26er or 650b trail/enduro bike on a budget

[Bomberman]

https://www.bikehub.co.za/classifieds/202327-marida-7500-650-b/

 

Also not a bad option, all I would change is the fork.

[chuckza]

Ever thought of putting a 650B fork and front wheel on your newly acquired 26er frame?  With 650B bikes starting to fall out of favour for 29ers, there is bound to be some good value forks around. 26 rear and 27.5 front should be a very good combination.  

[Hairy]

Haha, yeah. Cute bugger too. These days it helps to just laugh it off with rubbish memes before you go all Ezekiel 25:17 on people.

[The Flying German]

Ever thought of putting a 650B fork and front wheel on your newly acquired 26er frame?  With 650B bikes starting to fall out of favour for 29ers, there is bound to be some good value forks around. 26 rear and 27.5 front should be a very good combination.  

 Where you asking me ? if so i have been thinking about it i must say. The Marzocchi Bomber fork on the front is super heavy and i think a bigger wheel and lighter  fork would do wonders.

[popcorn_skollie]

With 650B bikes starting to fall out of favour for 29ers

http://s2.quickmeme.com/img/c6/c6e184c37df932d599fc1db174c7c7b2c8caf5400bc6b13d6865c1393f7b3122.jpg

[MarcBurger]

That sounds awful. Just stick to 26. Especially if you're going to be messing around with tyre combinations.

650b falling out? nop. 

[Matchstix]

Another thing that was interesting in the Red Maple leaf is bike stuff is actually expensive, more than here. The price you see does not include tax and tax is different from province to province. BC has 13%

[Headshot]

http://i.imgur.com/ZyU6Zcp.jpg

 

Some lekker data on that page.

The component choices was quite interesting as well.

Despite half the riders rolling in on 26 inch wheels component choices reflect an overwhelming majority of mid to top spec bikes.

This suggests that perhaps people aren't riding 26 because its cheaper.

But because they want to.

Aaah, so it was 90% 26 in 2015. I wonder if the Strava times have come down since more people switched to the teeny bit bigger but faster wheel size? 

[Hairy]

Another thing that was interesting in the Red Maple leaf is bike stuff is actually expensive, more than here. The price you see does not include tax and tax is different from province to province. BC has 13%

might be part of the reason why people ride their bike goodies till they die, and then only replace with the newest and greatest new gadgets?

[Headshot]

might be part of the reason why people ride their bike goodies till they die, and then only replace with the newest and greatest new gadgets?

 

I think the US is cheaper than Canada and has more people, bike dealers and discounts no doubt. That said, unless you are comparing the bike price to income  I doubt bikes are more expensive to Canadians earning Can $ than they are to us when we shop in the RSA. Or have I got it wrong?

[Matchstix]

The cycling culture there is amazing. Vancouver has cycle routes for commuters and even cars are nice to cyclists.

Bike shops stock everything, from commuters with fenders to mtbikes, most bike only stores are on the smaller side,

Bigger stores are more the outdoor stores like MEC