It's my perception that the 26" wheel is easier to get rolling and keep rolling than 650b & 700c wheels. For me at least my Atlantis seems to climb better than those other sizes and I have all three sizes. I've seen old MTB & Touring large frames with 26" and the riders didn't seem to mind. I'll grant that the larger wheel size looks proportionally better on a large frame. And I hear a lot of comments on off road riding that the 29er size rolls over obstructions better than the 26" but I have no practical experience with that size off road. My 26" wheels have always been fine off road. On availability I've been told the 26" wheel size is ubiquitous overseas, so if you're a world traveler then it would seem prudent to use a 26" wheel.
We're witnessing a boom in adventure bikes in the 29er and 27.5 category. Those sizes seem risky overseas for the availability issue I mentioned above. Beyond, availability and aesthetic what makes those sizes better than 26"? It's not chubbier tires because the smaller wheel size can accommodate more rubber with correct frame clearance design, example fat tire bikes & the Rawland Ravn and I get the proportion deal but it all seems like a component manufacturers push. I'm sure there's a Jan Heine article out there on why 650b is the favored randonneur wheel size but I bet a 26" would work fine for those events. Anyway, very good question John. It seems the question has been answered regarding why Riv doesn't have 26" in the larger sized frames. Tail Winds, ~Hugh On Tuesday, February 16, 2016 at 10:46:53 AM UTC-8, john wrote: > > I'm wondering about the difference in tire sizes for loaded touring. > > Wouldn't a 26" wheel work better for loaded touring, regardless of the > frame size? > > Why therefore doesn't Rivendell offer 26" wheels in their larger > touring-capable frames, like the Atlantis and Hunq? > > What am I missing here? > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
