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24" wheels

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Old 02-22-14 | 04:37 AM
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24" wheels

Why such little love for this size? It is great for small riders or as a small folder wheel for clydes.
Anyone using it?
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Old 02-22-14 | 06:32 AM
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Originally Posted by MichaelW
Why such little love for this size? It is great for small riders or as a small folder wheel for clydes.
Anyone using it?
Low production numbers and hard as hell to find. My bride had a Huffy cruiser with 24" wheels on it for a while. Might buy her an Electra with 24" this year. The 24" wheeled bikes are hard to find and usually have to be special ordered.

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Old 02-22-14 | 08:17 AM
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It may also be that when we have several choices, some will be viewed as a poor compromise. A 24" sits between a 20" and a 26" so it is too big to be a small wheel, and if i want a bigger wheel, might as well go for a 26". Generally a 24" is chosen for a smaller rider that wants the advantages of a larger wheel but won't fit something with 26"

The same thing happens with the 650 size for road bikes. It is usually used for smaller riders so that the frame can be made with adequate proportions for a smaller rider. Most roadies will pick a 700 if they can fit it.

There are however several advantages to smaller wheels: lower the center of gravity, reduced rotational inertia, more responsive handling...... I am a big fan of minivelos for those reasons, but all of mine wear 20" because of tire availability and choice.
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Old 02-22-14 | 11:19 AM
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Hard to find as said above. My wife has a bike that has a 24" front wheel and 700c rear. The tires and tubes were quite difficult to find so when we found some, we bought all they had. I think the 24" non-road type tires and tubes aren't that hard to find, but road goodies are. She's now building up a 650 wheeled mixtie to replace it.
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Old 02-22-14 | 01:47 PM
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Originally Posted by MichaelW
Why such little love for this size? It is great for small riders or as a small folder wheel for clydes.
Anyone using it?
Over time the cycling industry was forced to make cuts with the 24" being the odd man out due to all the young people using 20" to do tricks on.
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Originally Posted by krazygluon
Steel: nearly a thousand years of metallurgical development
Aluminum: barely a hundred, which one would you rather have under your butt at 30mph?
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Old 02-22-14 | 09:46 PM
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One of my recumbents has a 24" rear wheel. Tire availability is the biggest problem. Well, that and finding 56-58T chainrings to normalize the gearing.
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Old 02-23-14 | 09:35 AM
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My wife and son both ride 24" Mt Bikes... We bought hers some years ago, and I replaced the knobbies with something more road-friendly in Jan. My son's bike was a hand-me-down from my Nephew. Tires and tubes weren't hard to find per se, but selection is really limited.
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Old 02-23-14 | 11:05 AM
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Originally Posted by MichaelW
Why such little love for this size? It is great for small riders or as a small folder wheel for clydes.
I agree with what's been said. In principal, 24" wheels might be better than larger wheels at supporting higher weights. In practice, I don't think most 24" wheels are built for this purpose, so I doubt most would be a good choice for clydes.
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Old 02-23-14 | 11:52 AM
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Originally Posted by WebFootFreak
My wife and son both ride 24" Mt Bikes... We bought hers some years ago, and I replaced the knobbies with something more road-friendly in Jan. My son's bike was a hand-me-down from my Nephew. Tires and tubes weren't hard to find per se, but selection is really limited.
In the 507 size, there are about a bare handful of good-quality tires. and lots of department-store grade ones. Were you able to find some 100+psi ones?
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Old 02-23-14 | 12:18 PM
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Originally Posted by BlazingPedals
In the 507 size, there are about a bare handful of good-quality tires. and lots of department-store grade ones. Were you able to find some 100+psi ones?
No. But I wasn't looking for top end tires either. Essentially, I was looking for 1)A pair of tires to get her back out and riding, and 2)A lower-end set of tires because she doesn't ride as much as I do, plus I only had so much left to work with on the gift limits we set for Christmas.

This is what I got her: https://www.biketiresdirect.com/produ...-inch-tire-507
They also have this: https://www.biketiresdirect.com/produ...h-tire-507-iso

The K52 only goes to 40psi, but the K905 goes to 65. Again, I wasn't looking for top end stuff

Rick
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Old 02-24-14 | 11:35 AM
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Which 24" wheel?
507?
520?
540?

All different sizes and all with different tire availability. For 540's you can get racing wheelchair tires and they're very fast, 520's also have some road tires- IIRC Durano's and Kojacks. 507 is a MTB size so good luck finding road tires..

if you want to cry, try finding new 540 rims.
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Old 02-25-14 | 11:29 AM
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24" Wheel has More braking power,Can run a wider tire than usual in some cases,Can lower BB to make for better cornering and Faster accelleration, easier to pedal.
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Old 02-25-14 | 11:38 AM
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Originally Posted by Adam Jackson
24" Wheel Can lower BB to make for better cornering
What does wheel size have to do BB height?
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Old 02-25-14 | 11:50 AM
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Lower BB can help you in better cornering. Lower BB means stable bike at high speed and better cornering.
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Old 02-25-14 | 12:10 PM
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Originally Posted by Adam Jackson
24" Wheel has More braking power,Can run a wider tire than usual in some cases,Can lower BB to make for better cornering and Faster accelleration, easier to pedal.
Um, no.

1) Wheel size doesn't have much to do with bottom bracket height.
2) Lower bottom bracket height means lower speed at which you have to worry about hitting pedals on the ground. Probably not synonymous with better cornering.
3) Faster acceleration? Better braking? Huh?
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Old 02-25-14 | 03:28 PM
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A smaller wheel will spin up easier, but OTOH it has to spin up more in order to achieve the same ground speed. Acceleration ends up being a wash. Often the small wheel will feel snappier, but that's only because the smaller wheel results in lower gears. In that case, better acceleration is due to gearing, and is at the expense of top end.
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Old 02-25-14 | 03:50 PM
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Originally Posted by BlazingPedals
A smaller wheel will spin up easier, but OTOH it has to spin up more in order to achieve the same ground speed. Acceleration ends up being a wash. Often the small wheel will feel snappier, but that's only because the smaller wheel results in lower gears. In that case, better acceleration is due to gearing, and is at the expense of top end.
Not necessarily...Bwahahaha!

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Old 02-25-14 | 04:24 PM
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Old 02-25-14 | 05:47 PM
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Originally Posted by delcrossv
Is that your Black Bear machine? A Gritters possibly?
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Old 02-25-14 | 10:08 PM
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Originally Posted by BlazingPedals
Is that your Black Bear machine? A Gritters possibly?
It's Chris's Gritters, but Genna is on "the list" for one. 305/406
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Old 02-26-14 | 02:10 PM
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My V-Rex24, with a 507 in back and a 451 in front. Dealing with the tire availability issue over the years has been enough of a hassle to more than offset any 'advantage' the 24" size had. As shown, it has a 56T chainring to compensate for gearing. Ever tried to buy a pinned 56-58T ring?

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Old 02-26-14 | 02:50 PM
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Originally Posted by BlazingPedals
My V-Rex24, with a 507 in back and a 451 in front. Dealing with the tire availability issue over the years has been enough of a hassle to more than offset any 'advantage' the 24" size had. As shown, it has a 56T chainring to compensate for gearing. Ever tried to buy a pinned 56-58T ring?
Bacchetta used to offer a 24" version of their Giro 26 High racer in order to lower it a bit for shorter riders. Not sure if the gearing was altered to compensate.
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