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I see this as nothing but a bad thing but what are everyone else's thoughts? Personally it will take A LOT for me to give up on 26" wheels but i cant see it happening any time soon for gravity riding.



http://spokemagazine.com/2012/11/30/wheel-war-four/

So basically a clever bit of marketing then. Get enthusiasts to ditch 26" and the rest will follow. There's no real reason why 26" has been 'the standard' up until now. It just came about because of the wheels that were on the bikes being converted to blast down Californian hills.
So 650B will just about be a mature enough standard when I'm due another bike then!
I'm not really fussed. It's not as if all 26" related parts will disappear overnight, that would be suicide for the companies that make the parts. I'm sticking with 26" for now.

26" v 650b v 29" wheels read it in MBUK Dec edition there is a clear winner but all put up a good fight...

Me I have both a 26" wheeled bike and 29" wheeled bike... love them both and they serve a purpose well for what I want from them..

Now do I need to apply the N + 1 calculation to my bikes

Choices are cool - just like Skiing and surfing you have different sized equipment for different jobs / conditions. Bikes are the same.

However this trend is mainly driven by the companies wanting to introduce a new standard so you have to buy new kit and by the magazines having a new thing to write about. This makes it a bit hard to swallow.

As long as 26 remains its all good. If this results in 26 inch stuff disappearing it will really piss me off.

I would love to have a ride on all three back to back to comapare - As a 6'3 er I can see bigger wheels being less impact for me.

I rode a hire 29er full suss in California and was sold - if all I ever did was ride up to "red route" level I would be on one - I only saw benefits as being tall I found it pretty easy to still throw around. I am pretty sure I will end up with a 29 hard tail (or a cyclo cross bike if only to annoy Adam) for the rides around the woods in the near future. Even on 100mm travel I would have liked to bash it around some more tech trails and I may well have been sold there as well.

For the more gravity stuff I am curious as to how an equivalent of my nomad would ride with 650 or 29 wheels and would be up for it if it felt right, but I would also be waiting for someone I know to make the first purchase!

I would never see myself getting rid of all 26 ers though - I think it is unlikely they will die a death.

Evil - the guy who wrote the article is your size and is a convert to 29ers (rides a SC tall boy). He, however, also understand why others want to stick to their old bikes (like the guys down in Nelson who ride super tech trails all the time)

For me, I am well under 6' and while I see the point of a 29er for the long rides and certain type of trails I find it hard enough to get my "normal" sized bike round certain corners and will be sticking with it for a while yet.

Still love to run a back to back comparison of all three though!