29er are the fastest bike

Hello,

Just look at this study:

29 inch wheel are significantly faster than other type of wheel.

So... when we say that 26" are dead... we're not so far.

It's a good news for mid drive users who can take full advantage of the wheel size and the gears....

But what about DD ones? I've decided to stick to DD for its minimal maintenance:

- Minimum wear on brakes with regen

- Minimum wear on chain

- No wear on gears or parts

- Ease of maintenance and fix of the motor

- Ability to have bigger peak power

However... it's not efficient at all with bigger wheel.... and smaller is better

What do you do? Any of you tried 29er on DD?

but the point is that 29er rolls better and have better traction. So overall it is more efficient on terrain than other bikes

On a glass smooth surface there will be no measurable difference in efficiency for 26" to 29ers.

Once any unevenness is present in a surface, a larger diameter wheel becomes more efficient, but on reasonable road surfaces the difference is too small to be concerned about, especially on e-bikes where the rider contribution is less significant.

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down hill and technical stuff 29er be slower as the bigger the rim the more it will flex under load.

why there are no dh forks for 29er wheels, they did try them a few years ago but every rider crashed.

flat and long sweeping stuff then yes 29er all the way.

some dh riders also go back to 26 or 27.5 depending on the track lay out.

I actually wonder if on street riding, a 29er would still win.

By a tyre's thickness maybe.

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cwah, if you are ever down this way I will run my 16/20" wheeled trike against your 29" wheeled bike in a roll down test on a steep hill, I think you will get a very surprising result.

Wheel size is only one factor, the tyres on my trike are optimised for minimum wattage rolling resistance by the trike manufacturer for on road use.

As others pointed out 29'ers off road on that particular terrain are faster than the wheels AND tyres they tested.

As long as all the other variables are equal, I can't accept the assertion that a 29'er wheel could be 19 seconds faster than a 27.5 or a 26 on a comparison test.

The fact that the video then says that the 26 is faster than the 27.5 sounds even more implausible. The "middle" size can't be the slowest. There must have been other factors affecting the tests. The commentator even mentions rider "unfamiliarity".

The basic correlation of rolling resistance to wheel diameter is scientifically undeniable, but the practical degree to which it affects is very much down to surface smoothness and tyre width and inflation pressure.

I don't actually posses a 29'er, but my anorak collection of bikes include 700c, 26", 20", and 16", in racing, full suspension, electric, folding, and recumbents trikes and bikes.

The rolling Resistance is far more affected by the tyres themselves than the precise wheel diameter.

My folding Dahon electric with 450x1.5 at 60psi rolls slower than my Lepus trike with 450x1.25 at 90psi, and the trike rolls faster than my Trance full suspension with 26"x1.5 at 50psi.

Edited April 2, 201610 yr by eHomer

I favour DD hub motors and I'm thinking of bucking the trend and reducing my rear wheel to 24", but am still unsure due to the lack of decent, wide, off-road rubber. Does anyone have any reconmendations?

For a solely road going bike I'd go 20" for sure.

I favour DD hub motors and I'm thinking of bucking the trend and reducing my rear wheel to 24", but am still unsure due to the lack of decent, wide, off-road rubber. Does anyone have any reconmendations?

 

For a solely road going bike I'd go 20" for sure.

have a look at the tyres on the bultaco brinco because it has 24`` rims and has off road tyres.24x3``.

Whenever I see a 26" wheeled bike these days, I think it looks like something a clown would ride at the circus. They look odd, especially 26" wheels on a mountain bike.

I grew up with 26" as the norm in Britain, simply because wheel size also has much to do with body height. The British were overall much smaller back then in the 1940s and '50s, while the famously tall Dutch preferred larger diameter wheels.

And when mountain bikes were first created at the start of the 1980s, 26" wheels were universal on them, today's larger wheels being a comparatively recent change.

Of course the British are noticeably larger now in all visible directions, justifying larger wheels more, but to a fair extent the wheel size is a fashion thing, especially true of the silly 29er fad.

To me a fat man on a skinny large wheel road bike is the one with clown like appearance, having an air of the faintly ridiculous.

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Edited April 2, 201610 yr by flecc

have a look at the tyres on the bultaco brinco because it has 24`` rims and has off road tyres.24x3``.

Thanks for the heads-up. I know I asked for off-road tyres, but they're pretty aggressive for my requirements, although I could probably just about get one in my Kona Blast hardtail frame.

To me a fat man on a skinny large wheel road bike is the one with clown like appearance, having an air of the faintly ridiculous.

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But of course also true if the wheels are too small:

I grew up with 26" as the norm in Britain, simply because wheel size also has much to do with body height. The British were overall much smaller back then in the 1040s and '50s, while the famously tall Dutch preferred larger diameter wheels.

 

And when mountain bikes were first created at the start of the 1980s, 26" wheels were universal on them, today's larger wheels being a comparatively recent change.

 

Of course the British are noticeably larger now in all visible directions, justifying larger wheels more, but to a fair extent the wheel size is a fashion thing, especially true of the silly 29er fad.

 

To me a fat man on a skinny large wheel road bike is the one with clown like appearance, having an air of the faintly ridiculous.

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I guess it's what you get used to seeing. The majority of bikes that I see around here are 29" wheeled mountain bikes. The occasional 26" wheel versions that I see now looks odd by comparison.

I have to agree regarding fat men on road bikes. Coincidently, I've just witnessed the preposterous image a beetroot faced man in full Team Sky kit slogging it out on a local hill. The Lycra was working hard too!

I've never liked 26" wheels, they've always looked wrong to me and when i bought into the popularity of mountain bikes 25 yrs ago and bought one myself i didn't like way they rode either.

I've stuck to hybrids since..... I think the 27.5er is probably the best compromise for a mountain bike.

Wheel size is only 1 factor, but if you look at the market now it seems that most bike are 29er now? Except for ebikes on hub.

I used the bbs02 750W for a while on a road bike it felt rolling better than normal ebike.

Unfortunafely, chain and cog require too much maintenance for my taste and I'm decided on DD.

But for example, a bigger wheel would also absorb better road asperities and be more comfy... and somehow rolling better? I'm tempted for a 29er on a DD but fear the lack of torque

Wheel size is only 1 factor, but if you look at the market now it seems that most bike are 29er now? Except for ebikes on hub.

 

I used the bbs02 750W for a while on a road bike it felt rolling better than normal ebike.

 

Unfortunafely, chain and cog require too much maintenance for my taste and I'm decided on DD.

 

But for example, a bigger wheel would also absorb better road asperities and be more comfy... and somehow rolling better? I'm tempted for a 29er on a DD but fear the lack of torque

Just to pick holes, it's not the lack of torque that's the problem; you just need more power. It's the lack of efficiency that's the issue.

In all honesty though, do you have any 'real world' problems with 26" wheels?

if you look at the market now it seems that most bike are 29er now?

No, we are a long way from that.

It's all a bit silly though. The wheel diameter difference between a 700c rim and a 29er's 650b rim when both have the same wide tyre fitted is just 4mm overall.

The wheel difference between a 26" wheel's 559 rim and a 29er's 650b rim with the same 2.4" wide tyre fitted is just 12 mm overall diameter.

That's less than half an inch. So much for the nonsense of calling one 29" and the other 26".

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This is a debate thats more for trends than anything else

26"

27.5"

29"

I challenge anyone to ride the same bike with different wheels only over the same terrain and honestly tell me they felt a difference in performance and rideability without kicking in the placebo effect "bigger wheels must be better because thats what they told us "

Its just another sales kick too sell bikes

They will be telling us next that bigger wheels on cars are faster too

No, we are a long way from that.

 

It's all a bit silly though. The wheel diameter difference between a 700c rim and a 29er's 650b rim when both have the same wide tyre fitted is just 4mm overall.

 

The wheel difference between a 26" wheel's 559 rim and a 29er's 650b rim with the same 2.4" wide tyre fitted is just 12 mm overall diameter.

 

That's less than half an inch. So much for the nonsense of calling one 29" and the other 26".

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That would make sense Flecc, apart from the fact 29er and 650b are two difference wheel sizes. 29" rim is the same as 700c, so bigger than a 650b rim.

Yes, on a 29" mtb wheel you use a bigger tyre than you'd find on a 700c road wheel, so the outside diameter of the rolling wheel on the bike is bigger on the mtb.

This is a good article that actually explains the benefits and disadvantages of the three wheel sizes availal

That would make sense Flecc, apart from the fact 29er and 650b are two difference wheel sizes. 29" rim is the same as 700c, so bigger than a 650b rim.

I know, but I brought 650b into it since that rim size is becoming increasingly popular as a direct competitor to 29ers and 26".

The very small differences in actual wheel diameters makes the whole issue somewhat silly at times, discussion often appearing to represent them as radically different. In road use there's little to nothing in it

Bicycle wheel, tyre and rim sizes have long been a mess with their three different methods of measurement, ETRTRO, Inch and French, so the very last thing we needed was yet another expression like 29er to complicate matters further.

And expression is all it is, they've been around for years with no-one ever thinking a special name was needed. Over a decade ago in 2005 the original Ezee Torq was introduced with 700c rims and tall profile Kenda 1.95" tyres, and they managed fine without a special name. Today they'd be called 29ers!

Pic below, 1.95" Kenda on left, 35mm Marathon Plus on right:

http://www.flecc.uk/t/images/kendamp35tyres.jpg

Edited April 3, 201610 yr by flecc