"We've had it in our design palette for some time, it's cool to see it coming back," says founder, Vandermark
Seven Cycles has welcomed the renewed hype surrounding the 650b wheel size, which on the back of Nino Schurter's surprise World Cup win, has the industry discussing the perks of a 'middle ground' between 26 and 29-inch wheels.
Seven Cycles founder Rob Vandermark said: “I started out racing mountain bikes, so having fun on the trail is a core value here at Seven and we are always exploring the possibilities of technologies new and old. 650b is actually an old standard, and one we have had in our design palette for a long time. It is very cool to see it emerging in the market and bringing riders a new trail experience.”
As the 29er has become more prolific in recent years, many manufacturers ditched the standard completely, but bespoke bike builder Seven stands by the size, telling BikeBiz "Several Seven employees are riding 650b for their everyday trail bike and have taken time to understand this wheel size’s unique characteristics in both geared and, more recently, single-speed set ups. These bikes give a very pure trail experience. There is a lot of stripped down, old-school fun to be had on bikes like these."
Seven Cycles recently revealed that it is seeking retail partners in the UK.
The off road industry certainly seems to be showing curiosity once again. BikeBiz would be interested to hear your thoughts on 650b vs 26/29-inch in the comments below.
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3 comments
I think the lack of suspension forks will be a limiting factor. To the best of my knowledge, it's only Magura that have something in the pipeline. It's easy for the likes of us (qoroz) and Seven Cycles to make a rigid Ti fork, but reading riders comments following the World Cup win, I'm not sure they want "yet another wheel size." If they do, what fork travel do they want? I'll knock up a frame and get it out for testing and feedback.
Chris Davies Apr 13th 2012 at 1:47PM
0 0Wait six months Chris and you won't be able to move for them. White Bros also makes them, but there are things in the works from Rockshox, Fox and others... We can see it being used for bikes from 121-150mm rear travel (as it's hard to get 29ers to make elegant big full sussers) with hardtails becoming increasingly 29er and anything 160mm+ still being 26in. Or we could all stand our ground and repel the middle way. See the next issue of Singletrack for a bit of a debate about it...
Chipps Chippendale Apr 13th 2012 at 1:57PM
0 0Interesting to see the MTB sector now noticing what had in fact NOT become an obsolete size, but has been kept alive by, of all people, the Americans! Rivendell were for many years, the stalwarts of 650b outside France (where many older everyday bikes use them still). Working with Panaracer, they kept a few road 650b tyres going. Now, with the big boom in the classic steel Randonneur bike in the US, panaracer have worked with partners like Grand Bois, Somafab and Compass, as well as by themselves to launch a decent cross-section of road-oriented and mixed-use tyres. Hutchinson have now pitched in also. This means that rims are also available, and I've seen some British custom-builders producing 650b rando bikes too. Who will catch the next wave, I wonder? Or will the British miss another one, like we missed the MTB in the 60s (Bogbikes) and the 70s/80s (Cleland)?
Andy Scaife Apr 13th 2012 at 6:44PM
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