Originally Posted by
hybridbkrdr
Oddly enough, the bike industry was able to introduce 29ers and 650b to the mountain bike world but why aren't they introducing more 650b or even 26 inch wheel road bikes as well? Given the price on new 29ers and 650b bikes when they come out, wouldn't that give them a way to try to milk more consumers?
There are some women's bikes that use smaller wheels to deal with the overlap problem. Terry started with it. Centurion licensed the concept, although they dropped it after a couple years.
Regular races require two of the same wheel size.
I think for the most part it's that other than overlap there aren't any real advantages to smaller wheels, not in terms of performance on smooth/paved surfaces. It's been tried and found lacking overall by national teams (who seem to be the most interested in minute performance differences).
There would be some instances where a small wheel should (to me) be an advantage, especially in a controlled environment like the track. In the 1984 Olympics the US track team used 24" wheels in the team pursuit - they could draft much, much closer due to the smaller wheel size. I had a 24" front wheel TT bike and in the few TTTs I did (college) I felt my bike configuration gave me much better shelter than when I used a 700c front wheel bike. I think there's something about the increased rolling resistance of smaller wheels plus the added expense of sourcing smaller tires (since it would be a need-driven thing, not a marketing driven one). I've never ridden the smaller wheel bike on the track so I can't vouch for what it's like on there.