Kona Kula scandium and 27.5 wheels

[ishaw]

I bought a nice frame a while back and trying to work out whether running 27.5 wheels on it is a good or bad plan.

My understanding is the frame I have was sold as a 26er, but it fits 27.5 wheels and tyres easily.

I don't have a 27.5 frame and fancy giving it a try. I have wheels, forks etc so wondering if this set up would work or not.

Hoping people can share pros and cons of this idea, or if anyone has tried something similar and whether it worked?

 

[ishaw]

Re:

Any thoughts? If this works, great, otherwise it might be a cheap Chinese carbon frame.....

 

[ishaw]

Re:

Ok, I've found some time to trial fit some wheels to the frame. 27.5 crossmax shox with some 2.0 tyres seem to fit with a fair bit of clearance.

Am I ok to run this combo? Will 2.35 tyres fit (don't want to open them up if it's obvious they won't).

If I went down this route I'd be having to build a frankenfork using some as new Reba 26ers with 27.5 lowers (which I think will be ok as the uppers are the same for 26 through to 29 as far as I can tell).

Or is this just a bad idea?

I have an option on a ragley 27.5 frame and manitou mattoc comp fork which are 100% 27.5.

I could then build the kona up as a 26er with crossmax slr wheels and have a couple of nice bikes, not that I need any more, the goal was to try 27.5.

I'd appreciate some help deciding which way to go.

Pics below of 27.5 wheels fitted, and also with some old school 26ers for comparison.

 

[RickTheUncivil]

Re:

I guess uf the tyre fits then all is fine. As you say the forks might be slightly different clearance but the difference in rolling diameter is not that much.
I'm going through the same thought process, I have some 27.5 and some 29 wheels and I'm wondering if they will go in. You seem to have the same initial finding that a 27.5 with a not too big tyre fits fine. I'm waiting L to get my hands on some skinny 29 tyres to test that one out.

For the frankenfork think I really don't know. The same upper in a slightly longer lower assuming the same travel would lift your front end just that little bit I guess. The killer will be the tyre clearance around the brace which would be a fixed distance from the axle. if the tyre fouls on the brace with the 26er lower then the 27.5 would give you an extra few mm which might make the difference. Once all that is fine it's clearance against the crown at full compression to worry about, and you might be able to fiddle internally to sort that out depending on the fork.

Best of luck with it!

 

[ishaw]

Re:

Cheers, I've decided to buy a proper 27.5 frame and fork, saves all the messing around and 'making it work'