Originally Posted by
newb2008
...Now I am confused
... wondering if I should forget about the 26" wheel bike and start looking all over again for a 700c????
...
Any advice will be very helpful and appreciated!...
The thing here is this:
--with 700c wheels, you will have a wide range of tire brands and models to choose from, but they will only range from around 1" to around 1.5" wide or so.
--with 26" wheels. you will have a range of tires as narrow as 1" and as wide as 2.3 inches--if the particular bike can take tires that fat--but of what tires are available, you will not find as many at the narrower widths.
Generally, I advise new riders to get a 26" and then see what kinds of riding they end up doing and what tires they like, because you can put skinny tires on a 26" bike but you can't put fat tires on a 700c. If over time you end up only putting narrower tires on the bike, then next time around you can get a 700c and not be concerned about losing the wide-tire option you weren't using anyway.
And it may have been said already, but the tire weight/width makes a BIG difference in how the bike accelerates and feels overall. A MTB with 2.1 knobbies will feel sluggish on pavement, but put 1.3" tires on it and you'll feel like you've got E.T. sitting in the front basket.
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