Mountain Bike Wheel Size Difference

In the simplest of terms the more tyre you have in contact with the ground the more grip you have.

Mountain bike wheel size difference. Mountains bikes now come in three different wheel sizes. Mountain bike wheel sizes quick background. This is most noticeable under braking and when pedalling hard on. Now it seems we are spoilt for choice.

Not so long back the majority of mountainbikes were rolling on 26 inch wheels they were there from the very early days and settled into being the main wheel size for production bikes. To help clearly demonstrate the differences between the three mountain bike wheel sizes giant released a series of comparisons to show why the larger wheels have taken over from the traditional 26 inch wheel. Cycling expert eli schumont shipley breaks down the difference between the two most prevalent mountain bike wheel sizes so you can pick the one that s right for you. Your wheel axle height sets your bottom bracket height.

At 5 6 you re not quite in that very small frame category and it s completely reasonable for a frame suited to your height to use 700c. In terms of mountain bike wheels 650b is a standard 27 5 wheel and 700c is a standard 29 wheel. I ve seen a lot of discussions online where some guy is saying riders. You can find them with 26 wheels 27 5 wheels or 29 wheels.

Although adult sizes are 26 27 5 and 29 29er. Having dominated for decades 26in wheels now see little interest beyond utility machines jump bikes and markets such as asia where average heights and consequently frame sizes are lower after a tumultuous few years mainstream dirt wheels have settled down to 27 5in for aggressive riding and 29in for xc but with plenty of crossover in between these are the pros and cons of each size. Long considered the standard wheel size in the mountain bike industry 26 inches is likely the size of the wheels you have on your mountain bike now unless you actively sought out something different. Most adult road bikes use 700c wheels whereas 26 is typically a mountain bike wheel size although in recent years mountain bikes are using larger wheels as well.

It only just ended up this way though because with early 80s experimentation with larger sized rims 700c now referred to as 29 in the off road world many saw advantages in these bigger wheels and it. It wasn t until the late 1990 s mountain bike wheels were available in anything larger than 26 inches. These days mountain bike wheel sizes range from 20 through to 29. Sometimes very small adult road bike frames will use a smaller wheel size like 650b but it s more common even for small frames to use 700c wheels.