Originally Posted by
Kapusta
Actually NONE of those are not marketed as 27.5+. All but two are marketed as 27.5, and the remaining two (Spearfish and 429) as 29ers that can take 27.5 Plus.
...
Yes, some of these CAN clear 2.8s, but that is not what they are built around.
27.5 is not dead and is unlikely to die, even if it becomes less of the market share.
At the start of a product cycle a manufacturer has to decide to jump a certain way (do we do super boost? do we want to accommodate 170 droppers?) and they don't always wind up jumping the same direction as the market. Then they're stuck for a year or two with the wrong product. Giant and Pivot both fall here... Giant put all their money on 27.5 a while back. This is not my supposition, it has been covered in the industry press.
https://www.bicycleretailer.com/prod...r#.XTJHccIUlD8
https://www.bicycleretailer.com/node/28554#.XTJJpMIUlD8
The 5010 and Mojo 3 are both specialty "playful" bikes that are getting long in the tooth and overlap in travel with some other bikes in their lineups that get refreshed sooner. In the case of Salsa I honestly don't know what they were thinking.
I like 27.5... I liked 26. But they're going to get harder to buy now.