The History of Mountain Bike Wheel Size

You might think you know the story of mountain bike wheel size, but optimizing it has involved lots of ups and downs (and riding things up and down). Hear it from the man who was there.

[marknieuwejaar]

Thirty pound xc bike's on 29s' are a blast. Today i rode an uphill downhill trail with ease, 2014 X Caliber 8, XC32 g2 rock shox, g2 geometry frame, dropped head set, 27 spd, mechanical discs' black & white giving endless smiles... can't find this bike anywhere...Lucky Me...

[RideAlongside]

Love the #29plus! Glad we finally got here! Thanks Gary and everyone else along the way willing to be a little risky and start trying new things!

[occidentalexplorer]

The 29“ wheel is not a new thing for “Mt Biking”. The Italian Army 1920s had a full suspension 29” wheeled off road bike with knobby tires. Gary Fisher likes to claim many things but Mt biking and the 29” wheel he never invented. Also If you have never met Gary Fisher which I have a few times and he never remembers meeting me. Even though we see each other all the time on the streets of SF not once did you make eye contact. He even judges you by the brand of bike you ride. He came into my shop when the first Gary Fisher Sugar bikes came out to test ride one. He road it around the block then returned it and said “nice bike”. He walked out and right after that we noticed a huger dent on the frame. He crashed the bike without telling us.

[MrSouzy]

Gary Fisher read cycling weekly....brilliant.. I loved that little news paper as a teenager.. had all the local race results and reported on all the amateur races we participated

[Daltonfg]

So the tire mentioned was "Hakkapeliitta" and it was made by Nokian Tyres. A 700C gravel tire in late 70s... And Gazzaloddi 3.0: the MTB tire that was "too wide to ride". The company was always too much ahead of it's time, no-one understood the potential.

[raczzgabor]

Hilarious! Trek must be proud that Mr Fisher works for them 😁

[magicguyism]

Hi there, hoping you can help.

I’ve got a frame that was given to me but the bicycle has no wheels. My nearest bike shop is quite far away and don’t have car to bring it to the bike shop. Is there any way for me to figure out what size wheels and tyres I’ll need for my bike? Any measurements I can take?

I’ve emailed the manufacturers company with the serial number of the frame but they haven’t been much help.

[masymd]

Complete horse shit.

The 26” mountain bike wheel dominated for so long because it worked, as you aptly stated.

29” wheels came into existence because bicycle companies know that people love gimmicks. (I can assure you: if I created a 32” wheel, people would flock to it like flies to shit). But when riders started to realize that the 29” wheel was riddled with drawbacks, manufacturers had to reverse course. But they couldn’t just go back to making 26” bikes. So, enter the 27.5” wheel. It is a mere 3/4” increase in radius over the 26” wheel. Yet, it brought about the sale of many more new bicycles and forks and tires. Functionally, there can be little difference between a 26” and 27” wheel. They are simply too close in size.

What does this tell you?

That the 26” was a perfectly good size, and there was no need to change from it. 27.5” exists for business reasons.

[imranbecks]

26ers are considered small now. They look like bmx bikes now when compared to my 29er.. Haha

[ltaylor]

Being OCD, the lack of symmetry with the mustache is too much for me!

[kay]

Lets try 36" c'mon now, we could make it work.

[iltonguetoroots]

muito bom ando com uma galera que todos andam de 27.5 mas eu ando de 26 ainda por ser pequeno, mas não me adaptei a 27 achei ela ruim tá subir e pecima nas curvas a 29 não andei ainda mas encontrei um modelo tamanho 15 de alumínio vou testa pra ver obrigado o voog dos teste que você mostrou me ajudou bastante a decidir

[lehti]

FINLAND PERKELE SUOMI SUOMI SUOMI MAINITTU

[marcgarciaros]

para hacer mtb pienso q lo mejor es 26, 27-5 son más ágiles a la ora de girar y más manejables q un 29 q cuando vajas por la montaña hacerleras más o menos cuando sueltas los frenos no por llevar un 29 vas a bajsr más rápido q yo por tener más grande la rueda

[snakesandsticks]

I don’t trust a guy with a snidely mustache

[guerrilla]

I've got the old specialized big hit with the 24in rear wheel... it's bulletproof strong, Corners like it's on Rails and manuals with ease giving you tons of control off the lip of a jump... I'm surprised this unique attitude didn't catch on