mbr : "How did the 650b wheel size impact on
the design?"
Fabien: "Bigger wheels are better at rolling
over obstacles and trail vibration is reduced
too, so there is less need for outright
sensitivity. But we think the bike’s stability
needs to be balanced with manouevrability,
which can come from the reduced rotating
mass of the smaller wheels, or from a more
compact frame on bigger wheels. It doesn’t
need to come from both, so there is less need
for super-long front ends and slack head
angles on the bigger wheeled bikes.
I ride fast and like to have slack angles, so
sometimes I use a bigger 160mm fork for the
severe courses. But for the average riders and
customers, we think we’ve found the right
compromises on the Spectral."
