A couple weeks ago we asked mountain bikers to share their thoughts about the 27.5/650b wheel size and after crunching the numbers we put together this infographic to tell the story. We were shocked at the results and have come to the conclusion that not only are 27.5″ mountain bikes here to stay, they’re going to be even more popular than 29ers.
After talking about 27.5 for a couple years–will it, or won’t it take off–there are two trends emerging that lead us to the shocking conclusion that 27.5 will eventually take the largest share of the MTB market. The first trend is Trail/AM riding is becoming the type of riding most mountain bikers want to do (61% currently). Part of this is thanks to the improvement in equipment (lighter bikes) and also the fact that more aggressive–but rideable– trails are popping up all over the country (thanks IMBA!).
The second trend is toward specialized (lowercase) mountain bikes for different riding styles. We don’t know if it’s a powerful marketing message or just basic math driving this, but more than half of mountain bikers (51%) agree that 27.5″ mountain bikes are best for Trail/AM riding.
Add these two up and you get that the majority of riders like to ride Trail/AM and they agree that 27.5″ bikes are the best equipment for getting the job done. The number of mountain bikers who say the next bike they’ll purchase will be a 27.5″ (48%) confirms this.
Other interesting tidbits: 60% of mountain bikers think the standard should be called 27.5 (for mountain bikes, anyway). And those who have actually ridden a 27.5″ mountain bike don’t see the new standard as hype and are more likely to buy one than those who have not test ridden yet.
Thanks to all who contributed to this survey. What jumps out at you from the summary data?
14 Comments
Nov 19, 2013
Sep 27, 2014
Apr 24, 2014
As to my personal opinion, 26" is preferable to 29" when it comes to sharp corners and tight spaces, but if I know a trail has lots of large obstacles I take the 29er. 27.5" is great for rough trails that have some sharp corners. Again though, it all comes down to technical details like wheelbase and geometry.
Nov 19, 2013
Nov 21, 2013
Nov 19, 2013
As if bicycle tire sizing wasn't already confusing enough, wrong-headed marketeers have recently tried to popularize a fourth designation for the 584 mm tire size!
They are trying to get people to call it "27 five." I strongly urge readers to resist this foolish jargon, and to use either the traditional "650B" designation, or, better yet, the internationally-standardized "584 mm" designation.
We didn't include 584 mm as a third option but somehow I don't think it would have garnered many votes. :)
Nov 19, 2013
Nov 19, 2013
Jan 10, 2014
I rode a 700c (same wheel size as a 29er) rigid frame bike for many years on technical trails. I also test rode a 27.5er and a 29er on a nicely built up back lot behind a bike shop. The difference between my 26er and that 27.5er was not much (27.5er was had a slight edge in my opinion). The 29er felt like driving a big block V8 musclecar. Crazy fast plow through attitude but not as nimble in the tight and twisty sections.
Honestly, I think that most MTB riders have or had 26ers and want to try out 29ers, so sales of 26ers are way down and getting worse every day. I also think that 27.5ers have higher profit margins compared to 26ers for the bike shops. Eventually 26ers will be mostly for lowest-end spec bikes and DH only.
Nov 22, 2013
Nov 21, 2013
Nov 18, 2013
Nov 18, 2013
I think it is interesting that 650b has been the standard in Europe for decades, but we as Americans want to call it 27.5 when it is closer to 27inches.
The margin of error of 4.3% makes this a flawed study at the 95% confidence interval, probably because the power is low with an N of 452. I hate statistics, BTW. As Mark Twain wrote: 'There's lies, damn lies, and there's statistics...'. So how accurate was this poll?? Who knows. But I think the results are very, very interesting and fall in line with the gestalt of the mountain biking world.
I think what this poll doesn't illustrate is that a lot of would-be-26ers are being driven out of the market by the overwhelming push for 650b in the market...so they forced to consider this bike even if they don't want to.
Nov 18, 2013
As far as the margin of error goes, it actually indicates that many of these results are accurate. For example, the split between calling the new wheel size 650b or 27.5 is separated by 20 percentage points, well outside the margin of error which means we can say with 95% confidence the result (that more people like the name 27.5) is correct. Same goes for most of the key stats we've included. [We left off other measures that were not statistically significant, for example gender and geographical splits.]