[dutchy68]

Hi, I have had my San Andreas for many years now and never changed anything about her after first build.
I made a few bad choices in those years which I removed from her just recently.
I glass blasted the frame so she's like new and started to put back the old stuff but stopped right after mounting the old fork. The bearings felt totally shot.
I now want to start from scratch and put new parts on the old lady.
My question is, can I use 27.5 rims with matching fork in the front without totally messing up the angles on my bike?
Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[RicoMack]

I have no experience with the swapping out of a 26 to 27.5. But I was dealing with an individual a little while back who did the swap on an older Litespeed softtail and said he noticed the steering was slower. But not only did he go from a 26 to 27.5 wheel, he went from an 80mm travel to 100mm travel. He didn't say nor did I ask if the 27.5 tires were bigger than the 26, i.e. say 2.4 vs 2.1. In any event he said it took some getting use to.

But as you know going from a 26 to 27.5 is going to change the head angle. If I was doing it I'd try to keep all other variables the same initailly, i.e. tire size and fork travel, and go from there.

Good luck.

 

[dutchy68]

Am taking the frame to a local bike shop and try to put in a 27,5 rim with tire. Then I'll have my answer, at least concerning a possible fit. Need to send my Rohloff Speedhub to the factory for a makeover before fitting it to the new rim.
After that there's the question what fork to fit, had a Marzocci Bomber in it till now but will have to change it for a fork fitting a 27,5 rim. Any suggestions? Think the max. travel will be about 130 mm.
Now I feel how uninformed I'm at the time concerning modern bike parts, lol me making a bombproof bike resulted in a decade without any purchases except for a few tires.

 

[colker1]

San Andreas has disc brakes: you can have any wheels you want .

 

[dutchy68]

Well the space between the frame and the 26" tire tells me differently.

 

[Uncle Grumpy]

Just took some measurements - sorry, no photos because my San An frame is tucked away behind a heap of stuff. I measured from dropout to the swingarm. And I measured in metric because I'm from Australia and we have adopted a superior system of measurement, but I digress.

355mm.

I then measured the wheel on my Bronson, 27.5" with Maxxis High Roller 2.3" tyre and, after getting pissy about quoting imperial figures, measured the dropout to tyre crown at 355mm.

Nope, won't fit.

Also, the San An has a fairly high bottom bracket, any increase in wheel size is just going to make that taller and not as fun as the 26" wheels that it was meant for.

And FFS post a photo, I love San Ans!

Grumps

 

[colker1]

Well the space between the frame and the 26" tire tells me differently.

Let me rephrase: you can have the bigger wheels if you give up on fatter tires.