The new mountain bike standard is here: 650B

Nino Schurter rode to first place today in the first 2012 XC World Cup race on his 650B wheel Scott Scale. This I think will mark the day where other bike manufacturers are going to turn into the new standard. It's been known for a long time that 29er wheels are just plain too big. 

Why is the standard here? I have said for a long time that this moment was going to come when people would start finding out about other wheel sizes. Most people don't know the difference between 650B and 29er. A win on the 650B will spark new questions.

So how did get here? Well someone decided to take a road bike rim and put a mountain bike tire on it. That's called a 29in wheel because the diameter of the tire is 29.15 inches. Now, if you are to measure a road bike wheel including the tire is 27.5".  Most mountain bike racing geometry have been borrowed from road bike frames. So what we have today has been all the research and development put into the road bikes and then transferred to a mountain bike and then to a 29er. That's why 29er bicycles never felt quite right. Moreover, the need to accommodate larger tires makes designing a racing geometry a nightmare.

I think you should expect to see hardtails with 650B wheels. They are going to say that they are easier to maneuver and that it's like riding a 26" with bigger wheels that can tackle larger obstacles easier. My recommendation is to skip all this marketing hype. There is nothing wrong with the 26", it does everything perfect. Let the marketing hype go by and save your money.