#!markdown
I have never ridden a 650 puls bike. But used to own a 29 plus bike. It was a
good alternative bike and as said plus bikes makes you ride different things.
I always used to enjoy riding it (it's a bike) but it was an excuse not to
ride a "normal" bikes which I enjoy riding more.
The thing that bugs me about all this 650 plus stuff is that it's the next
best thing and you would be crazy not to think about buying one. They really
should just be seen as an alternative bike to make old trails feel new.
Then you have got all the marketing hype. I remember how normal 650b wheels
were sold to us. It's went something along the lines of: "Imaging the roll
over capabilities and grip of a 26″ wheel fitted with a big volume tyre. If
you have a bigger rim you can achieve that diameter of a big 26″ tyre but with
a lighter over all weight as the tyre won't be as heavy."
So you could take that same thinking to 650b wheels with big tyres. You could
get the advantage to a bigger diameter to improve roll over capabilities and
grip but lighter weight tyres! Oh wait we have already got that with 29er's!!
Then most thing you read about them is how big improvements need to be made to
the tyres to make the bike usable as an aggressive trail bike.
These tyres must have paper like side walls to get the weight down so low. So
to get these tyres to have some level of support you have got to increase the
weight of them. But once you have done that I can bet these bikes will start
to feel really sluggish.
The MTB industry have also seemed to have forgotten that you don't need to put
load of time/money into trying to get a uncontrollably fat tyre to be
controlled on the trails, as a lot of time/money has already been invested in
suspension products that are actually really good at the moment.
Anyway there is some good things happening. Bigger can be better and we are
starting to get decent wide trail rims and I see Maxxis are going to be doing
high volume (Wide Trail) tyres in their popular treads. I personally think
this is the way it will start to go. 30-35mm rims with 2.4/5 high volume
usable tyres.
Jan. 18, 2016, 12:38 p.m. - Tom
#!markdown I have never ridden a 650 puls bike. But used to own a 29 plus bike. It was a good alternative bike and as said plus bikes makes you ride different things. I always used to enjoy riding it (it's a bike) but it was an excuse not to ride a "normal" bikes which I enjoy riding more. The thing that bugs me about all this 650 plus stuff is that it's the next best thing and you would be crazy not to think about buying one. They really should just be seen as an alternative bike to make old trails feel new. Then you have got all the marketing hype. I remember how normal 650b wheels were sold to us. It's went something along the lines of: "Imaging the roll over capabilities and grip of a 26″ wheel fitted with a big volume tyre. If you have a bigger rim you can achieve that diameter of a big 26″ tyre but with a lighter over all weight as the tyre won't be as heavy." So you could take that same thinking to 650b wheels with big tyres. You could get the advantage to a bigger diameter to improve roll over capabilities and grip but lighter weight tyres! Oh wait we have already got that with 29er's!! Then most thing you read about them is how big improvements need to be made to the tyres to make the bike usable as an aggressive trail bike. These tyres must have paper like side walls to get the weight down so low. So to get these tyres to have some level of support you have got to increase the weight of them. But once you have done that I can bet these bikes will start to feel really sluggish. The MTB industry have also seemed to have forgotten that you don't need to put load of time/money into trying to get a uncontrollably fat tyre to be controlled on the trails, as a lot of time/money has already been invested in suspension products that are actually really good at the moment. Anyway there is some good things happening. Bigger can be better and we are starting to get decent wide trail rims and I see Maxxis are going to be doing high volume (Wide Trail) tyres in their popular treads. I personally think this is the way it will start to go. 30-35mm rims with 2.4/5 high volume usable tyres.