At the risk of starting another divisive thread, the inability of 26” wheels to work for mountain bikes is another one of those “myths” that need to be 86ed.

There’s plenty of 26” rims and tires around. You may not be able to get a factory made 26” wheel anymore but that’s probably a good thing since factory made wheels are pretty much junk anyway.

I have five 26” wheel bikes. Four of them are full on mountain bikes that get ridden as mountain bikes…just like they were 20 years ago. Much rather have them than 29ers.

As far as I know, this is true. A friend of mine had a custom touring bike built for a trip from Alaska to Argentina, and built it with 26" wheels exactly for this purpose. According to his research at that time (this was 4-5 years ago) 26" was far more common than 700c in Central/South America.

Or Alexrims Adventure 2 $37
https://thebikehub.com/collections/c...ack-silver-36hhttps://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...d101bc3d33.jpg

I would still recommend looking for a used Mavic UST rim with no spoke holes though. I do not like taping.

I appreciate all the input. I found a few sources to go tubeless, but in the end does tubeless really make the bike much more marketable?. I've never had a flat after mounting the Marathon tires. Unfortunately the bike max tire width is 2"
Curiosity made me start this thread. I have no intention of selling the bike any time soon, but in my twilight years; to make room and get rid of clutter
Thanks

We had a member in Colombia who was desperate for good quality 26" touring tires. He had to order from Europe.
This is one of the reasons I started this thread

Converting your bike to tubeless will not dramatically change its desirability on the used market.

559

26” wheels are a great choice and might easily come back into vogue again. I built a new set of 26” wheels for my 14 year old touring bike earlier this winter. I used Velocity rims that will take tubeless tires, but I’ll stick with tubes for now.

tubeless 26er
 

start here; https://www.merlincycles.com/en-us/p...26-260430.html
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...3f37ef32bf.jpg

Third world? Here in the USA, if you only tour in cities, definitely go with 650B/27.5. But if you go thumping into a small burg in flyover country on a lacerated, duct-taped tire carcass, you'll be glad you went with 26" (ISO 559mm), America's tire size since 1933.

IIRC (and I might not), he wasn't after "good quality touring tires", he was after a specific make and model of tire.

On another board, a fellow claimed he was stranded in Eastern Europe for two weeks because not a single 26" (ISO 559mm) tire of any kind was available. A bunch of responders called shenanigans.

The "death of 26" is a straw man argument.
​​​​​​Sure, the industry and the sport of MTB left 26ers and 3x behind over a decade ago, but there's still lots of things being produced for them; you just can't walk into any random LBS and expect to find it all on the rack.
Especially, if like the OP, you're trying to find a very specific combination; as mentioned, there was very little overlap between rim brakes, tubeless tires and 26ers, so you're really limiting your options


WRT tires, Conti, Schwalbe and MAXXIS still produce a thorough selection of "proper" MTB tires; Panaracer as well, still puts out a lot of retro/inspired stuff, including the classic Smoke/Dart. Likewise, there's a lot of 26" BMX tires that do really well in the commuter/, utility bike role a lot of old MTBs find themselves in.
Also, since there were so many 26" bikes built over the last 30 years, if you happen to be stuck in some out -of-the-way place, desperate for any replacement tire; odds are, what you'll find is a 559 "26er"

As far as the "value" of upgrading any old 26" bike to 1x and tubeless, to increase the resale value; It's probably not worth it unless you've got a desirable, high-end model to begin with.
(Even then, I don't think there's going to be the "irrational nostalgia value" for early 90s Trek 820s and Nishiki Pueblos like the Boomer's have for 60's tanks like the Schwinn Varsity

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...5403c4555.jpeg
I think I’ll be hanging on to this one - my winter bike.

Ok I still have my three 26 vintage MTBs and I am building a 4th one. During two trail rides, my 26 MTBs allowed me better acceleration and better handling than those who were riding 27 and 29.I also have 3 pairs of mavic XM819 rims in spare in case of, that I bought back then.
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https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...18e03206_b.jpg
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You can find mavic 217 orX517 sup ceramic rim brakes on the bay and have them assembled by your bike shop.Bike 24 is one of the best places where you can buy 26' tires.

There is still a lot of 26" rims, wheels, tires out there brand new still being produced. Yes 26" is less popular and not as common these days on brand new bikes from major manufacturers but it is not dead or dying to the point of worry. People love to freak out about 26" being dead or whatever it is slowed a bit bit, it is still alive and well enough to keep bikes in 26" without worry. It will be a while before 26" actually dies totally like a long time. I can still get ISO 630 and 590 and 597 and 571 tires and rims and wheels not as commonly and certainly nobody is making bikes in those sizes any more at all but it will take a long time for stuff to die out completely.

I am building a 26" mountain bike for a friend and not worried about it at all. Not only can I get tons of used or NOS stuff but I can get brand new stuff easily.

The largest LBS in my city is 22000 square feet and has hundreds of different bikes and all kinds of cycling gear and components.
Here is their stock for mountain bikes:
61....29ers
27....650B or 27.5
3......26ers

They do however carry a large selection of 26 inch tires and wheels.

I don’t buy it.
I think something else was involved. Maybe that person was overly picky about tires? Or maybe that town in Columbia had a señorita the person wanted to spend a few more days with.

But if it was me, I’d even buy kwests, or 2.125 cruiser tires and be on my way. Maybe have an Amazon shipment to a box at the next city.

I gifted my 1995 Marin Muirwoods to my son. I took it everywhere back then. He's impressed how smooth the chromoly frame is vs his modern aluminium MTB.
We've talked about converting it to a single speed and swapping out the knobbies to more asphalt friendly tires.....
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...65705227b0.jpg

RH still sells various smooth 26” tires and finally introduced their knobby 26” version a couple years ago. With so many 26ers still in use, there will be tires and parts for a long time.

I was disappointed to see Conti discontinue the Speed King (in all sizes I think) but I can still get the Black Chili version of the Race King which is a great tire.

Otto

They were overly picky and weren't willing to go to bike shops and check with them. It was a huge mess of a thread. They rejected all the good advice people were giving them and started getting rather nasty over it.

There were apparently some tires available as well in that situation but they refused those because they might have been not as good as they wanted. However the whole reason for a 26" touring bike is finding tires just about everywhere. I would have run that tire and ordered a tire from so many different sources or had friends send me something.

Typical BF "I need advice" thread, then.

Yeah, you can take that common sense and ... well, I don't know what you might do with it ... never had much use for it myself.. :D

As usual, the thread goes over 20 replies and the original post gets lost. Appreciate the replies, but when the primary intent gets buried, it's moot.

Ummm ... perhaps I misremember (as I scroll up and check.) You were worried that your old 26er wouldn't be worth rebuilding because 26" wheels, tubes, and tires wouldn't be available, nor would 9-speed components, nor would a 25.6 bar.

Well, Shimano still makes new 9-speed road and MTB group sets, you can replace the stem with a modern stem which fits a modern 31.8 bar Or buy a couple 25.6 bars---how often do you break bars anyway?) and many many people have suggested sources for 26" wheels and tires, including tubeless conversions.

Once all that was said ... your post was answered. it didn't need to be answered again, and there seems to be no legitimate reason to address different issues suggested by the topics of the original post.

You got what you came here to get---assurances and even sources for parts to keep your 26er alive for decades to come. Is there something else we can help you with?

The original post had a bunch of statements that I think folks mostly agree with. Was there a question?

The responses, well yeah there's always a way to get parts, especially parts in used condition. No one is disputing that 26er wheels and tires are in more limited selection compared to modern standards overall.

I do wonder where all the used 26" Cross Max wheels are. Wouldn't mind picking up a used set for my 26er hardtail.

Many reputed sellers on ebay have them for sale on ebay, just go Mavic Crossmax 26 for sale on ebay