stephl

Hi,
I'm newbie, looking at different touring bikes for a trip across Canada with a couple other people. I was wondering if anyone had any experience riding a 26inch wheel while others in their group rode 700c.
Thanks,
Steph

late

Hi,
what is your budget? How tall are you? Is this a road trip or mixed terrain?

n4zou

Tire width and pressure are more important than tire diameter. A skinny 26 X 1" tire running 95 PSI will roll easier than a 700 X 35, 75-PSI tire. It will be much easier to find a replacement 26" tire than a 700c (touring) tire as well.

stephl

I'm aiming for a bike around $1000 - $1200 Canadian. I'm actually quite interested in the Surly Long Haul Trucker, which changes wheel diametre on different frame sizes, or an Urbanite Touring bike also with 26'' wheels. I am 5.2'', so would be looking at some of the smallest frames. The trip will be probably 85-90% on road.

NoReg

I agree, the main issue will be whether your 26" wheeled bike is as good a bike as the 700 riden by your friends. The 26" wheel diameter by itself can be an advantage. If you are basically riding an MTB, right down to the rims, then you will not likely outcompete someone on a proper road touring bike with 700C wheels.

In fact, in mild revision to the above, the 26" wheel has a lot of advantage in areas like: wheel strength; wheel weight/acceleration; frame formating; ease of finding parts. These don't really translate, except the weight, into a more competitive bike. I go alone, and stronger wheels, easier to replace parts, do tranlate into a more realiable bike for me. In a pack ,if someone's wheel were to need fixing, you might all be inconveniences, then when you are back on the road the basic speed of your relative systems takes over.

Overall I prefer 26" wheels on a loaded touring bike.

NoReg

OK, if you are looking at the LHT, in 26" wheels, then I think that is an advantage to you at your height. The Urbanite is a cool bike too and it is built in a more classic format which should be an advantage to a lighter rider. Choices like the fork weight the 1" stearer, the 1.125 tubing seem to work fine for us clydesdales, and would be even better for you. However the Comuter is more MTB influenced which is OK to and a lot like the LHT (relative to materials not frame geometry).

Are you looking at the touring model or the taking about the comuter bike built out as a touring bike? I didn't realize the smaller Touring bikes were 26", I thought they were all 700C. Bottom bracket height on the Urbanite might be a problem for you since it is rather high, and the top tube is horizontal, so standover can be tight, however either you are looking at the coimuter, or the smaller urbanite tourer is different from what I was thinking. I think in a saw-off between the LHT and the comuter, the LHT is the obvious choice, and will give you much stronger resale.

So the bottom line would be that if you can get an Urbanite Touring frame that fits you and is similar to the LHT in your size, then I would go for the Urbanite over the LHT, but if it is a choice between LHT and comuter, then I would go LHT, though I have not had a chance to compare these frames in those sizes.

Thasiet

Steph, I just finished building up my first touring bike around a 26 inch Trek 930 rigid fork mountain bike frame. I did so for durability, cost compared to a new touring bike (still under $500, with all new wheels, drivetrain, and drop bars, and also a rear rack and panniers), and for ease of finding new tubes and tires (especially with the NOS Mavic Schraeder drilled rims). That said, I've put twenty miles on it so far in the PDX rain, and running with 1.5" slicks, I must say that it is even faster than I anticipated. So much so that I am even considering getting a second wheel set (already have a nice front wheel, actually) to run with narrower tires and a closer-spaced cassette I've got kicking around, and get rid of my road bike altogether. Probably won't happen, but something to play around with at any rate, especially since I presently weigh too much to really feel comfortable riding on my Velomax 700c wheelset. So maybe just ride the new bike until I can drop 20.

Or, to borrow a phrase from a local manufacturer of homebuilt airplane kits, who describe their aircraft as neither the fastest, nor the most acrobatic, nor the most rugged, but possessing a healthy dose of all three, the right way to think of 26" wheels is that they possess "total performance," for all the above mentioned reasons. And, in your case, one more: Building small frames around 700c wheels can mean compromised geometry in the form of too steep seat tubes, massive pedal overlap, and other problems. Won't be as bad in a touring bike with a longer wheelbase, but then again, if you're looking at the Surly or the Urbanite, it really isn't an option anyway. Besides, it looks very ill-proportioned to have such large wheels on such a small bike.

In other words, fugghetaboudit. Proper bike fit and position, handlebar choice, and tire selection have way more to do with speed than the rim diameter. You shouldn't have any trouble keeping up with your friends.

Sebach

I actually did that same tour this summer on my 26" wheel LHT. While I did it solo, I wasn't always solo as I met lots of fellow cyclists along the way. I spent probably a month riding with different 700c riders and the difference between 26" and 700c isn't going to be a major factor (if it is a factor at all) in your group in terms of speed.

Assuming you all use Presta valves and carry FiberFix spokes, the only real difference in terms of gear carried will be tubes and maybe tires.

Check your PM (top right).

Cave

Are you asking "will I keep up if everyone else is on 700c?"

I think in fast group rides there is an advantage to being on drop bars, on a light bike with narrow tyres. Every bike fitting this description that I've seen has 700c (although I'm aware of 650 and 27" as well, and you could I suppose build up a 26" like this). You also have to be able to keep up the intensity for a few hours on end - you do go (much) faster in a group, but you have to push it hard and take your turn at the front.

On big supported tours (like the Great Tasmanian Bike Ride I was on last week) you see all sorts of bikes and riders. The fastest mostly fit the above description. However, most groups within the tour are mixed - a few on drop-bar road, a few on flat-bar road, a few on touring hybrids and one or two on performance MTBs. 700c has the numbers in the faster groups, but there are individuals on performance 26"ers who easily keep up.

Once you start carrying loads the equation changes. You need stronger bikes if you+load weighs more than about 95kg, you need wider tyres and you need to gear down on hills. There is no meaningful difference in speed based on wheel size at these loads and speeds. Recumbents (and possibly also tandems) are slower uphill, 'bents and tandems are faster downhill and into a headwind, but wheel size dosen't affect things much.

So, it depends on what sort of ride it is going to be. If it is a fast road ride, you need a fast (light, fragile) road bike. If not, you will be fine on an appropriate MTB-style bike (assuming rider ability, tyre width, riding position and overall weight are in the same ballpark as the rest of the group).

MichaelW

Thorn do some very fast, lightweight 26" touring bikes as well as their expedition versions. At touring speeds, wheel size vs efficiency is a very minor consideration. I have ridden my 700c bike alongside 26" tourists with no appreciable difference in speed.
I would recomend 26" wheels for someone of your size for any application, race or tour.

vik 

I completed a 3 week tour on my 700c LHT with a partner who rode a 26" Thorn. We had no troubles staying together. It really didn't matter. That said it was a holiday - not a bike race so we didn't go hard all day.

stephl

Thanks for all your suggestions and advice.

I'm still looking at different bikes, but I'm not soo concerned about taking a 26'' wheel diameter anymore.

Steph

NoReg

Who makes "the best" touring bikes in Canada? Well maybe:

this is obviously a good size frame

https://www.mariposabicycles.com/touring-bike-26.html

650B is a between size, not recomended to the degree spares are hard to find, but otherwise a good size

https://www.mariposabicycles.com/650b-touring.html

Michel Gagnon

There is a page on the Thorn Cycles website about touring on a bike with 26" wheels. Bear in mind that they are partial to 26", but it still gives you an idea.

I would suggest the following: make sure your prospective bike has enough room to handle typical 26" tires (something like 26" x 2", I think), but equip it with narrow high pressure slicks. Slicks are much better than knobbies for any kind of hard-surface riding (asphalt, stone dust, etc.): they provide more reliable traction, offer much less resistance and are more silent, something you'll appreciate when you ride on tiny rural roads.

As for the ideal tire width, we typically say to tourers to use 32-35 mm tires (i.e. 1.25-1.37 inch width), but two factors come to mind:

Roughness of the road: You could ride on 20-mm wide tires if the road is perfectly smooth, but bumps will be hard, lenghtwise cracks in the road could be suicidal (will you see cracks that narrow?) and pebbles on the road – or on the shoulder – could be really bad. If you have to ride 1-2 days on gravel, you'll really appreciate wider tires.

Weight (yours and the load you carry): The lighter you are, the narrower your tires need to be. For instance, if you look in the middle of Sheldon Brown's tire page, you'll see that for a load of 100 lb per wheel on 32 mm tires, you need 75 psi, and that if you have a load of only 75 lb per wheel, you need 28 mm tires for a similar tire load.

So, you didn't say that, but if you are lightweight, you should think about 26 x 1" (for asphalt) to 1.2" tires. I think that 1.2 - 1.25" slick high-pressure tires would be a good compromise between performance on asphalt, comfort, safety, and will still allow you to ride decently if you have a few gravel sections.

As for the "Will I be able to follow the group"? Assuming the load is fairly split, it will depend on your strength and training vs that of other members of your group.