women

men

trend is a move away from 26 in to 29 in wheels .... and one 650 thrown into the mix

Sad to say that 650b is not gaining traction with mainstream brands.
Yes- Scott will come out with a 650b hardtail but none of the big players- Specialized, Trek, Cannondale or Giant are having anything to do with it.
I would love to see a 650b carbon race full sus along the lines of a Specialized Epic or Cannondale Scalpel.
I am not into bikes that are hacked together from 26".

Frishi has the patent on 650b until after the Olympics so I don't think you can expect the other main manufacturers to release anything for a while.

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Neil Macleod

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There is no patent on 650b wheelsize. It is an old size standard.
He may have a patent on that specific wheel that they use?

He mentioned it in commentary a couple of times that the other manufacturers are not allowed to use that wheel size until after the Olympics. Not really sure how one would go about patenting a wheel size but they seem to have managed for now at least. With Fox and some others getting behind it, I think it might just stick!

Fox forks are 140 and 160mm- not exactly XC race forks.

There's something missing here..

You can't patent a wheel size and already others have 650b bikes, ie Jamis, Norco among others..

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Anyone notice the SR suntour fork on Julie Bresset's bike? That intrigued me...

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I noticed a ton of 1x10 and 1x11.

The SR suntour fork is pretty wierd, but she stayed way ahead the whole race.

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Stander with the Specialized road spider to use 110BCD Q-Ring?

They don't have a patent, they're the only team who had rights to 650b Dugast tubulars.
Bike design's are finalized way in advanced, none of the major companies had time to jump on the 650b bandwagon. No one expected the boom in interest. With majority of the major component companies jumping on board, I expect we'll see quite a bit more 650b bikes for MY2014.

I think Frischi is referring to the Dugast 650B tubulars ? As in Dugast will only supply them to SwissPower until after the Olympics.

^^^ Thanks for clearing that up, I was a bit confused when he said it! Will be interesting to see who is riding 650b in next years world cups after the other manufacturers have had a chance to come up with their own designs.

I haven't ridden a 650b so I may not "get it" but I don't see the major manufacturers tossing aside 29ers after they spent the last few years hammering it into our heads.. I would be very disappointed to lose 26ers altogether..

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I would really love to see 650b spread more. I think they look much more "correct" (aesthetically speaking) than those 29ers.

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