What size will mountain bike tires be in the future?
 

There is information in various places about certain tire sizes becoming obsolete. I am not sure what is true.

What sizes will mountain bike tires be in the future?

They'll move back to 26" in a few years. Change = sales.

Which tyre sizes are you referring to? It might help to clarify.

It's been steadily working its way towards 29" X 2.6" for a few years now. Others will still be available, but that's going to emerge as the standard. Watch and see.

26, 27.5, 29 inch, or maybe others

700M x 34.5 Tubulars

How far in the future are we talking about here?

Yes, these three will soon be obsolete. What are the other mtb sizes that concern you?

What will be the sizes of tires on future mountain bikes?

Anything that people know about now.

29er and 26 will dominate...I hope that 27.5 becomes extinct.

I anticipate 32” becoming the standard.

Well 26" is already history on new adult bikes.
27.5" and 29" are both current and foreseeable future. I very much doubt either of those sizes will become obsolete. 29" wheels are starting to dominate XC/trail bikes, but 27.5" are still very popular on Enduro/DH bikes. Many bikes are even available with both wheel options.
Personally I prefer 29" wheels, but I'm fairly tall and ride mainly XC/Trail. My wife's small enduro bike is 27.5.

27.5 will continue to lose its presence, 26 will stay at the level it is found now, 700 (ie 29) will continue to dominate MTN, No big changes foreseen at this time.

Now is not the future.

I imagine 700/29 will be the size for the foreseeable future. Single diameter and disc brakes are probably a rim manufacturers dream.

While I’m not up on UCI rules, there appears to be no specific mountain bike diameter constraints for mountain bike races. I have read that 1.3.018 is in conflict with 29er diameters exceeding 70cm, “including the tire,” but I doubt a conflict exists. However, I can see some mtb specific language that would prevent a company from competing on a larger rim. And no company would develop a size that would get banned.

John

I think 29ers are already reaching the upper limit on leg clearance, much bigger and they'll just get too difficult to climb onto comfortably for anyone who isn't 6' and over.
Same in terms of weight; unless we move to a huge weight saving technology then much bigger wheels are just going to be unwieldy.

I would not be so sure.

UCI does not have the influence over the MTB market like it does the Road Bike market.

I've always considered 27.5 to be a zombie size. It was obsolete, then resurrected in order to use for a specific purpose, then everyone jumped on it (got infected with the zombie virus.) As soon as all the zombies are killed off it'll go away again.

The next MTB size, I fear, will be 590. It'll start for cyclecross and like an invasive plant it'll soon be everywhere.

The future will be non-pneumatic, whatever size SMART decides to make.

You can still buy ISO597s, a size that was never popular and hasn't come on a factory bike in 60+ years.

Kid stuff. Truebike 36:

https://truebikes.eu

"...in the future, there are no roads."

-Stephen Hawking



*EDIT: I Didn't. This is just my thing. Everybody has their thing.

"Where we're going, we don't need... roads."

-Dr. Emmet Brown

Seriously, I'll stick with the current array of sizes as I'm sure in the future the hoverbike will be developed!