Which wheel size is best?
Pro riders and stopwatches hit Bike Park Wales to settle this once and for all
Pro riders and stopwatches hit Bike Park Wales to settle this once and for all
The latest episode from Rob Warner’s new YouTube channel project – Soho Bikes – is an attempt to find out which wheel size and which type of bike is ‘best’.
By ‘best’ they seem to mean ‘fastest’. Which is a fair enough focus to have – everyone likes going fast. But it is nice to see the riders debating whether speed is the be-all and end-all of mountain biking during the discussion at the end.
It’s a 22 minute video so get yourself a cup of tea first.
>>> Complete guide to wheelsizes: 26in, 650b, 650b+, 29in, 29in+
Soho Bikes state: “We gathered a “who’s who” of UK downhill and enduro talent (and Rob), headed out of London and hit the trails at BikePark Wales to test the following: Is a downhill bike faster than a modern enduro bike on a UK downhill track? Which wheel size is faster down a UK downhill track; mid travel 29er, 27.5 or 27.5+?”
“We taped off the most technical downhill track at BikePark Wales and used Action Sport Timing’s race-timing system to gather data from the riders on their different bikes over multiple runs. The timing data showed which bikes were fastest”
>>> How to convert your 29er to a plus bike
Who are the riders? Steve Peat, Tracy Moseley, Tahnee Seagrave, Chris Porter and Loosedog Lewis. Plenty of insight and experience in that lot.