[Closed] 26” bfe still a good bike?

It's going to be a little smaller but for typical BFe territory (bike parks, technical trails) it's not going to be noticeable. Thinking of picking up a small frame for the boy, as it'd be more appropriate for his riding than the Superlight he's on (my old one) and fit better. I do struggle to find decent fat 26" tyres though now, a proper 2.4 would be good.

Ah not thought about tyre availability - love the on one chunky monkey but seems no longer available 🙁

The Vittoria ones come up small - the Barxos are decent tread, good compound but the 2.25 is a narrow tyre - great XC tyres but think you'd want a bit more.

You can probably get Maxxis or the like at full price but I'm a cheapskate 😀

Conti are still making new, good 26" stuff. The 2.4 Trail King is ace.

A quick measurement of ardents with wheels still attached to bike suggest a 2.25 x 650b is approx 1/2 inch bigger than 2.4 x 26.

I use 26in on a bfe 275, it feels rougher than 650b on trails like Cannock and FOD but if I had never had 650b I wouldn’t know or care.

@Kayla 1- don’t you do the same? I have a trail king 2.4 in 650b and I really like it, used to in 26 but got an ardent now that bike is used for different purposes.

I use 26in on a bfe 275, it feels rougher than 650b on trails like Cannock and FOD but if I had never had 650b I wouldn’t know or care.

@Kayla 1- don’t you do the same? I have a trail king 2.4 in 650b and I really like it, used to in 26 but got an ardent now that bike is used for different purposes.

so you are using 650b wheels/tyes in a 26" bfe? more details please - fork etc or vice versa?

Vice versa, OP.

Yep, I've had 26" in all the 650B frames I've had. I've got a mk1 Switchback with 26" and OH is on the Stereo I had for a bit (on 26" too). It works really well.

Pics of 650B frames with 26" wheels in-

Mk1 Switchback-

[img] [/img]

mk1 BFe 650B-

[img] [/img]

I had 26" 2.8 WTB Rangers in the BFe at one point which was fun in a monster truck kind of way.

what about bb height\pedal strikes etc?

I’ve got a 650b 34 mm stancions fork now but have used a 26in Fox 32 fork , the 34 mm stancioned fork is better

More pedal strikes but only over bedding of rocks, bike is more manoeuvrable with 26in wheels and more stable with the 650b fork

I heard that the bike industry is going to stop updating 26" wheels soon, which will potentially leave them open to malware and viruses. Is this true?

Why the BFe? For £500 you could get a 26" Soul.

because the soul is steeper and not for loooooong forks

BFe has a 44mm headtube (unless you go really old on the frame) so no problem with tapered forks.

I’ve put a 700x28 wheel in the back of an old 26er Soul before now so yes, a bigger wheel size will fit, but you’ll find yourself very limited with how wide a tyre you can run, clearance wise (in terms of height as well as width). Wider rims will probably help by keeping tyres flatter and less bulb profile. You’d be better with 26er wheels though I think. There does still seem to be reasonable availability from mfr but finding them in stock anywhere might be the trick, which ultimately is going to feed back although 26” is turning up in some ranges as ‘bigger kids’ which may help parts, and tbh there’s no real reason the three sizes can’t exist side by side except for marketing. How long term are you looking? Wouldn’t worry me for a year or two.

@ sootyandJim
I find mine is starting to freeze randomly so it must already be happening.

If you’re comparing same year, Soul and BFe actually have same frame angles. This has only finally started to change and really separate the two in the current ‘longshot’ bikes.

BFe has much heavier duty tubeset and will take 160+ forks happily although many end up at 140mm.

Soul will take up to 140mm but usually ends up 120-130mm.

Soul isn’t an XC bike, it is genuinely a Trail bike, but the BFe is a much heavier hitter and the one you want if you plan a lot of airtime. There’s a lot of crossover between the two, and people tend to see the Soul as a much lighter duty bike than it actually is, simply because the BFe exists.

I found my bfe 275 was a pig to pedal at 140 for long periods of time especially climbing. Now I it at 100mm as a general ride around, I would happily ride it all day on any terrain within reason. The gen 5 has no such problems at 140. I. Have mine at 130, which I find a good compromise for trail centres whilst still maintain extra travel for really steep stuff.

what about bb height\pedal strikes etc?

It's a total non-issue, perpetuated by The Bike Industry to make you think you need moar biggerer wheels and to force you into 'upgrading' perfectly usable stuff #tinfoilhat 😆

there’s no real reason the three sizes can’t exist side by side except for marketing.

This. 'They' can't lose face and admit they were wrong about going all in on 29 (and got them very wrong!) though when people still want 26 to have actual, honest to goodness, skids and wheelies, small bike fun on. That's another thread that's been done to death though.

@bsmis

Apparently if you turn them off and hold down the third nipple from the valve hole whilst turning them on again they reboot to the original factory setting.

Ahhh, original factory setting. When 26" wheels seemed to manage just fine and no one had started trying to convince people that bigger wheels would make them betterer er..

BTW, that is the third nipple clockwise to the left, as if you're looking at the wheel from above.

If you’re comparing same year, Soul and BFe actually have same frame angles. This has only finally started to change and really separate the two in the current ‘longshot’ bikes.

Actually, they deviated years ago. Originally the BFe was same geom as Soul if using the same length forks… but that hasn't been the case for a long time.

sootyandjim- Doesn't work on the later 26+ rims though, they removed the expansion slot so you can't fix it yourself, the swines. They knew what they were doing. Said it wasn't being used and they could remove it to 'promote stability without sacrificing agility and to help bring the trails alive'. Needs a whole new frame, forks, wheels and electronic gears to fix apparently.

So i suppose then if i had a hypothetical 5-600 quid for a second hand bike for Peaks/Sheffield predominantly - steep/techy stuff what should i be looking at? Ideally want 650b - HELP

Admit I stopped BFe watching around when I got my Soul275 which is probably around when they separated (not least because BFe stayed 26 for at least another year with “26 ain’t dead!”) but for the purposes of this it’s all 26ers so less relevant. Soul Mk3 updated ST and HT but didn’t play with geo like the first of the 275’s did.

Souls suit me better personally, but comparing 26er Soul and BFe HA’s, Soul is only going to look steeper as it probably has 40mm shorter forks... While I don’t want to jinx myself, my Soul275 which is close to the original geo still as ‘optimised for inline’ really was just a little bit more length hasn’t killed me to death with its 68.5deg HA (130mm Pikes) yet. The rest of the bike was a substantial change over my previous Mk2 though, mostly because of the seat and head tubes. The seat tube in particular killed a lot of the springy ‘steel is real!’ feel of the bike (IMO) but traded it for a much more planted, bombproof stance reminiscent of my older Chameleon without being anything like as harsh. This was a fair trade to me after initial disappointment, and is why it’s still my main bike...

Soul275’s can be had reasonably cheaply if you’re prepared to wait a bit. I think a full build is going to bust the £500 desire budget by a couple of hundred unless you’re very lucky though.

@ sootyandjin and kayla1 - i was depressing the dropper and thumb shift whilst pedling backwards, but it just kept telling me there wasn’t enough space between the chain stays and I would have to upgrade.

this is what i keep being drawn too!
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Cotic-BFE-26-Large-Mountain-Bike/292709535087?hash=item4426d90d6f:g:YiYAAOSwroFbjSWg

If you like it buy it. I can’t see a shortage of rims and tyres in 5he near future just maybe not brand new designs and if you break the fork you could fit a shorter travel 650b when top end 26 forks are no longer in production.

Mk1 Switchbacks come up for ~£200 too-

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Stanton-Switchback-MK1-Mountainbike-Frame-size-large-27-5-Wheel/333229173502?hash=item4d9601aafe:g:aLcAAOSwl41c~qFj

They'll take 140mm forks properly if that's your thing. The old 26" BFes and the original 650B one get a bit slack around the seat tube for anything over 120mm or so. They're still ace bikes and I loved the ones I had but 120mm was the sweet spot for them with forks for me even though I did a couple of DH races with 160mm forks in an XS mk2 😆

They are amazing. I say this because I have been drinking (a little bit) and I also have a L 2017 26in Orange Bfe frame for sale.

Seriously though, in a 'it is not you, it is me' break up fashion style, I am only selling it as I think I am just too gangly for it. Really fun, 'flickable' frame and as others have said, just use fat (2.4 Conti tyres work fine) and it will help the bike (and your bottom/legs).

I took it to Verbier for some late season steep Alps descents and it was no problem.

Going for an XL frame now (27.5, but using my old 26 in wheels with a newer 27.5 fork).

I assume 27.5 are also ace too 🙁

My only bike at the minute, does everything I need. Tyres are 2.3 minions.

View this post on Instagram

TBH looks a mental bike 🙂

Mk1 Switchbacks come up for ~£200 too-

Any idea what the differences between the MK1 and MK2 switchbacks are? I know the MK2 has more tyre clearance, and internal dropper routing, possibly also more size choices with the short and long options. is that it? or where there geometry changes as well?

I think the BB may be slightly lower on the mk2 but I'm not sure.