Putting 26" wheels on a 28"/700C frame

Now, I know most people will be thinking the other way round - putting a pair of 700c wheels on a frame that originally had 26" wheels. But has anyone tried putting 26" wheels on a larger frame before?

I know that a large wheel clearance is considered ugly (I'm thinking of the "Pengy" bike here) but I've often wondered if it would improve the handling on the smaller frame sizes. 700c wheels seem to look oversized on some XS bikes I've seen, whereas 26" wheels would be much more in proportion.

The other reason you might drop wheel size is to fit fatter tyres. On a bike with limited clearance, like my 80's Raleigh racer, trying to ride larger slicks on a 700c is completely impossible. I put 23mm tyres on that bike and it started to rub.

So has anyone done this? Why did you do it? And how did it affect the ride?

Not actually tried it but should work provided your brakes are either disc or you can make the necessary adjustments.

I would think a better size would be something like a 650c wheel. Not as small as a 26 but will give you more clearance

I thought 26" were 650mm. Oops. :-)

Even though people hated it - and in fairness to the haters, the frame clearance is really excessive - I've often wondered how this bike would actually ride.

1 Attachment

would there still be enough clearance to switch 26's for 700s,

Enough clearance on the pengy? I reckon that started life with 700c on it.

So has anyone done this? Why did you do it? And how did it affect the ride?

Its not unheard of in polo. You could ask in the 'polo bikes' thread on forum 24 for people's opinions. Obviously you'll drop the bb down, unless you have enormous tyres, so pedal strike a bit more likely. Some people (fsheil, khornight2, nktshane) have rear 700 and front 26, so you get a tighter turning circle, less jackknifing. I'm considering doing it. I've got an IS disc brake mount on my Kona P2 forks so changing it to a 26 wouldnt be too much of an issue, but obviously with v brakes or calipers you'd run into more difficulties. It looks odd on the front but I guess polo bikes arent much for the aesthetic value...

Thanks @dublinkev. The polo bikes tip is a great idea. I'll ask...

Pedal strike shouldn't be toooo much of an issue running s/s rather than fixed though.

I got chatting with a bike courier once who was using a bike with a frame similar to a langster and had dropped a smaller front wheel onto it. That changed the previously sloped top tube to dead flat and steepened the head tube angle for sharper steering. Interestingly, it didn't come out looking like a lo-pro, it just looked normal.

So I dont open a new thread needlessly.
What about doing the opposite of this? Putting 700c wheels on a 26" frame?
Bike I fancy has 425mm between the seat tube and the track ends. I assume this isnt enough room?

We have a guy who regularly comes into our shop, he's in his 60s, and has built a super light SS bike so he can get about town with ease.
Its an ebay £300 carbon special 700c road frame, with middleburn cranks, tune hubs on 26" carbon rims, carbon/paul finishing kit and a super spinny gear (about 42"), oh and one brake (which is a lol super long drop thing from about 1950 that basically doesn't work and could fail at any time, but he doesn't want a proper brake as it would add too much weight lol). It weighs something daft like 11lbs, and has about 30mm of clearance under the (ti) pedals

^^^^ So long cranks, a low BB, 26" wheels on a 700C frame and super-skinny tyres are probably a bad combination then. :-)

Putting 700c wheels on a 26" frame?
Bike I fancy has 425mm between the seat tube and the track ends. I assume this isnt enough room?

I'm no expert on the mechanicking of bike stuff, but that sounds like plenty of room to me. However, you might find you run out of room on the frame bridge rather than the seat tube.

There are loads of threads which have featured this though. UTFS for more info than I can give.