phughes

No, there are many frames that can be covered from 26" to 650b. The Surly LHT is one. As long as the cantis have enough adjustment range, and the stock brakes on the LHT does have enough, the 650b works fine. I may consider it when I need new rims, but I will decide that when the time comes. I have no fear of not being able to get 26" tires though. There are a ton of good quality tires available in 26". I'm currently running Schwalbe Marathons.

tornado60

The bike you'll ride is the bike you like. If you like it keep it. Most of my bikes are 26-inch wheels. I do not have touble finding tires. I don't replace wheels to often but have always been able to find one when I did.

Joe Bikerider

My main bike runs on 26x1.6 tires from Schwalbe. I tried to paste the site into here but it complained about an illegal character. After 2 years with one flat I am totally satisfied with the ride. The bike came with 26x something bigger but I thought they felt kind of slow these I just love.

restlessswind

I will say this: Nothing beats a bike that is COMFORTABLE. If you love your bike and sell it, I guarantee you will regret it. It's a lot of work and expense to get a new bike .....jussstt rightttt....

Keep the bike, buy road 26" balloon tires. I just bought a pair of Schwable Big Apples 26 x 2.35 for my wife's bike/ Those or try Maxis Hookworms. . She loves their road ride, traction and ability to jump onto a dirt path without sliding all over the place. You can even pump them up to 60+ psi and bike will ride much more luscious than you could ever imagine!

Edit. 26" wheels are the world's most popular. They will not end in our lifetime. Cruisers and other balloon tire bikes are still 26. Mountain bikes have left the 26" market....but its the MTB geometry trends that becomes obsolete. it's a very trendy industry. I imagine 26 may even come back to the industry some time in the future.

wolfchild

Bike industry should of kept 26" and 29" as the standard...I think it was a mistake to abandon the 26' and replace it with 27.5' as the new standard...There is nothing wrong with 26' wheels.
I ride both 26 inch and 29er and I see no advantages to 27.5.

Kapusta

D@mn that looks tasty.

I run 38mm Barlows on my road/gravel bike and they are heaven. When I think of what 2.3” of that magic must feel like.... wow.

jlaw

I may try the Barlows on a mid-80's Trek touring bike that I am rebuilding with 700c rims. Have you had any issues with flats? Which casing do you have? (Extra-Light, Standard, etc.)

I've gotten 1 flat in about 1000 miles with the Rat Traps (standard casing) - a very small, sharp, triangular piece of stone from my driveway - fortunately. I noticed the flat in my garage the day after a ride - got lucky! I run Schwalbe tubes and can't complain about 1 flat so far. If flats were more of an issue tubeless would probably be better.

I notice that Rene Herse/Compass has improved its tire offerings in terms of durability and now offers 4 durability grades - extra-light, standard, endurance, and endurance-plus. I think the company was wise to respond to the on-line criticism re: flat issues that some customers were experiencing. A flat on a $20 tire is annoying, but a flat on a $70 tire is at least 3 1/2 times as annoying!

Kapusta

Over the past 5 years, between my wife and I we have run the Stampede Pass (32mm), Bon Jon Pass (35mm) and am now on my second set of Barlow Pass (38mm) all have been Extralights. All but the last Barlow with tubes. In all that time I have gotten one puncture flat. On the Stampede I got a few pinch flats, and s couple on the Bon Jon as well, which is what bumped me up to the larger volume Barlow. (I ride on some really crappy pavement in town, which is the worst conditions for pinch flats). Went a few thousand miles on the first Barlow (with tubes) with no flats of any kind. Now I have a new set that is tubeless. All tires were ridden on a mix of paved and unpaved roads.

I don't think the ELs have ever been particularly puncture-flat prone. The tread is 3mm thick. The issue is pinch flats and sidewall tears, and that is simply a function of how thin the sidewalls are, which is the key to them feeling so d@mn good and rolling so fast. I don't think you could have a tire that rides like that without the tradeoff of sidewall fragility. What they have done is (apparently/hopefully) worked out the tubeless issues people were having, thus addressing the pinch flat issue. My new Barlows set up easily, and do not weep any sealant.

We have a couple of 90s MTB-based town/errand bikes. I have thought about getting a set of RTP, but I don't think we can fit 2.3s with fenders, and honestly, I am a bit leery of having anything that expansive on one of these bikes.

Miele Man

Are your wheels 26" MTB wheels? Are they 26" wheels as found on some standard brake or three-speed bicycles? That is 26" x 1 and 3/8" or similar size?

Cheers

HTupolev

Why? Quality of a tire has little to do with its puncture vulnerability. If I'm buying a tire that's purportedly optimized toward supple and light and low rolling resistance, I don't expect it to be especially tough, regardless of how good it is.

The Rat Trap Pass is actually a ~2.1" tire. The 2.3" label is a decision Panaracer made because the tire mold uses the same silicon bladder as their 2.3" knobbies, and they wanted to avoid mixups on the production floor.
There was one user in the Gravel forum whose RTPs measured about 2.3", but they were running them on Velocity Dually rims with a 38mm inner width, which are normally intended for use with Plus tires. My RTPs on Sun Rhyno Lite rims currently only measure about 52cm.

Kapusta

Well, shoot. This makes it a lot harder to talk myself out of getting a set, now.

Korina

So, CaptainPlanet , have you made a decision yet? Maybe post some pics for us to drool over?

Darth Lefty 

It’s been almost 30 years since anyone sold a 27” wheel bike and you can still get those. I wouldn’t worry about it yet.

CaptainPlanet

26" mtb wheels, 3 x 8 speed drive train, haven't measured the tire width yet, but it looks like common store tires on old mountain bikes.

I wager my definition of a great bike is not going to impress any serious enthusiast here. I am a low budget cyclist. Every bike I have ever gotten after highschool is used and way below $300. The bike in question is an old common named-brand bike with cantilever brakes, hard tail front shocks and 26" wheels, it's common and doesn't stand out, but the gear shifting and brakes are responsive and super on-point.

sheddle

if you want rare tires/wheels, someone send Classic Cycle a 24 inch tubular in 18mm so this beast can actually be ridden again

Miele Man

Well, seeing that you have 26" decimal MTB wheels I'd keep the bike if it fits you and you like the ride.

I have a few 26" wheel MTBs and for road use I like a smooth 26" x 1.5" tire or even a smooth 26" x 1.25" tire. I find those bikes are great riding bikes with those tires.

I've converted a number of MTBs to a dropbar with barend shifters, Campagnolo Ergo shifters, home brewed brake body mounted shifters, and use those bikes as gravel bikes, touring bikes or commuting bikes. In fact there's a whole thread here dedicated to MTB to dropbar conversions.

I think parts for these 26" MTB will be around for years yet as there are so many of those bikes out there.

Cheers

BlazingPedals

Keep the 26". There is absolutely nothing inherently better about 650B. It was brought back from obscurity when manufacturers noticed that some people were wasting money by converting old 27" frames to 650B fat tires rather than buy new bikes. If everyone dropped the 650B size from their new-bike line-ups and demanded those nice tires in 559, it would happen tomorrow - and still may.

Korina

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I found this bike at a pawn shop for $75, everything original, including the lube; the chain was stuck to the cassette. Put a stoopid amount of money into it, but it's a better bike than I could get new for the price, and now it's my heart bike, my sturdy steel street steed, my Pretty Purple Princess Penelope.



Great Ghu, it's NDS! Horror!

theDirtyLemon

650b is expensive.
At minimum, you have to buy new wheels that are priced for the Velo Orange/Rivendell guys, plus rear gears, plus fancy tires; OR . . . you can buy a whole new bike.
26" wheels are cheap, common, and work well. (Some would say that 26" wheels are the american equivalent of 650b--a smaller tougher wheel that takes fatter tires and fits on a full size bike.)
Also, this idea that you should sell your bike before it's too late is an illusion. No matter how soon you sell it you probably won't get enough $$ for it. No matter how long you keep it you won't be crippled by lack of parts.
Throw some $20 cheng shin road tires on what you've got and ride.

ThermionicScott 

Not true. 650B wheels and tires are available pretty cheap these days.

Not $5 or $10 cheap, but life is too short for crappy tires.

stevel610 

My thought is once 650b reaches market saturation 26" will be back again. The marketers will come up with a new or "forgotten" benefit to create the need. Something like "the much wider footprint a 26" tire allows in a 27.5 fork provides you with that extra grip in the gnarliest terrain" or some such novelty.

I actually like 26" so I will be glad.

theDirtyLemon

Great. Give us some numbers. And remember, we're talking about a scenario in which you don't have 650b wheels yet, so you'll need to budget for that too.
​​​​​​If we're going to give this guy feedback, it might as well be practical info, right? He can make a better decision about what he wants to do if he knows how much the alternatives will cost.

Chinghis

As one who loves his 26" wheels, I love this thread. I may never buy a new bike again.

Right now, I have Kenda Kwests (26x1.5) on my StumpJumper. I used to have another wheelset that I would swap out for when I wanted to ride trails, but I do that so infrequently now I just leave them on all the time. Unless it's a super-technical trail, I feel like I can ride pretty much anything on slicks. That probably has more to do with the types of trails we have out here in Southern Cal - dry, buffed, single-track.

So, no, don't sell your bike. (And, what kind of bike/how old is this thing, anyway?) Maybe just invest in another set of wheels?

Oneder

https://bicyclewheelwarehouse.com/MT...Wheel-Set.html

This set is 230, which is not bad for the quality. Some cheap azz 26 inch wheels would still cost well over 100 for a set. Where it really gets expensive is if you go up to 11 or 12 speed, but you can use these with 7 speed if you get a spacer.

Oneder

Any excuse to sell new crap. Like all the higher speed stuff that somehow costs ten times as much, yet still gives the same actual gear range.