Isen workshop: adventures in batch production (or not...)

Just spat some coffee on my desk

I've booked a bike fit down in Glasgow on Nov 11 with Garry Kirk to sort out the setup on this.

Is it likely that I'll have my 55cm frameset by then or should I reschedule?

I would say it is very likely, paint is going well, we are painting in batches of 3+3 with each batch taking 3 days, although there is going to be cross over of batches going forward. I tried to rewrite that sentence in a better way but failed.

Tldr: should be fine, as long as there are no crises.

Almost as if there was nothing wrong with 26" in the first place....

These bikes are great Matt and your brand is gonna be fantastic. Isen, 'our guy'.

Caliper frames at R&D stage right ;)

Caliper is dead, didn't you get the memo?

there was nothing wrong with 26"

The thing that's wrong with 26" is that 29" is definitely faster on an XC bike, particularly the way race courses are prepared. The trouble with 29" is that it's just a bit too big for small people. 27.5" allows manufacturers to rationalise inventory with a one size fits all (medium height people) solution, at the expense of not giving anybody outside the 20th to 80th percentiles the wheels they actually need 🙂

out of curiosity, if you're 6' 1" why do you have a 26"? Asking for a six foot friend who is trying to justify to himself the purchase of a serotta ti 26"...

Wouldn't mediums use 29" if it's faster? So, really it's only the shorties that suffer and 27.5 is pointless?

He isn't planning to win any MTB races any time soon, probably.

Or, because you already own a 26" bike, like all legends do.

They do. I've seen APAC specific versions where only the Large + sizes have 29er hoops.

Although a trailbike with 29er hoops and 15omm of travel becomes a little unwieldy in anything smaller than large. So there's a case for lots of travel = 27.5". It might not be a great one though, frame designers can make 29" + tonnes of travel work in medium.

Sold my 26" MTB today - sad times. Got the feeling that had I held on to it any longer the 26" 135 QR platform would be so dead that nobody would pay anything for it, despite its awesome slack and Ti.ness.

nods with no idea what's going on

I didn't see the point in 29" but if it's faster, yay.
Why then does 27.5 exist, other than something else for Bike Industry to flog to us?

if you're 6' 1" why do you have a 26"?

Because that was the only commercially available size when I bought it (about 15 years ago), and MTB is a low priority for me so I CBA to upgrade.

Why then does 27.5 exist, other than something else for Bike Industry to flog to us?

Easier to design a platform that has a tonne of travel around it. But yeah, anything 130mm or less should probably be 29er, given how long and slack the bikes are all going.

I'm buying a custom 26" MTB right now.

I have both 27.5 and 29. They're just too bloody big and cumbersome.

U mad?

26ers rool

...But chuckable.

overkill to get a flat white from crol & co ..

Nope. It's gonna be EPIC.

Asking for a six foot friend who is trying to justify to himself the purchase of a serotta ti 26"

He has already given up on optimised performance if he's considering Ti, making it 26" too isn't going to make things much worse.

It really doesn't matter what size wheels you have if you're just MTBing for the lolz, the small differences are only relevant if you know what courses you'll be racing on and need to cover them in the shortest possible time.

The only slight problem in the long term is that it's probably going to get harder and harder to get nice versions of some kinds of tyres in 559, as that size disappears from the high performance XC/trail/enduro market. There will always be crappy 26" XC-ish tyres for the massive BSO market, and probably some very specific niche tyres for jumping and DH, plus fatties obvs., but take a look at the mainstream tyre manufacturers' new model releases - many are 584 and 622 only.

I've inadvertently adopted a similar approach. 26" full sus for the lolz at trail centres (albeit only with 120mmF/100mmR travel) and a 29" hardtail for racing. Still looking at potential excuses for getting a 27.5" full sus bike too, but finding it hard to justify even by my very low standards.

Love my 26 DJ/deathtrap run around.
Not good for much else

What about for road use though; the Jan Heine argument that (with his suitably supple tyres made from braided unicorn manes or whatever), a 584-42 tyre offers all the plushness and comfort of a wide tyre, but the moment of inertia and thus handling of a skinny 622 tyre (and has similar rolling resistance, because the tyre diameter is within a couple of per cent)? At 6'5" I'm in the 99th percentile for height, so 622 wheels are unlikely to cause toe overlap problems etc, but I like the idea of the extra plushness to carry my frame across the crappy tarmac of this sceptred isle...