Dear Bike Industry, this is what we want to see this season… oh wait, that’s a whole separate BikeRumor Op Ed series that you will see a lot more of in 2026! Where were we?
OK yeah, New Year’s is done. Everyone in the cycling industry is back to work. Anrocd our inboxes are already starting to fill up with novel bike gizmos again. But the big stories of 2026 are yet to come. We’re even packing our bags for the first test trips of the season, already! Will this be the year that the cycling industry gets back to ‘business as usual‘ after half a decade of chaos? What will be the biggest tech stories of the coming year? What bike, component, or accessory companies will stand out above the rest?
Honestly, only time will tell for sure. But we keep our collective fingers on the pulse of all things bike tech and cycling geekery. So, let’s dive into what we think will be coming down the road and trails in 2026…
BikeRumor predicts 2026’s biggest tech developments
We spent the last couple weeks of 2025 cleaning house after another busy year. First, compiling our individual favorites into a series of greatest hits Editor’s Choice stories. Then, wrapping it all up tightly with a single Gear of the Year overview, summarizing the best tech and hottest trends. Finally, we also took a look back at our 20 most popular stories of ’25, several of which give insight into what we might expect to see in ’26.
But while the end of the year is always a good time to look back, now that we’re firmly in January, it’s time to look at what’s ahead.
Coming down the road this coming season?
Let’s start off on the road with some predictions for 2 of the 3 big drivetrain makers.
We have a strong feeling that this is the year for a new Shimano Dura-Ace groupset, finally. It’s been 5 years, and the Japanese giant just completely revamped their mountain bike family with the long-awaited next-gen XTR Di2. Then, they kinda did the same for gravel Di2, too. Now, it’s the road’s turn. Certainly, the next Dura-Ace will get Di2 electronic shifting, and it’ll definitely be wireless. But this could be its chance to go totally wireless this time. Having solved the removable battery ‘inside’ the rear derailleur off-road, we’d bet Shimano can do that on-road now, as well. Also, off-road Di2 was all about modular cross-compatibility. We expect the same on next-gen road Di2, as well. We’re dreaming of interchangeable 2x AND 1x options. And it’s probably got to be 13-speed now, in order to keep up with Campy & SRAM, right?
The real question is, will Shimano follow up its next-gen Dura-Ace Di2 groupset with new Ultegra Di2 & 105 Di2 weeks later, like they did last year for mountain bikes?
Speaking of trickle-down road tech, Campagnolo hasn’t been shy about wanting to bring their new 13-speed wireless technologies down to some more accessible levels. We’d love to see Campy wireless make its way to Record, Chorus & Centaur tiers this coming year. Realistically, though, we’ll probably only see one new tier added. Vicenza doesn’t tend to move too quickly at once. Our bet is on Chorus. Campagnolo positions Super Record just above Dura-Ace, and skipping over Record means they could pit Chorus Wireless more directly against Ultegra Di2.
We’ll just drop this one in here since a lot of roadies are inside riding virtually on the trainer, instead of toughing it out on cold, wet, and often sketchy frozen roads at the moment. Isn’t anyone working on a VR racing league built around the Meta Quest virtual reality headset? We can’t be the only ones who see the real immersive experience potential for virtual racing in VR headsets. Sure, sweating in a VR headset will suck, but so does riding a trainer inside to start with. Can we please take Zwift and Rouvy to the next level?
Grinding gravel around the globe in 2026?
While we’re still in the drops, could 2026 be the year that Shimano’s multi-level GRX platform actually gets a proper premium tier to go head-to-head with SRAM Red XPLR and Campy Super Record X? Sure, last year saw a new 1x 12-speed GRX Di2 (and then a more affordable version, just months later). But GRX has never been premium, at least nowhere close to Dura-Ace level. No premium lightweight cranks, no super shiny derailleurs, no titanium cassettes.
But, if you see the road pros who cross over to race UCI Gravel Worlds, they are almost all still on Dura-Ace. That’s not a great look for Shimano trying to hype GRX as the ‘purest’ gravel-specific groupset family. When Dura-Ace Di2 goes 13-speed this year, we expect to see a superlight GRX Di2 13-speed variant with both a wide-range 1x option with a light XTR-ish cassette to match and a 2x setup that borrows a new Dura-Ace road cassette. At least we can hope.
While we’re at it, why not Campagnolo Ekar 13 Wireless? Ekar was actually the first big 13-speed groupset to hit the market. (Rotor was really there even earlier, but with less customer buy-in.) And Ekar could probably be credited with keeping Campy afloat five years ago, as they fumbled around with road development. Now Ekar deserves to get its own wireless electronic version. It will definitely be more affordable than Campy Super Record X, but still should be cross-compatible. More aluminum & steel. Less carbon & ti. That will help the Italian engineers keep costs down, while also appealing to a broader dirtbag gravel adventuring audience who loves that it’s all still made in Europe.
This one is gonna tease a lot of what comes for MTB down below, but we expect to see 32″ wheels creep into gravel this year. A year and a half ago we tested a 750d gravel bike and came away surprised at how it improved the ride. Sure, those bigger wheels made the most sense for taller riders, longer distances, and rougher gravel tracks. Well, 32″ wheels might just be perfect for ultra-distance gravel racing and bikepacking, too. That is, if the selection of tires can keep up.
While we’re talking racing, 2026 is set to be the year when gravel racing goes next-level, right? So many road pros have crossed into gravel that it feels ready for a Gravel World Tour. Think bigger prize purses to bring in more of that elite talent. And a more integrated calendar to keep the pros focused, so it isn’t a crapshoot to see what road pros turn up on the start line to contest Gravel Worlds at the end of the season in hopes of securing a rainbow jersey? I know it’s not the ‘spirit of gravel‘ but that already died when we really started racing anyway.
Jumping back to the actual bikes for a second, we feel like 2026 is gonna be the year of a new Specialized Crux. It’s been about four years since this extremely popular bike has been refreshed, so its time feels nigh. Will it look more like a Tarmac, now that the aero SL8 road bike can already clear a 32mm tire? Guess we’ll just wait and see.
Wait, we also expect to see more full suspension gravel race bikes in 2026 after Trek’s wildly colorful CheckOut reignited a debate that the Niner MCR first introduced 7 years ago, and that the Cannondale Topstone has been sneaking into their lineup for many years. Salsa’s Wanderosa could be the next to drop, or it might turn out to be an ebike. Who can tell these days?
Blazing fast on cross country and trails in the year ahead?
Yeah, 32″ wheels are going to dominate the MTB conversation again in the coming year. We expect to see conventional right-side-up 32” XC forks from the likes of Manitou, Fox & RockShox this year, closing the gap that boutique upside-down forks have been filling on a lot of the prototypes we’ve spotted so far. Word on the trail, is that there are prototypes from each of these manufacturers floating around. But apparently, none have lower leg castings finalized, just yet.
There will be plenty of production 32″ wheels, too. DT Swiss told us not to hold our collective breath. But at the same time, we know they have both alloy and carbon 32″ rims that they are testing as we type. So it’s more about giving them enough time for proper safety testing.
Those new, bigger 32er wheels will definitely show up on the XC World Cup this coming season, too. The question is only what big bike brand will be the first to drop their production-ready full-suspension carbon 32″ XC bike? Even with BMC’s strong prototype showing this year, we kinda feel like it is going to be Scott. Rumor from the start was that Nino & Scott/SRAM were pushing with Maxxis to get 32″ wheels on the XC circuit. And even with his retirement from racing, a 32″ Spark could very well become a reality this year.
But really, it could be BMC, Trek, Specialized, Scott, Cannondale, Orbea, Canyon, or even somebody more unexpected like Rockrider, Pinarello, Santa Cruz, or Thömus?
What 32″ bike do you think will be raced to the first XCO World Cup win?
Let’s not count out bigger wheels for trail and enduro either. ActoFive showed us they can totally do 140mm of travel front and rear with a full 32er in medium & large sizes. And if you want more travel, mullet setups are the obvious next step. Logically, once the proper forks are there, we could theoretically see a 32″ front paired to a 29″ rear as a great all-around trail shredder. Maybe even go with a 32/27.5 super mullet combo for more aggressive, bigger travel bikes. Tires are maybe the other limiting factor here. But we already know that 2026 will bring a 32″ Dissector trail tire. And Maxxis teased us that they have several more 32″ tires in the works, too!
Sounds like we may need to head back to Taipei to dig deeper into this bigger wheel movement?
Speaking of mountain bike tires, we’re sure to see more radial tires enter the fray this year. Schwalbe truly shook up the grip game when they dropped 3 different radial trail & gravity tires a year and a half ago. And we just got a set of unique Zleen radial XC tires in to test, which completely rethink mountain bike tire construction. Frankly, we’re surprised more tire companies haven’t yet realigned their tire casings for the extra flex benefits. But 2026 is gonna be that year!
Let’s quickly talk dropper posts. Fox really did a number on fast wireless drops with their ultra-premium Transfer Neo, which just got a longer travel version this week. (Ed. note: I almost forgot that this post costs $860 or 1320€. Woah!) But why not a lighter-weight, short-travel XC-specific Transfer Neo SL? It’s already low stack. And they know we want it!
Plus, what about BikeYoke’s Revive Wireless dropper? We held it in our hands 18 months ago, even remotely actuating the prototype. 2026 has got to be the year that the most serviceable dropper finally gets its wireless version! And it can’t cost over a thousand euros, right?
Calling out a single cross-country bike, it feels like this is the season for an all-new Canyon Lux XC race bike. It’s been over four years since we saw the German consumer-direct brand drop a new World Cup XCO race bike. And we’d bet, this will be the year it gets a refresh. Probably not a 32″ version just yet, though.
On a more general concept, we expect (read: hope) to see more affordable full-suspension rigs with decent spec, like the recent Esker. For everyday trail riding to all-mountain bikes, there’s not much weight or performance penalty when sticking with alloy frames. And the cost savings can mean a better no-nonsense component spec. What better way to get the next generation of mountain bikers out onto the trails?
Here’s wishing for more fun, affordable mountain bikes in ’26!
Shredding the gnar on bigger mountain bikes, too!
The bulk of that has been XC, trail & maybe light all-mountain trends that we expect to rear their head in 2026, but gravity mountain bikes seem poised to have their year, too.
Start with a simple one. DT Swiss wheels destined for long-travel bikes will roll out this year with DT’s clever DF anti-kickback device already installed. And you’ll even see the tech as standard OEM on some complete bikes. It’s no secret. DT told us they would do it. This will be the biggest shift in letting more mountain bikers experience whether anti-kickback devices will improve the feel of their bike, or even make them faster. If mountain bikers love it, this move could even help push similar devices from the likes of Ochain and e13?
Shimano completely revamped their entire MTB lineup with Di2 last year.
Well, almost.
One performance MTB group was left out, and this year could be Saint’s turn. It has been a fierce debate internally whether a new Saint group would be mechanical for continued bulletproof simplicity, or obviously Di2 for that super useful automatic return feature after the inevitable rock strike. Can you tell a new, robust, low-profile Saint Di2 won out? It’ll still probably be a DH-specific 7-speed, but we bet it will have Shimano’s own patented direct mount UDH-compatible mounting for maximum robustness in a discipline known for abusing bikes and components. But will it feature an auto-disengaging hub to completely eliminate pedal kickback? One thing is for sure, new Saint will get ultra-beefy new brakes to compete with Mavens in terms of bulkiness, with Shimano’s new low viscosity mineral oil to say goodbye to wandering bite points.
At the same time, this one doubles back to the entire MTB discipline. Shimano’s electrification of all their mountain bike drivetrains left us wondering if they’ll still devote development time to cable-actuated derailleurs like we saw SRAM thankfully debut last year. It got our editorial team thinking. Now that XTR, XT, Deore, and GRX are all 1x Di2 with twelve firmware-controlled gearing steps on 7.5-year-old 12-speed cassette tech, it could only take an over-the-air firmware update via their E-Tube app to make those new wireless derailleurs compatible with a new number of gears in the same overall cassette width.
So we are predicting 13-speed mechanical Shimano mountain bike drivetrains!
All you need is a new mechanical shifter, mechanical derailleur, and new 13-speed cassette. The setups will be lighter than Di2 with Shimano’s proven crisp shifting, starting with XTR, then probably adding an XT tier, too. Lower specs will come later. But all of last year’s new Di2 setups will be instantly upgradeable to 13-speed with just a new chain & cassette. Think of it like anti-Cues.
Oh yeah, and let’s not forget. A belt-drive gearbox DH bike is going to podium, almost winning a DH World Cup this season. And Gates is gonna finally be out of the 100,000€ belted purse they’ve put up for grabs, soon for the third season. The gearbox weight balance and suspension design isolation just makes so much sense on a DH bike. We’re going to call it that an Atherton A.200.G will be the bike to do it. Only to be quickly followed up by a wild new iteration of Gamux’s latest Sego platform.
The extent of ebikes continues to expand
Look, eBikes have matured. They are no longer the bane of our existence. Really. They’ve evolved into machines that help us with daily transportation tasks and extend our performance rides further than ever.
High power light eMTB powertrains continue to impress. It’s not just the sense of flying up the climbs, but so much more motor control that you can actually start off on steep hills and navigate loose terrain without simply spinning your wheels. We’ve heard specific rumors of new eMTB motors that will get even more powerful than we could imagine in 2026. The real question is whether they will dial in control of that power to make these next-gen eMTBs manageable off-road? In any case, lighter but still powerful motors will continue to blur the lines between what used to be an ‘either/or‘ choice of a full-power eMTB or a lightweight eMTB.
We also expect to see more combined motor & gearbox units. Pinion’s MGU was frankly groundbreaking, even if it wasn’t as refined as we would have hoped at first. But the concept of combining an internal gearbox and an electric pedal-assist motor into one centrally located unit that can engage/disengage/shift in a smart manner is simply logical.
Rumor has it, two big MTB drivetrain makers are working on their own versions. But who will get it to market first?
On a more utilitarian front, we’ve simply seen more accessible eBikes, price-wise. It’s not just low-quality, sketchy consumer-direct ebikes, either. There have been more practical add-on ebike conversion systems, more high-quality mid-drive ebikes from those previously hub-motor-only producers, and just more daily utility ebikes than ever. Cargo ebikes also seem to be finally becoming mainstream in Western markets as viable car alternatives. And we are all about that!
Here’s to more affordable and accessible ebikes and cargo bikes in 2026, for everyone who doesn’t feel the need to hop in a car to commute to work, or run their daily errands, or to shuttle the kids back and forth to school and sports ball practice.
Race Nutrition pushes into the unknown
Gravel and ultra-endurance racing, such as the Life Time Grand Prix and big-ticket/big-prize-purse events, have athletes pushing into uncharted carb-consumption territory. Yes, we know that the longer you run on the larger engine you have, the more you need to fuel it.
Take Matt Beers, for example. At the shortened Big Sugar finale of the Life Time GP, Beers clocked in an effort of 431W for more than 2 hours. That’s bonkers. If you simply do the math to understand what it takes to sustain an effort like that, you’d need lots of carbs for fuel. Beers reportedly aims for 90g/hr for high-altitude or hot races, and 120-140g/hr for cooler races. It had been rare (until recently) for most people to consume more than 90g/hr. And 140g/hr would require just as much gut training as aerobic engine building.
So, where are we going with this?
We believe we’ll see more endurance fuel aimed at hitting those 120-140g/hr marks. Skratch Super Fuel and SiS Beta Fuel were among the early mainstream adopters, and we are now seeing more entrants in this ultra-niche, ultra-endurance space. We’re thinking larger-volume gels with more carbs, and one-off, carb-heavy solutions for those making their own gels. Maybe we’ll get some new drink mixes that push the limit but aren’t like drinking pancake batter. No seriously, it’s gonna be like drinking pancake batter to hit those levels!
Blurring lines of what’s coming in 2026
Let’s close out this crystal ball gazing with a few cross-over predictions…
Garbaruk, Ratio, and Madrone all reminded us in 2025 that alt drivetrains from smaller manufacturers are more serious than ever. Wide-ranging 1x setups have simplified drivetrains and leveled the playing field for alternatives like the wireless Garbaruk, mechanical Ratio Mech, and mechanical Madrone Jab derailleurs. We expect these three to find their footing in 2026, and maybe more players to enter the game. Like the return of Rotor with their smart Uno wireless collaboration with Wheeltop?
At the same time, Classified had struggled to make serious headway with their virtual 2x drivetrains, somewhat as a reaction to the oversimplification and blocky gearing steps of 1x. But now that they’ve paired with TRP, we expect Classified will refine the smoothness and quiet-running of their proprietary cassettes, making them a much more viable premium option for road, gravel & XC to rival the top-tier Shimano & SRAM competition at similar pricing to Dura-Ace & Red.
This 2026 prediction is just another fact. Electric mini inflators will continue their global domination. CO2 is dead, long live the reusable, rechargeable electric inflator, even though we have to suffer their annoying noise. Our hope/prayer/prediction in 2026 is that by some beautiful innovation, someone will finally make one more similar to the form factor of a mini-pump so it will better fit into a jersey pocket or inside all the internal frame storage gloveboxes in today’s modern bikes. And once they solve that and sell a million little electric pumps, hopefully the next innovative mind will make them all quieter!
And let’s leave it with this guaranteed prediction: 2026 will see even more wacky Dangerholm x Scott project bikes. A decade or two on, Gustav’s bikes aren’t just weight-weenie creations anymore. Instead, he’s making weird custom bikes that showcase forward-thinking ideas like ultra-wide aero gravel wheels, full-suspension mountain bikes repurposed for gravel, lightweight road ebikes reimagined for the post-apocalyptic scenarios we’re all fearing every night when we tune into the news. Dangerholm really has his finger on the pulse.
Let us know in the comments below what you predict the next new Dangerholm creation in 2026 will tell us about ourselves!
