From DirtRag’s Blog:
Their 650B SantaCruz Heckler (Beckler) is finished… And it certainly looks sweet! This bike is equipped with a White Brothers 130 fork, RockShox Pearl shock, Velocity Blunt 650B wheels, Pacenti NeoMoto tires, Maverick Speedball seatpost, and a CrankBrothers Cobalt crankset.
Also, Kenda has paid attention to the increasing demand for 650B tires with 27.5″ Nevegals. These tires will be available in 2.10 & 2.35 sizes. American Classic and Industry9 have also built 650B wheelsets, with SunRingle creating a 650B rim, the Equalizer-27.
As myself and many others have predicted, the 27.5″ movement is picking up speed. With every new manufacturer supporting this wheel format, it becomes more and more likely that we’ll see companies following Kirk Pacenti & companies like Haro’s lead. Haro has already committed to offering two 650B bikes in 2009. With support like that in the industry, other 27.5″ format components will rapidly become available; such as forks, tires, and wheels.
I’ve been asked recently who I thought would next build a 650B production bike. In my opinion, I believe that Gary Fisher, Marin, SantaCruz, Trek, and Specialized will step up and offer production bikes in 2009/10. Most likely Fisher and Marin first, as these two manufacturers have always been leaders in cutting-edge suspension & frame designs. Though I may be a little biased towards Fisher & SantaCruz, I’d still love to see a new 650B offering from any or all of the major mountainbike manufacturers. I’m sure it’ll happen eventually, but I have the feeling that some will simply be 26″ frames adapted to run the slightly larger wheels & tires. While it would be refreshing and interesting to see completely new designs, but as doing so costs MTB companies a lot in development, testing, and marketing, the odds are against floor-up redesigns.
