Close Menu
    Cycling

    Why has the road bike stopped stopped at 700c?

    One of my biggest peeves is that there is nothing available bigger than 700c on road bikes. I’m 6’4 and the bigger the frame gets, the comparatively smaller the 700 looks. By the time you get to a 61-63cm frames, they look like clown wheels. Heck even on just regular bikes (as pictured) the 700 looks small and dinky. I understand the mountain bikes have different reasons for increasing wheel sizes, but the 700 has been the standard since what, the late 70s? With the popularity of gravel biking, why do we still have just one option? The 700.

    by LowInternet4726

    Share.
    View 9 Comments

    9 Comments

    1. karlzhao314 on

      Because bigger wheels travel further with every pedal stroke, so it would be unfair to us little guys. >:(

      (/s)

    3. PreoccupiedParrot on

      GCN did a doc on this back when GCN+ was a thing, they made a 36″ road bike for Connor called El Alto. There’s actually some rumblings of 32ers becoming a semi real thing in mountain biking.

    6. MariachiArchery on

      I think the answer is pretty simple economics. Very, *very* few riders would benefit from a bigger wheel. And, very few frames are produced in the XXL or XXXL size you would probably be looking for.

      In order to put a bigger wheel into a road bike, not only would manufactures be making an extremely small amount of them, but then they’d be paying for for the wheels, which would also be produced in extremely limited quantities.

      It’s simple economies of scale at work. That said, you could absolutely go the custom route and get a road bike built for big ass wheels. There are a few far east brands making 36″ carbon hoops. Get some of those.

    Leave A Reply