Cycling UK Forum

Just wondered why road bike wheels don't seem to be a target for manufacturing companies for road bikes?
Mountain bikes have gone through three different diameters overnight with the middle size of 650b being the current No1 hit when in reality it makes little difference to the end user.
Road bikes seem to have always been the same size to me, with the exception of small wheeled folders. Maybe a slight change when going from imperial to metric.

Why haven't they started fiddling about with road cycle wheels?

who would buy them?

The UCI would ban anything different

what advantage would there be? bigger wheels would increase wheelbase and reduce handling performance, smaller would take things the other way, i'm all for the Status Quo, just rolling down the dustpipe.

There are advantages to bigger wheels in atb's, you might not believe it but for their intended use is does make a difference.

Dave W wrote: when in reality it makes little difference to the end user.

That's not a universally held opinion. There may be pros and cons with all sizes, but the idea that there's no difference goes against my experience.

Standardisation has many benefits.

Somebody who is 6 foot could probably benefit from bigger wheels than somebody five foot (more room available in the frame dimensions) but worth sacrificing that for the benefits of interchangeability.

There are some much bigger sizes for road going bikes, arent there? I was initially quite attracted by the idea as I am tall enough for my wheels to look disproportionate but their availability is very, very thin.

Hi,

foxyrider wrote:There are advantages to bigger wheels in atb's, you might not believe it but for their intended use is does make a difference.

You will have to let us know what they are
Even if you ignore most users of mtb's posers, sunday afternoon, riding up and down pavements and shopping malls.
We talking downhill extreme or what..........................
A 700 c tyre is just 1/2" bigger diameter than a standard 26" MTB.

A 700 c tyre is just 1/2" bigger diameter than a standard 26" MTB.

Talk like that will have us abandoning the ERTRO system and going back to the old 26", 27" system.

What you say is true but only because they have such different tyres fitted.

Dave W wrote:Why haven't they started fiddling about with road cycle wheels?

AArgh Now you've put the idea in their heads!

PH wrote:

Dave W wrote: when in reality it makes little difference to the end user.

That's not a universally held opinion. There may be pros and cons with all sizes, but the idea that there's no difference goes against my experience.

I said little difference not no difference, I have a 29 inch mountain bike that does the same job as my old 26 inch ones used to do (it's massive) basically it allows me to cycle cross country in comfort much the same as my old bikes did.

Hi,

beardy wrote:

A 700 c tyre is just 1/2" bigger diameter than a standard 26" MTB.

Talk like that will have us abandoning the ERTRO system and going back to the old 26", 27" system.

What you say is true but only because they have such different tyres fitted.

Not So.........I did Say Standard, ERTRO call it what you like most tyre even still have 26" on them though they also quote 47 x 559...and either can be in brackets.

What I was asking if any one.....Dave W etc. Could really say that different size wheels make a difference off road on road if your not using STD wheel sizes like 700 27" or 26" Different section tyres do handle differently though, and you don't need to change to a non standard rim size............

What might make more sense is to have smaller wheels on smaller frames instead of the trying to fit every size bike around 622 wheels with all of the compromises and problems of bike fit on the smaller frames. 590 might be a good choice and perhaps 559 for the smallest frames, but the same range of tyres as for 622 would be needed.

Dave W wrote:I said little difference not no difference, .

You did, my bad. However my point remains that the difference in wheel size (However much difference that is) is enough to warrant someone preferring one over the other, or even different on different bikes for different purposes.

MikeF wrote:What might make more sense is to have smaller wheels on smaller frames instead of the trying to fit every size bike around 622 wheels with all of the compromises and problems of bike fit on the smaller frames. 590 might be a good choice and perhaps 559 for the smallest frames, but the same range of tyres as for 622 would be needed.

You mean like the 650c wheeled Specialized and Moda's? The bikes exist but demand is small.

Of course the '29er's' are actually running 700c wheels just with bigger tyres. 20, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29" all refer to an over tyre diameter not the wheel size which is the Ertro figure. So 28 and 29 are both 622's for instance.

NATURAL ANKLING wrote:Hi,

beardy wrote:

A 700 c tyre is just 1/2" bigger diameter than a standard 26" MTB.

Talk like that will have us abandoning the ERTRO system and going back to the old 26", 27" system.

What you say is true but only because they have such different tyres fitted.

Not So.........I did Say Standard, ERTRO call it what you like most tyre even still have 26" on them though they also quote 47 x 559...and either can be in brackets.

What I was asking if any one.....Dave W etc. Could really say that different size wheels make a difference off road on road if your not using STD wheel sizes like 700 27" or 26" Different section tyres do handle differently though, and you don't need to change to a non standard rim size............

We appear to be talking at cross purposes here.

The ERTRO system bases it self around the rim size. So diameter difference is 622-559 = 63mm about 2".

Comparing the tyre diameter is the way of the old system with 26" tyres being the tyres outer diameter. so a 23mm tyre on 622 would be 668mm. Half an inch of that is 655mm which is about right for a 50mm (1.75") tyre on an MTB.

I was just saying that talking of there only being half inch between them was going back to the old way of thinking about things. Some of us ride our 622s with 40mm tyres and 559s with 28mm tyres.

Which says the same thing as your last post.