelonegroover

I think there is a relationship between rider size and bike and wheel size.
29er’s with very small frames (for small riders) have well documented problems. I’d add, 26er’s with very large frames (for very tall riders) also have documented but different problems, apart from just not looking right. Consider the frame and wheels as a whole - The smaller the bike, the smaller the wheels should be, the larger the bike, the larger the wheels should be.

The Rookie

29ers with very small frames have no well documented problems, apart from people saying don't do it, a regular rider with our club is 5'4" women and she rides a small Scandal 29er and does just fine, likewise with 26ers for large people, there was no 'documented problem' at all until people wanted to sell them 29ers.... The bike fits or not, it suites or not and rider size is a very small part of that.

Emily Batty looks great on a 29er (or a 26er or no bike at all for that matter, but riding she looks fine on a 29er!).

thelonegroover

The Rookie wrote:

29ers with very small frames have no well documented problems, apart from people saying don't do it, a regular rider with our club is 5'4" women and she rides a small Scandal 29er and does just fine, likewise with 26ers for large people, there was no 'documented problem' at all until people wanted to sell them 29ers.... The bike fits or not, it suites or not and rider size is a very small part of that.

Emily Batty looks great on a 29er (or a 26er or no bike at all for that matter, but riding she looks fine on a 29er!).

Maybe, but rider size is still a part.

The Rookie

A very small part, the rider fitting the cockpit (cranks, saddle, grips) is the part, anything else is just BS repeated by numpties who can't grasp that basic facts and prefer to repeat urban myths as fact

A mate has a 36er he first built it for his 5'2" girlfriend to be able to ride, although the finished version copies the cockpit dimensions from his 26er Zaskar.