Mountain Bike Reviews Forum banner

Is the rigid 26er dead?

5K views 32 replies 21 participants last post by  DonH 
#1 ·
It seems like the fully rigid 26" geared mountain bike is dying out....I can't seem to find one on the websites of the major MTB players.

Why is that? IMHO, a rigid 26er with semi-slicks is the ultimate "do-everything" bicycle. It would be sad to see them vanish.

Will the rigid 26" MTB die out?.... at least in the form of mainstream mass production.
 
#8 ·
I have a rigid 26er. 1997 Trek ZX8000, Pbone fork and Maxxis Hookworm 2.5 slicks. I was out on it this weekend. I love it for tight technical riding. It climbs like a goat and the 2.5 Hookworms do suprisingly well. Low pressure gives a lot of cushion, they hook up well on rocks and roots, and when they let go they are very predictable. Unfortunately they are on the heavy side, but for me a worth while trade off.

Seems like the only rigid bikes out there are 29ers or singlespeeds.

Here it is prior to the Hookworms and minor tweaks.

 
#11 ·
I wouldn't say dead, it's just that most people riding a hardtail want a suspension fork over a rigid when given a choice, and entry-level sus forks are dirt cheap. For that reason, the majority of 26" HT's come with sus forks.

29ers didn't kill the market for 26" rigids, rigid forks have been growing less and less popular for quite some time, at least on 26" bikes.
 
#14 ·
TLL said:
I wouldn't say dead, it's just that most people riding a hardtail want a suspension fork over a rigid when given a choice, and entry-level sus forks are dirt cheap. For that reason, the majority of 26" HT's come with sus forks.

29ers didn't kill the market for 26" rigids, rigid forks have been growing less and less popular for quite some time, at least on 26" bikes.
Hmmm....aren't they hardtails because they have a suspension fork? Funny how the language morphs a bit, my first few mountain bikes were just mountain bikes and not hardtails as there were no suspension forks...I'm old.
 
#15 ·
bidaci said:
I have a rigid 26er. 1997 Trek ZX8000, Pbone fork and Maxxis Hookworm 2.5 slicks. I was out on it this weekend. I love it for tight technical riding. It climbs like a goat and the 2.5 Hookworms do suprisingly well. Low pressure gives a lot of cushion, they hook up well on rocks and roots, and when they let go they are very predictable. Unfortunately they are on the heavy side, but for me a worth while trade off.

Seems like the only rigid bikes out there are 29ers or singlespeeds.

Here it is prior to the Hookworms and minor tweaks.

Nice bike. I've always admired Trek from afar. I should look for a used one.
 
#16 · (Edited)
Hardly dead, but you aren't going to find many in the 2009 dealer catalogs. Like someone above said, you'll have to build one up yourself using a fork made by Steve Potts or Rody of Groovy Cycleworks or Jeff Jones or Black Sheep or Brent Steelman... I could go on, but I think you get the point. Better yet, pick up a "vintage" mountain bike and clean it up:



I've had that Bontrager since 1994 and ridden it everywhere from Moab to Michigan to Noble Canyon. Believe it or not, it CAN be done, assuming you don't mind a challenge once in awhile. :thumbsup:
 
#19 ·
I bought a new one last year. It was outfitted as a commuter, but with a 7" rotor, a decent square taper crank and a spare set of wheels with some knobbies it's proven to be a very serviceable mtb.


It's a marin novato.
 
#20 ·
I don't understand this post

Unless a suspension fork is welded to the headtube, how is the rigid 26'er dead?...or any other sized rigid bike for that matter? Yes, I understand that there is a lack of a manufactured, high quality, mass produced hardtail MTBs, but I don't understand why it's not clearly perceived by the OP that the terms "mass produced" and "manufactured" are really the answer to the original question. If few people are buying these bikes, why would a manufacturer make them? The fact that one can buy a frame or buy a suspension forked MTB and remove the fork sort of makes the point moot IMO. Sell the fork or at least keep it on standby for trips or rides when one might actually want to use a suspension fork. Have we become so helpless because some bike maker didn't serve up the exact combination of "stuff" that we wanted personalized to our consumer craze? You know...I don't think I've even seen a complete top drawer fully suspended bike or a hardtail with every component that I would have liked attached to it. And now we're complaining that we don't have the "less" we'd like to see on a bicycle? Oh the humanity!:lol:
 
#21 ·
Scott markets them as a road bike but the SUB10 is a full rigid with MTB components, disk brakes and your choice of 26" or 700c wheels. When I looked at them in the shop, they looked plenty tough enough to handle moderate off roading.

http://scottusa.com/us_en/product/1667/11779/sub_10

I was considering buying one then I realized it was basically no different than my 89 Fisher AL-1 full rigid with the exception of the disk brakes.
 
#22 ·
The danger of thinking in Absolute Terms

In an absolute sense, geared 26er rigids are not dead and possibly never will be as long as they exist or can be built.

For all intents, the commercial geared 26er rigid mountain bike market is dead. I'm sure that you can buy one and people still ride them. But, honestly besides my own, in the past 5 years I've only seen 1 other geared rigid 26er rider on the trails. Most riders wear out their equipment and ride newer bikes eventually. Very few people wrench on their own bikes and the cost of fixing an old junker exceeds the value of the bike.

-Chuck
 
#26 ·
Dirty Tiger said:
It seems like the fully rigid 26" geared mountain bike is dying out....I can't seem to find one on the websites of the major MTB players.

Why is that? IMHO, a rigid 26er with semi-slicks is the ultimate "do-everything" bicycle. It would be sad to see them vanish.

Will the rigid 26" MTB die out?.... at least in the form of mainstream mass production.
No, I turned one into a commuter bike.

After riding a rigid 29er, I could never see going back to a rigid 26er for trail use.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top