Pickled Hedgehog: “Objects in the rear view mirror.”

Alex considers just how big that next big thing, actually might be.

How many people does it take to change a wheel size?

One? Unlikely, unless that individual is some smiting deity. One hundred? Equally unlikely, unless the sample size is less than double that. One thousand? Hmm, that has some critical mass but we have to play in change resistance and endless arguments over perceived benefits. Ten thousand? Okay, that’s somewhere beyond the tipping point in our insular mountain biking world. But none of this matters.

Let’s get something straight here; you are not Wolfie Smith declaring that Tooting is, in fact, a popular peoples front. Your 26aintdead is well meaning but entirely irrelevant in the wider context of change. Your critique of marginal gains is at best peripheral, when the great sodding marketing machine is rolling on new sized wheels.

In support of the opposition we must accept that without innovation, the sport we love will stagnate. We should review the back catalogue of disk brakes, dropper posts, slacker head angles, elongated top tubes and declare them canon. A panoramic gallery of the shiny brilliance of modern mountain bikes should partially absolve the bullshit industry selling it.

Improvement (and revenue) can only be delivered by ‘look-at-me!’ change…

And yet. And yet, there’s something mendacious going on here. There’s a big difference between a step change and incremental improvements. All the good stuff is already out there, so we’re left positioning wheel radius or suspension electronics as the next big thing, when clearly they are not.

Pause for a moment though to appreciate the desperate deceptions of why this might be. Cycling has long ceased to be the cheap utility of the masses. Instead, it’s being commercially ring-fenced by those who believe improvement (and revenue) can only be delivered by ‘look-at-me!’ change. We made this rod for ourselves and now we’re being beaten with it. Marketing looks to two options: increase market share, or increase the margin in the one you’re rocking the hegemony. We’re firmly landlocked in the latter; being asked to fund all sorts of innovations that benefit the top 5%, but are largely invisible to the other 95% of us who just need to ride a little more and buy a little less.

You cannot blame the manufacturers. God I’ve sat enough meetings where wide-eyed product mangers plead that ‘without innovation, we’re dead in the water’. Got to make a change, even if it really isn’t because one day – maybe this day – there is another disc brake, another Reverb, another slackening of the head angle. Throw enough shit at the wall, something will stick. Standing still is essentially a vertical approach to being buried by the competition.

Ten million trail users with no excuses not to pedal…

Rewind. Is 26inch really a ‘heritage’ wheel? Maybe 29 too? It doesn’t matter – your opinion on an internet forum or pontificated behind a pint glass makes absolutely no difference. Logic is lovely, but marketing molds opinion and once those making new things stop believing in the old things, new standards represent that brave new world. It’ll get you coming and going; don’t buy into legacy, and maybe this time stuff sold from a glossy page will turn you into the rider in your head.

Probably not, but idealism trumps pragmatism every time. We may gnash teeth at the idea that 27.5 is in fact nothing more than a brief transition to the new ‘+’ standard. Or that our perfect new forks are already obsolesced by an idea that wider might be better. Or stupid might be common sense. But it’s still going to happen.

I’ve ridden every sort of wheel size and love them all, because they transport me to the Valhalla of riding bikes on fantastic dirt. But if you forced me to choose, I’d take a mid-sized wheel because it’s just a little bit better than the alternatives.

Which doesn’t make it right. We’d all ride faster spending our money on skills courses. Not upgrades. We’d understand far better the implications of changing wheel size if we rode a whole lot more in the real world, and argued a whole lot less in the virtual one.

And when we’re doing that we should worry about the real game changer that has insidiously sloped into our hills. Electric mountain bikes are a million times more disruptive than 10% on wheel size. Suddenly there are ten million trail users with no excuses not to pedal. Tell me again what’s important.

We cannot stop change. This is not a democracy where the voice of the people rolls back the yearly product announcements. I’d suggest we need to roll with it, because the option is bitterness, resentment and a rosy-eyed view of the good old times.

Wheel sizes are not important. Riding your bike is. It’s a great way to pretend that change doesn’t matter.

More columns from Pickled Hedgehog.