26" tires overseas: Not so easy to find?
 

I've been on tour for the past few months and I've began to search for some fresh rubber for my Surly. Right now I'm currently in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and have been wandering around the high end bike shops for the past few days.

From what I've noticed in Cambodia/Thailand/Japan/Central America, it's pretty hard to find 26" tires suitable for touring, yet pretty easy to find good rubber/rims for 700C, 27.5" and 29" bikes. I even found a bigger selection of 24" tires than for 26" today.

Goes against some of the instilled wisdom that many of us have grown use to hearing. More proof that you can ride whatever you want these days, spare parts are not as big an issue as they once were :)

Interesting. You said 'suitable for touring.' Were most knobby? That sure does fly in the face of conventional wisdom that I've heard for years.

How about 406- 20"?

Most of them were knobby of the Schwable and Continental variety, mid range stuff on a 27.5/29 wheel. The 700C stuff was all road bike related, some of them pretty high end. The only 26" tire I found was a road bike training tire. I found it extremely odd overall, finding 26" tires is extremely easy back in Canada....

I agree.
I'm touring Central America at the moment and everyone (locals) uses 26" here. BUT, when I find touring tyres (not very often), these are not always 26". I've also seen lots of 700 and 28".

I recall reading several years ago that 650b were easier to find in former French colonies. But I have not traveled in any such locales so I have no clue if that is accurate or not.

I had an old 3 speed bike in the 1980s that used that tire size. It was virtually impossible to find a new tire so I have an inherent bias against that tire size. I still have the bike, have not used it since the 1980s.

That would explain a lot actually. It's the same situation here in Vietnam, 27" wheels are exceedingly common on the local's bikes.

In Singapore, the most common is 26 inch knobbies. Next common would be 406 slicks for "ladies bike" or foldies.

That's interesting, but I've found that in other third world countries like Arkansas, 26" tires were the easiest to find.

Just kidding John and Kenny :)

Set up Mail drops for stuff shipped from home .. WWW means it will be put in the post sooner than writing a letter.

And this is a point a lot of people miss. Yes, bikes have been popular as a means of transport in Asia for decades, but, and it is a big BUT, they were 27" on steel rims on heavy steel frame bikes (think Pigeon). This new-fangled Western bike stuff might be made down the road in Malaysia or Vietnam, but it's not really what the Asians have been used to riding themselves. The conversion to 700C seemed more logical.

When we were in Japan (Hokkaido), 700C or 27" were the popular sizes for all town bikes, with suitable touring-type rubber on them. I don't recall seeing an MTB or 26"-wheeled bike among the many thousands there.

It is, however, very useful to get first-hand experience like that provided by Sparky. Thanks.

Rowan: Exactly the same place I came from last, Hokkaido Japan, then flew to Bangkok. 27" tires everywhere. Took me almost almost 2 days to track down a 26" rim when my wheel cracked in Sapporo. It's the main reason I made this thread, I have barely seen 26" anything since I left Canada in March.

Hokkaido= Awesome. Spent close to 2 months there.

i never believed all the BS about 26" availability... :)

Hi,

what size is 27" in metric as their are a few different sizes about these days, some call 650B a 26" like conti do.

i'm heading out to the far east soon for a tour and can fit a 650b or 700c to my bike and this is of great interest to me as i do have a slight preference for 650B these days.

i too checked in all the bike shops i saw in Laos and only ever saw one 26" tire there, most were 24" road type.

thanks :)

There are a lot of different sizes of 24, 26, etc. I have heard of people saying 28 and 29 are the same, others say they are not. But, I think everyone agrees that 28 and 29 are smaller rim sizes than 27. (Exception, the vintage Raleigh DL1 was 28 inch but that was a big 28 inch.) Bottom line is it can be quite confusing.

It is most clear if you refer to numbers like 559mm for 26 inch, 630mm for 27, etc.
Tire Sizing Systems

But, I think 650b and 700c are unambiguous, so referring to those sizes is not confusing.

I have seen recent reference to 27.5 inch but quite frankly I have no clue what that is. I suspect that some committee of marketing managers had a conference call where they decided to give a new name to something old in the hopes of increasing $ale$ ... ... and bonu$e$.

Noooooo!!! This must be a joke!

I think what you're referring to is those jack-ass MTB companies up to it again. Like Trek decided to give 700c Another name and call it a "29er!!!" to sell it as some awesome new thing*. The size 27.5" is a 650b, renamed for the MTB world, called as much because it's the size between 26" and the "29er." Because, hey, why not add More names to the bike tire world so that we can all have confusing discussions to figure out which of 3 different names for 8 different tire sizes you need... Jackasses.

*Even though other companies were doing it back in the late 80s/early 90s.

Whoah, that is different. I've done 2.5 years, through all of Central America, Peru and Bolivia (2001-2002), and through Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina (2007), and without a doubt, 26 inch treads were plentiful. Central America especially, I had no problems finding 26 inch treads. Unless things changed drastically in the last 12 years... then again, that WAS a dozen years...

You appear to be right on the 650b being the new 27.5. I got on Schwalbe USA website, they listed nine different MTB tires as 27 1/2, 650b. But the interesting thing was that several of their city or touring tires were not available in 650b. The plain Marathon was listed as being available (underlining added for emphasis) in 26 x 1.65, 650 x 42B and that was listed as 44 X 584 as it's ETRTO size designation. So, 650b when not used as a MTB tire is still one of the many 26 inch sizes but when it goes on an MTB bike, it becomes a 27 1/2 size.

But it appears different companies are not consistent, Schwalbe used 27 1/2 inch (fractional size) and Trek listed several MTB bikes as 27.5 (decimal size). So, the manufacurers have not quite got their act together ... yet.

My vintage 3 speed in the basement that I bought used in the late 1970s is a 650b. Maybe I need to knock the dust off of it, buy some knobby tires for it and get it out so everybody can lust over my latest fad bike, a 27.5 inch bike.

I can assure you that in the 1980s, buying a 650b tire in USA was a real chore. So I am really surprised that the size seems to have made a comeback.

Weird update:

Now I am in HCMC, Vietnam and had no issues finding good 26" tires again. My tires were getting close to their last legs, so I managed to find some Schwalbe Big Apples in 26 x 2.1. Hopefully they will last a few thousand more miles :)

Like I said, latest MTB tire fad. Many of them seem to actually believe the hype that this is some new revolutionary tire size by the companies pushing them, and have no clue that it's been around for Quite a while. Like when some genius recently figured out that bigger tires were better and invented the "29er!" OMG! Amazing! In another few years one of them will probably figure out they can make money by helping the MTB world discover how Amazing 24" tires are on technical areas. I mean, they'll need a new name for the tire size of course... So annoying...

Same online sources .. will ship to where-ever you can give for an address..

Sounds like the MTB folk are a bunch of idiots! really glad we have well informed roadies to correct these misinformed MTB fools. Face palm at this rubbish.

This whole thing is why I created this thread:
http://www.bikeforums.net/touring/95...e-touring.html

The wheels I see most frequently on remote locations (not that I've went to many) where some sort of 27" or 26 1 3/8 sizes

Are you saying that what I said is rubbish? If so, which part of what I said is incorrect? And I wouldn't count on roadies to correct anything. They're no better than anyone else.