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Anybody know,I think Minnar was 27.5?
sure this and some google will tell you
http://www.pinkbike.com/news/results-uci-dh-world-cup-fort-william-finals.html
yes new v10 is 650b
Everyone? Kona was the last to adopt 650 iirc
I suppose it was inevitable really
The margins are tight so the 3% extra speed*
could make all the difference
* is that what nico reckoned ?
What wysiwyg said I reckon. A quick glance through the top 20 says 27.5 is fully established at the top level.
Then you have stuff like PB's coverage of opening day at Whistler where they counted about 90-something % of all the bikes there as being 26".
Should I strangle my own kitten now?
The 2 stats just line up with the fact that people don't buy new bikes every year (and even when they do it's not always the latest thing)
In a few years the stats will have changed for whistler opening weekend.
If the manufacturers want to sell 275 they cannot have their riders on 26 wheels
If the manufacturers want to sell 275 they cannot have their riders on 26 wheels
They would if 26 meant higher placings, winning sells bikes.
What would you ride - you would ride the bike you owned.
Given that the top x finishers are all sponsored they will be on the latest bikes.
What do the non sponsored riders use ?
How old is the latest 26 inch bike now ?
But your right, the top riders are looking for 10ths of a second or less, so it all counts. Whereas us normal people just want to get down without killing ourselves.
I just recently demo'd a 27 inch bike round Afan then got home and rode my 26 inch bike. I couldn't tell the difference in the size of the wheels.
winning sells bikes.
gone are the days of everyone riding intense M1's repainted in team colours...
I ride 26 inch on both my Glory and Trance because I can't justify the cost of upgrading
gone are the days of everyone riding an Intense M1
Shame.......
Seeing as 27.5 is no different to 26 why wouldn't the riders ride what the manufacturers want them to?
Seeing as 27.5 is no different to 26 why wouldn't the riders ride what the manufacturers want them to?
Surely we all know bike races are wone by talent
The talent ride the bikes they are paid to ride
Oh except cyclo cross racers who avoid disc brakes in the wet!!!
i recently had the chance to ride 2 exactly the same bikes on the same day at bpw, but in different wheel size.
nukeproof mega am 26" and nukeproof mega am275, both same year. i rode the 26er in the morning and it was great i was probably riding the best i have ridden, i swapped to the 650b in the afternoon, i was absolutely pants, couldn`t make the turns, i could 100 % tell the difference. So wheel size does matter!!
but wait a minute i have a mega tr 650b with different geometry and i ride quite well on that bike.
so my thoughts are wheel size does matter, but geometry and size and wheelbase matter more, to me anyway.
DH racing is a time-trial. marginal gains are everything. if the rules allowed the contenders would be racing in skinsuits and riding peakless helmets down fort william
27.5 might not be noticeably faster for 99.9% of us, but when races are won/lost on hundredths of a second and the rules allow it, why wouldn't you take that advantage?
I can't recall the final time difference - but at one point quite late on in the day Aaron Gwin was nearly 7 secs up, and I think the top 3 at the end had quite a split above the rest, for a DH race anyway. Yes marginal time gains are important, but I don't think you can put that down to wheel size. There are too many variables to ever pin it on just one.
And anyway, the Pros will ride the bike handed them by the sponsor, gone are the days when they used to paint sponsor logos on their favourite bike and ride that.
Mountain bike DH isn't typically won by hundredths, the gaps are pretty big. As posted above 26 vs 275 is virtually indentical and the pro's ride what they are paid too. If there was a bigger speed differential privateer 26ers would race but as IMO the two wheel sizes are pretty much the same pros ride what they are given and paid to ride.
what choice do the riders get? dont see many choosing the clown wheel option.
rider not the bike
Would be interesting to know how far the rider v sponsor thing goes in top biking world.
In skiing some top people may use older skis as they like them, but they just get stickered up like the latest seasons stuff. Some even dont use the brand they are sponsored by!
I imagine bikes are harder to change in that way, but if a top rider isnt happy with their equipment psychologically or technically, then that will count for more than 3% fast 650b wheels.
At Fort Bill, not getting stuck in the mud, line choice, and not falling off, was the difference between winning and coming 20th.
650b has little to do with it, more what the individual rider is comfy on or used to.
Mountain bike DH isn't typically won by hundredths, the gaps are pretty big.
1.1 seconds between gwinn and minaar at Fort Bill
Nico reckons you get an extra 1 second per 2.5mins of DH track
so over the 5 minute fort bill track thats enough*
.
*for the pros anyway, not sure what itd mean for us mortals
Nico reckons you get an extra 1 second per 2.5mins of DH track
It's also the figure that gets rolled out far too often, one bloke regardless of who he is on 2 bikes.
A ground up bike redesign could accentuate or cancel out all the benefit of slightly bigger wheels.
Just look to F1. The difference between the option and prime tyres they run in some races may be less than 0.5 seconds per lap. Yet the quicker tyre will always win the race in the hands of the quickest drivers. I can confidently say that there are only a handful of drivers in the world who can get that 0.5 sec difference out of those tyres. The same will be true of the bigger wheels. If they were not a tiny bit faster then they would not be winning races.