Interbike 2012: Foes Racing Drops F275 (650B) Trail Bike; Shaver & FXR in Production & More!

I got all excited when I saw that title I thought a coupany had got the balls to decided to drop the 650b idea! Sadly it was just another 650b bike. I get 29ers and 26″ bikes but not the 650b

I have enjoyed riding 29er’s for over 5 years and in the past couple of years they have become more mainstream and accepted in the market place.
 It used to annoy me when I would read negative post (like mine above) about people’s hate for 29er bikes when clearly these people have never ridden a big wheel. The thing is 650b bike is probably better than a 26″bike. But honestly it’s only going to be a little bit better not at lot. Is that small margin of improvement really worth turning the bike world upside down? 
The bike industry is unique in how its always tring to better itself and continually try and improve products. But at the same time that can be its biggest weekness, to many standards to much R&D costs too many options. The influx of 29er bikes was rider driven to start with. Riders could noticibly see the bennifits of this wheel size for the style of bikes they were using. It was the public that was asking bike manufactures for more/better products. It was only then that big manufacture started to recognise this wheel size and see it as a marketing option along side the 26″ bikes.
 I know there was a bit of a underground movement on 650b wheels like there was on 29er wheels but how come the underground 650b movement never got as big as the 29er one?
 The thing that troubles me the most about this new wheel size is the amount of products that are being made/marketed compared to the amout of 650b bikes that the public currently own. This new wheel size seams very market drive than public demand. It just seams  that company’s have seen that the public were willing to have a wheel size option when 29er became more mainstream and just exploiting another wheel size to expand sales.
 I think they can justify this as it probably is a little bit better than a 26″ wheel. It has a little bit of the advantages of the bigger  wheel without the the design constrains of the big wheel. But I personally feel these bennifits are too small/to close to a 26″ bike to make me want to change. I also don’t think that the market can support 3 mainstream wheel sizes and one of them will slowly fade out over time. But for the next few years the average rider will have the option of 3 sizes and it will be the decision between the rider and the manufacture as to which two will stick when it comes to higher end mountain bikes. Will it be 26/650b, 650b/29 or 26/29 I don’t know, I just feel that some riders will end up spending a lot of money on a obsilite bike at some point in the future.  What I do know is if I end up riding a 650b bike I am still going to have a lot of fun on it as it will have two wheels and be powered by me. 
The bike industry has had a lot of fads that have come and gone,  you never know instead of just re using a old wheel size the industry might create a fourth ultimate off road wheel size! 
At the moment I have got a 26 and 29″ bike and I find myselfe choosing the 26 over the 29 when I want to go out on I ride. I think part of the reason for that’s is because I just want to get  back into going out and having fun on a bike. Not constantly questioning if I am using the right equipment  that is on offer to me.