Top 3 of 2015 - Opinion
We haven't reached the end of the year quite yet, but the snowline's steady creep down towards the valley floor is telling me that the best of 2015 is probably in the past. And just in case I need another clue, I put on two pairs of pants, four shirts, and had a hoodie squeezed under my jacket just to take my dog out to the bark park this morning, which is pretty much the only time I'm going outside until things warm up to normal winter temps here in southwestern British Columbia. All this sitting around can't be good for my fitness, but it is great for two things: eating a lot of terrible food (also not good for my fitness), and thinking back about what kind of year it's been. And since there's always enough negativity to go around, I thought I'd talk about a few of the things that put a grin on my face.
The New 27.5+ Bikes
Hold on, don't skewer me until you've read what I have to say...
Given how 27.5" wheels were forced into the market without any real consumer demand, it's understandable that many of us have a bitter taste in our mouths and a distrust of anything related to that topic. I think most of us are tired of the subject as well, and I know that I've spent much of 2015 trying to avoid writing about the matter. Then 27.5+ rolled into the picture, and I found myself at tradeshows having to shoot a few dozen new, high-volume tires and wheelsets that I knew very well were only going to have commenters loading their hate cannons. My cannon was cocked and ready as well, but I wanted to hold off on firing blindly until spending quite a bit of time on a 27.5+ bike, which happened to be a Specialized Stumpjumper FSR Expert Carbon 6Fattie that I'll be reviewing in the near future.
The 6Fattie and its three-inch-wide tires not only deserves some kind of prize for having one of the longest names out there, but also for being a fun-loving peacemaker that immediately disarmed me. The massive but relatively lightweight tires don't roll as slow as expected, and they also don't fold over in hard corners (so long as you're running proper air pressure), and it's a 135mm travel bike (with a 150mm fork) that rides like it has an extra 20mm of suspension.
The bike is quick, has a ludicrous amount of traction, feels lighter than it actually is, and, most importantly, I had more fun on this 27.5+ machine than I have doing anything that's not against the law. Looks like I'm eating some crow on this topic.
We all might feel a bit jaded, but, like it or not, physics prove that a 27.5" wheeled bike offers certain advantages over a 26" wheeled bike, however small those benefits may be. Those advantages don't, in my opinion, warrant the wholesale change in frame and fork design that's happened over the last few years. The latest high-volume 27.5+ wheels and tires, with a diameter close to that of 29" wheels, do offer some real advantages, and they ride different enough that, unlike normal 27.5" wheels, I believe they deserve a place at the table.
So all I ask is that you hold off on firing your cannons until you've tried a 27.5+ bike, after which you can shit all over the idea if you didn't enjoy it. Somehow, I don't expect that will be the case, though.
The bike is quick, has a ludicrous amount of traction, feels lighter than it actually is, and, most importantly, I had more fun on this 27.5+ machine than I have doing anything that's not against the law. Looks like I'm eating some crow on this topic.
We all might feel a bit jaded, but, like it or not, physics prove that a 27.5" wheeled bike offers certain advantages over a 26" wheeled bike, however small those benefits may be. Those advantages don't, in my opinion, warrant the wholesale change in frame and fork design that's happened over the last few years. The latest high-volume 27.5+ wheels and tires, with a diameter close to that of 29" wheels, do offer some real advantages, and they ride different enough that, unlike normal 27.5" wheels, I believe they deserve a place at the table.
So all I ask is that you hold off on firing your cannons until you've tried a 27.5+ bike, after which you can shit all over the idea if you didn't enjoy it. Somehow, I don't expect that will be the case, though.
The Pinkbike Comment Section
Someone recently told me that I've changed over the last year, and while it wasn't meant as a diss, it surely wasn't a compliment either. I know that because of how he shook his head and rolled his eyes after telling me, motions that we all know to mean, "I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed." That's worse than the person being mad at you. He was referring to how I'm much more wary about what I say and how I say it these days, something that seems to be the way most people are going lately. Wouldn't want to offend anyone, of course, and there are a lot of people who seem to be sitting around waiting to get offended about something, and an equal amount of pretentious types waiting to back them up. It can be especially touchy in a comment-driven environment like Pinkbike.
Some of my peers at other media outlets have insinuated that the number of comments on Pinkbike articles and their fervent tone isn't a good thing. What an absolutely absurd way to think. I've heard this sentiment from those who mainly work in print, but I couldn't imagine laboring so hard on an amazing product (as most magazines are), only to put it out there and have next to no feedback. Here's a terrifying thought for someone who's not used to a massive amount of quick, near-anonymous reaction: the always scary idea of a few hundred commenters telling you that you've royally f*cked up on something, or that you've offended someone's precious sensibilities. I have plenty of experience with both of those: snowball, meet hill. But there's also nothing like a few hundred commenters praising your work or defending you against a disgruntled reader with a half-baked and farcical point of view, which is thankfully pretty rare these days. You can't have one without the other, can you?
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The adage about you probably doing something very wrong if everyone has only nice things say surely applies here, so I have to admit to cracking a bit of a smile when I see those extremely critical comments, regardless of how off-base they may or may not be. This was especially true in 2015. The fact is that Pinkbike wouldn't be half as great as it is if we didn't have such an active and involved comment section, and there's literally nothing that I'd change when it comes to you guys chiming in on my work, so keep it coming.
All The New Stuff
I really, really love pedaling around on bicycles, and some of that love is fuelled by a never ending and highly dorky curiosity about whatever's new and interesting in bikes and gear. Thankfully, that goes well with my job description here at Pinkbike, but I'm also even more thankful that there are loads of like-minded dorks out there who click on the stuff that I ramble on about. I'm reminded of this every time we cover a tradeshow and as much as I might moan about the eighteen-hour work days at these events, it's absolutely awesome to be able to show you guys the latest (and maybe the greatest, but usually not) new bikes and components. Sea Otter, Interbike, Eurobike, and my absolute favorite, Taipei, were all more interesting than in recent memory, which made 2015 a fun year of running around with a notepad and camera.
All the new gear is what makes these gigs so exciting, at least for me, and this year felt a lot more interesting in that regard. One of my personal highlights was 9point8's reliable Fall Line seat post, but also how the company was stoked to send me their latest design after I gave its predecessor a pretty harsh (but fair) review one year earlier. Believe me, that's not usually how these things play out - I've had a handful of companies turn sour after I found something I didn't like about whatever product it is they've shipped my way.
Ho-hum. It's happened many times in the past and it'll probably happen many more times in the future.
Ho-hum. It's happened many times in the past and it'll probably happen many more times in the future.
There were also all sorts of other new products worth talking about, including electronic drivetrains and dropper posts, WTB's controversial PadLoc grip and handlebar system, and a couple of wild prototype pedal designs that proved that there's still people out there exploring different ways to do things. And then there are the countless 27.5+ bikes that, despite the misguided but understandable hate being thrown their way, are going to turn out to be pretty awesome. Obviously not for everyone, but awesome regardless. It was a busy but rousing year to be writing about bikes.
You know it was a proper ride when you're so tired that you fall asleep on the couch in your chamois, which is kind of how I feel about 2015. It was an exciting, amusing, and thought-provoking year, but I'm also about ready to fall asleep in my chamois and wake up in 2016.
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I always scroll down right to see it
damnit no longer even read the articles
The interwebz bring out the best and worst.
just get on with the thing, make a theory and test it on the world. There is nothing wrong with it being this way, it would probably be stupid if someone actually did a legitimate research BUT the problem is when people are pretending that some new stuff actually has something to do with science.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhS1HfvBeYA
(skip to part 2 for the results)
I hated the idea of 29ers when they came out. Now, I'm riding one. Then again, I still think those initial 29ers were shit. The geometry of bikes is so good now, that there are great bikes in all 3 major wheel sizes. At the end of the day, ride what you like. Manufacturers are going to keep coming out with the new "flavor of the month." You don't like it, don't buy it. But the constant variation fuels evolution, and the technology keep getter better over time. Enjoy the bike you have and ride.
Cheers!
And just to add that the statement "Scientific methods of experimentation are virtually impossible to apply to MTB" is one of the strangest things ive ever read, data acquisition is in itself a science, asking someone how a bike felt after a run is a form of qualitative data acquisition.
Example - a 26er or 650b should be easier to rail into turns - after all, the axles are lower, there's less righting moment from the smaller wheels. But then you can build a 29er with still-acceptable BB clearance at the same height as the smaller-wheeled bike - and that gives you a BB that's well below the axles on those wheels. That, in turn, gives you a very different feel when railing turns - and makes up for some of that expected disadvantage. Which one ends up being better at railing turns, then, is not so much a matter of wheel size, but wheel size differences open up or close down options in geometry.
In the end, then, move wheel sizes allow bike designers to explore more options on geometry. At some point, that's a story of diminishing returns - streamlining the product line and putting more work into developing around just two wheel sizes instead of three (or one instead of two) might allow you to make those fewer designs much better than you'd have a chance to make them if you were spread too thinly. But if, for example, Giant decides that everything rowdier than a full-on XC bike (the Anthem) should have 650b, that's not a decision that's based on some grand theory around that being the magic wheel size and has more to do with what they perceive to be market trends/demands and the economics of developing those bikes.
I'm 6'1" and well over 200#. Reasonably athletic. So to me, a 29er feels pretty natural. A 26er always felt kind of cramped. 650b doesn't really feel any different than 26 to me. Are there smaller wheeled bikes that will be much nicer for me than my current (a few years old, and too long in the rear and too steep in the front) 29er? Yep. But I suspect that, given how I like to ride, a newer 29er (a bit slacker up front and shorter in the rear) will suit me even better than those. Luckily, I've gotten to demo some bikes already, and will get to demo a bunch more over the next few months, so that will inform that decision quite nicely.
Will 27.5+ be a thing for early intermediates only, or will those things make real inroads into, say, that AM/trail bike sweet spot occupied by bikes like the 5010 (on the more trail end of things) or Bronson (on the more AM side of things) and the many very competent bikes in that part section of the spectrum from players like Kona, Transition, Evil, or even Specialized or Trek? Mike isn't the first advanced rider who's reviewed one and come away impressed. And it's not just industry types - I talked to several people who are pretty advanced riders and who were seriously torn about whether to go that route or stick with the trail/AM incumbents. The word "fun" keeps getting tossed around when describing those bikes, even by riders who have serious skills. So maybe there'll be something to this. And maybe all it will lead to is those other bikes adopting slightly wider wheels and bigger tires (a trend that was already under way) and gaining much of the benefits without the need for all sorts of other changes (or the perceived drawbacks of 27.5+).
Good times, all things considered - if you look around for a bit, you'll be able to find a ton of rather awesome bikes out there. And don't tell me all the new shiny stuff doesn't make a difference. Yes, keeping your bike a year longer and spending a bit of money on a skills clinic will probably improve your riding (and your fun factor) considerably more than upgrading right now - but my current bike was pretty state of the art in 2013, and some of the stuff I rode this year that wasn't available then is clearly better, at the same sort of price level. There's significant progress out there, year after year, just from refinement rather than revolutionary change.
In all seriousness I own a 2015 Cotic Bfe (bike from 26 ain't dead) and it is by far the most enjoyable bike I have ever owned. Ride what you want and get rowdy!
Pinkbike comment section... I love that you commented on that. There has been a lot of downgrading and hiding of comments that do not support and rave about pinkbike, pinkbike riders or products that pay to advertise on pinkbike. It's bend an increasing trend over the last couple years as Pinkbike has truly become the bike industry online beast that it is.
In my opinion... if the site or the companies getting products reviewed can't handle honest feedback and/or comedy relief. Quit.
The problem with the comments section isn't the companies, its the kids claiming "hater" at anyone who doesn't want to drink a brands koolaid.
Also, many disciplines of mountain biking still rely on 26 inch wheels (trials, dj, street), which both of my bikes have (trials and street). For the most part. This allows me to have one set of tubes and tires that I can use between all of my bikes. If I also end up breaking a wheel, I can also switch the wheels and ride what I want.
With only 27.5 inch bikes available, I would not be able to do these things.
I am not disapproving or approving the advantage of 27.5 inch rims, but there was not anything wrong with 26 inch rims to begin with, especially for hobby riders like most of us.
Some mountain bike innovations like rear suspension, fork lock out, dropper posts, and carbon parts clearly show the advantage. But pushing 1.5 inch bigger wheels seem more like a marketing scheme than an innovation to me.
I think we have some nice options concerning compatibility. Your new 27" bike will accept 26", and if the bb gets too low then put a bigger fork on it, slackens out the HA too.
And for those thinking that handling turns out to be sht when you change your bike's wheel size, well maybe. I guess it depends on the combination, but it has worked great for me when I had to (and wanted to) try it : Spectral with 26" DH wheels and 180mm fox 36 front.
My girlfriend has a 2008 covert, it's easy to
-> buy a 100€ 27" 100mm hardtail frame
-> swap the 26" wheels and 140mm fork on it
... and get a cheap light AM hardtail for the winter
So get away with this silly 27.5'' wheelsize and everything's fine again ^^
Off course I skip comparing "standard" 275 and 26 wheels since difference between them is like masturbating with left and right hand.
r X w = F
0.559/2m X (1.25kg+0.3kg)= 0.433kgm = 4.25 Nm
0.622/2m X (0.9kg+0.1kg)= 0.311kgm = 3.05Nm
It's not about you at all, but the biggest irony of wheelsize debate is that there's plenty of DHillers on 26" wheels who toss loads of sht on 29ers for having poor manouverability, being heavy, while their bloody bikes have 1.more rotating wieght thus more innertia 2. Slacker head angles, 3.longer wheel bases. A bloody DH bike is a machine made to ride forward through rough bits and requires tons of commitment and skill to turn properly. You can't have a sloppy ride on DH bike, you'll fall to the side, and the matter of a fact is that many people ride DH bikes to boost confidence, cover for insecurity at speed, to get faster in the bike park with little increase in actual core skill. They are bloody heroes on 203mm of suspension and zeros on a hardtail when faced with the same trail on both bikes. And they accuse XCers on 29ers to buy a bike to cover up for poor skills - WTF?!
Off course contact patch is a very blurry subject as it depends greatly on tyre pressure, therefore a 26" bike equipped with procore allowing for lowering the pressure by 5 or more PSI, will have bigger contact patch than a regular tyre on 29" wheel. Also, 275+ can have a monstrous contact patch but if you have a Nobby Nic pattern down there, the general grip may be lower than a 26" bike having a Minion DHR with excavator sized teeth. It will roll better than minion but it's always a bloody compromise. That super fat nobby nic will have great grip when riding slow, but just as every other nobby nic it will fail in high speed corners, because at the end of the day Minion have those huge square moto knobs which pierce the ground and hook into it, while Nobby Nics glide. And the fatter the worse.
Hence isolating wheel size, even tyre size in the sea of variables, is retarded. I truly hate "650B early adopters" crowd, I do. They are a stupid bunch of idiots who rode worst of junk geometries of frames, on worst of tyres and felt that they are onto some sort of advantage over 26ers and 29ers. They had no good forks, no good frames, no good tyres before industry went ape sht on 275 and dropped 26 only because they were not able to afford keeping all 3 wheel sizes but they needed to show something new. Or people converting 26ers to 650B, dropping good tyres for worst of crap, raising BB. Idiots, dorks tired of life, looking for any crap that can fill them up.
I rode my Specialized SX Trail with a 24" rear wheel for a couple years. I built the same exact wheel in 26" and i could not believe the weight difference.
So i have experienced the way different wheel sizes affect things. And for durability and weight, and playfulness, i want the smaller wheel size. And really, 27.5 is a pretty minimal gain for an entire switch over.
I think what we are seeing in the industry is a lot of nonsense and also a lot of incompatibility of parts now days to keep people buying things. Not being able to swap stuff etc.
Also the more pressure in the tyres, the more like a normal bike it rides, less pressure has a more fat bike feel.
I'm really struggling with persuading myself that I don't need a new bike. But then again, n+1 right?
If you don't have any local Specialized shops that have done what you're planning on, call Ryan at Arizona Cyclist in Tucson. he's been playing with 27.5+ conversions all summer, & I think he's even done a couple stumpy 29s.
this is all my opinion of course, but I really had issues with leaning the bike over with a 2.8 on an i45, traction disappeared way too soon for my liking, & far too on/off. Part of that is the tread on trailblazers, I'm hoping some of the newer 2.8s do better, but even then, looking at the casing on an i35 vs an i45, the 2.8 tires look like they were made for the i35 rims.
youtu.be/hQGLNPJ9VCE
The WTB Asym i35's in 27.5. Their new Asym rims are very very nice. Excellent price (~$85/rim), strong, very reasonable weight, tubeless ready, off-center/asym spoke holes for more equal tension and stronger overall build, eyelets, and directional spoke hole. I have the asym i29's in 27.5 and they have been a great rim so far. Good heaven can they please just offer them and the scrapers in 26" already! @wilderness-trail-bikes
I can't agree with @Metacomet 's review of them, though: they resemble KOMs too much in construction for me to feel good about their durability, as the KOM is first rim I've ever done serious damage to. I weigh very little, & have put years on other rims, with almost no damage, because I don't ride very hard. KOMs had 3 or 4 bead folds & a huge flatspot within one tire change.
Also, the i35 I built up was asymmetric, alright: the beads aren't square with each other.
That said, if you're running it with that much more tire volume, it might not be a concern for durability, & the un-square beads haven't been noticeable on the bike. I haven't had reason to complain about the rear wheel I built.
www.pinkbike.com/u/wakidesigns/blog/attention-pb-community-unite.html
And thanks Mike, for your comment about comments. +1
And why dont we call 26'' wheel size just "27.5 minus" so everyone's gonna by it like crazy
No sir. I will stick with the good old 26'' wheel and I am glad that there's so many cheap 26 bikes & stuff out there.
So what can i do with a XC light bike with some skinny alu rear triangle that cant take a beating but it feels like a 170mm freeride bike ... well i guess you should be able to do anything, but i dont know how long the frame will last.
No thanks, I had enough of it! It's the 26'' for me.
Period
I had a 26 inch stumpy which came with a 29 inch triangle by mistake, I put on a set of 29 inch wheels on it and the bike was a total mess.
after that experience I just think if the frame is 26in use 26in wheels, 27.5 use 27.5 and so on
That is all
Churrrrrrrrrrrrrr
That had me pissing cheerios out my nostrils when I read it!
and wheel size changes are the worst, because it means new frame, suspension and wheel purchases.
elf mini,
GT interceptor,
s&m,
mongoose mini mountain bike89,
trek700,
Hofmann,
Shwinn 4banger,
Santa Cruz chameleon,
Balfaa 2step,
yeti asx,
commencal supreme,
commencal mete55,
meta 4x 2006,7,8,9,2010 these cracked alot????
DARTMOOR shine,
zumbi f11 "mistake"
2014 carbon stumpy evo
2013 tld evo ( 2014 cracked so specialized could only warranty me a 2013.
I sold this bike three months ago thinking I would never be able to get a new 26 i've written over 10 brands of the closest bikes I could find my style and 27.5. So after almost 30 years of addicted riding I am without a bike.
I enjoyed this article and yes sure 27+ bikes can do great things but that's what dirt bikes are for. with the ridiculous acceptance of the E-bikes into the off-road market essentially next years big thing will be a 27+ bike with an electric motor. What a sad story obviously I'm bitter. i've helped feed the industry for years but now the only bikes I can buy our beat dirt jumpers.
At $3300 versus a Scott Genius + at $9600 quite a bargain as well. Hope Santa can make it happen !
+__+
"Mini wheels"... ? Does anyone really use 24'' or 20'' wheels for cross-country sightseeing tours?
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Why not to have also 26+ tires?
Yawn... Every new product is "forced into the market". There is no other way. A company has to put a product on the market to find out what demand is really there, and every product for which there is no real demand will disappear quickly.
Look up the facts on 27.5" wheels, they were in fact created before the demand. The demand was created by eliminating its biggest competition, the 26" wheel. Want proof:
In 2012, at the Taipei trade show the decision was made to "take 26" wheels off the menu." That's a direct quote from Jason Moschler, who works for WTB.
Of course it is possible to amplify demand by marketing and promotion, but if there is no market you can't just create one, and if there still is strong demand for something you can't just decide to phase it out, every company in the market would have to be in on that decision, and that would never happen if even one of them still saw an opportunity to sell the "old" product.
The 26" market was dead, so a decision had to be made - switch all mountain bikes to 29", or create something that would be new, have some of the 29" advantages and less of the drawbacks and try to sell that, which worked quite well.
www.bikeradar.com/mtb/gear/article/how-does-mountain-bike-wheel-size-really-affect-performance-43481
i can see the advantages of a 29" wheel in some applications but i do not believe that 650b is the stuff of magic....i am fine with people riding them but im not happy about the complete lack of 26" wheel support from most high end brands now. i never heard anyone moaning about 26" wheels being a weak link in someones riding ability before 650b came out.
According to all sales figures and market research it was.
The study you cite is in no way "scientific". A sample of 9 can not lead to any statistically significant results. And, do you really think somebody would use the "slower" 29" wheels in the Olympics, if he could indeed be faster on 26", just because his sponsor says so? Don't you think at least one rider would beg to differ?
"but i do not believe that 650b is the stuff of magic"
It is not.
It's just one of the many small steps forward. And it would not have been a step forward on its own. But with the emergence of 1x drivetrains, carbon rims, and light tubeless systems you can now actually have a bigger (and wider) wheel that still is lighter than anything that was available a few years ago, on a bike with chain stays that can actually be made shorter than they used to be on 26ers.
26" sales were dead because the bikes were too good. People could keep on riding their bikes without having to buy a new one every couple of years. That's why the sales were down...
As for the bigger is better argument, that only applies to hardtails, full suspenison, more or less , makes all wheel sizes equal( except for sizing issues, big wheels for big people , smaller wheels for smaller people.)
650b is not a step forward( extra weight is rarely an improvement) it's what the industry decided to do next, there is a difference.
No, it doesn't. All advantages and disadvantages that apply to hardtails also apply to full suspension bikes. The only difference is the weight of the rear wheel, which is part of the unsuspended mass on a full-susser.
"650b is not a step forward( extra weight is rarely an improvement) it's what the industry decided to do next, there is a difference."
Basically, there is not much of a difference. There was a time, when disc brakes were "what the industry decided to do next".
"The study you cite is in no way "scientific". A sample of 9 can not lead to any statistically significant results. And, do you really think somebody would use the "slower" 29" wheels in the Olympics, if he could indeed be faster on 26", just because his sponsor says so? Don't you think at least one rider would beg to differ?"
It is the only study i am aware of to date and although not perfect it is the most scientific look at wheel sizes on mtb's i have seen as yet....please feel free to reference something more scientific though as i may have missed others.
Also the 29" wheel was very good....they stated that the 650b's were not as good as they expected.
Nobody in their right mind did like the introduction of disc brakes, because when the first models where introduced they where really awful, squeaking horribly, and had not much braking power and bad modulation.
And for that you needed a new frame, new fork, new wheels...
Just a little bit later nobody wanted to ever go back. Just as it will be with 650b.
I have ridden 650b and honestly do not understand why its heralded as some as the next great thing.....I use to run 2.5 inch tyres and my friend runs 2.1 on there 650b and the overall wheel diameter on my 26" bike was slightly bigger. Now I run 2.3 and Its not like im hitting steps now my overall diameter is slightly smaller.....I cant notice any difference.
if people like riding 650b that's fine I don't care for it but that's fine too. unfortunately most of the manufacturers stopped the option for 26" and its only helped them financially when making sure everyone buys into the 650b hype train. As I say I can deffinetly see advantages to 26 and 29" wheeled bikes but would rather choose between say soup or custard than have a horrible weak soupy custard mix.
People complain that they are much worse off with 650b when compared to 26". And that there is no noticeable difference between the two anyway... ehmmm... come again?
You, for example, say that you are now stuck with a "horrible weak soupy custard mix", while at the same time saying that you can't notice any difference between 650b and 26". So, if the "mix" tastes exactly like custard to you, where's the problem?
bike products are mathematic