Anyone regularly ride different wheel sizes?

[Phantom87]

I have been on a hex for about 1.5 years, slightly older rider, first serious attempt at trials. I am having a blast, and considering adding a comp style bike to the stable. I am considering both mod and stock. The pros/cons of each are well documented as long as trials content has existed on the internet, but I haven't seen much commentary about regularly riding both (or any other combinations of wheel sizes). For anyone who has done it, is it a good or bad idea? How difficult has it been to switch back and forth between bikes, etc? Just looking for some general input on whether it is worth a shot, or makes more sense to stick with a single wheel size. Thanks!

[La Bourde]

Quite a difficult question.

I ride MTB and own several bikes with different wheel sizes and geometries.

So I am used to switch bike regularly but to be honest, if I ride two weeks long the same bike I will ride slightly better day after day.

Switching back to a bike with a geometry that differs a lot will make the first minutes of riding uncomfortable.

But if I had switched back to a closer geometry, it may be even worse. Why? It is like my brain does not fully assimilate the difference and for example I won't manual well because I will pull too much or not enough low down my shoulders.

I don't ride 24" cause it seems too close to me to 26" without being the same. I had a 24" street trials and it was too weird for me.

I felt best on a Crewkerz guilty, but still I didn't enjoy it that much (I did not own a guilty - just rode the one of a friend, I had an inspired though)

I had the same problem with BMX race. I rode for many years a 26" 4x/pumptrack/dirt and then had a 24" race BMX first, later a 20". I preferred the 20" race BMX even if it felt completely different. 

In your case, a modern comp bike is so different from a Hex, you have to adapt how you ride. You will change techniques.

The first weeks will be hard, you will get the impression to regress. After this period, you will see how your riding improve on both bikes.

If you buy a modern 20" comp bike, your riding will be mostly made of jumps and almost no rolling. It is in this regard even further away from a 26" street trials.

But 20" is also more twitchy, nimble...

According to my experience, the difference between a 20" comp and 26" comp is less than a 26" comp and a 26" street.

I did not ride my comp 20" much till now, I hope I will ride it more this winter.

But the few hours I spent on it, I felt directly well, almost like being don't the 26" comp, but more reactive. I notice quickly that I could no longer do rolling moves on it.

I sadly never owned a 24" comp bike.

 

Edited November 1, 2023 by La Bourde

[cwtrials]

I always struggled to switch between a comp and street, or between a 26 and 20 comp.  I see some riders do it really well, switching over almost instantly. What I've seen is that a small % of exceptionally talented riders (a group I don't belong to) can switch back and forth with ease, and the rest of us need a solid 3-4 rides to really start to get used to a bike.

 

Are you riding almost every day or just a few times a month?

[PeterH]

I go back and forth between 20 and 26 all the time. Some times it is weeks or months almost only on one, sometimes it is every ride or two. I really like the way each have strengths and how I adapt to different styles. Sometimes the big bike feels like cheating getting up and over stuff, but I love the way I get so comfortable on the 20 and it just disappears beneath me, but I do have to focus on gaps a little bit more. Lots of the top guys have a preference and things are so dialed in now, but I love the old days when riders like Benito could podium on both. I think anything you do on different bikes makes you a better rider overall, but there are are times when you feel off at first switching, but it just build flexibility into your brain and muscle memory. As my garage will testify, more bikes and more options are a good thing.

[aliao]

I used to be really terrible at switching bikes, even within the same "style" of bike. I would hop on a friend's bike for 2 minutes and it would actually ruin the rest of the ride on my own bike because of how much it threw me off. Even if I added a 5mm spacer or angled my handlebars slightly different on my own bike it would take me a good few hours to acclimate to it. Nowadays, I don't have this issue anymore. I can ride other people's bikes half decently, and I was even switching between mod/stock every other ride for a while.

I strongly believe that the big reason it's not a problem anymore is because I take the time now to feel and then think about how a certain bike is responding to my inputs during the first few minutes that I hop on it. Whereas before, I would just hop on a bike and assume it rode the same as my own and try to let my muscle memory power through it even though it obviously didn't apply to a different setup.

p.s. You know those days where you hop on your own bike, but it somehow feels foreign to you? I've found that this also really helps when I'm having an off day where my own bike doesn't feel quite right either.

p.p.s. With regards to your original question, since street/comp bikes are so different, I don't think that the wheel size will make a difference in helping you be more used to one or the other. I would just go with whichever seems more exciting for you to ride. I think a 20" bike would be great to help you dial in your control (although for a bigger rider these can sometimes feel too small), while a 26" bike will let you use the wheelbase and wheel size to keep doing some bigger moves.

[Alex Dark]

I’ve started to ride 20 and 26. Main thing I have an issue is when to lift up for backwheeling / tapping and where the pinch point is on a rear wheel gap. 
 

Definitely think it helps your riding overall using two wheel sizes.

[Phantom87]

I am currently riding about 3 times a week. Fairly short 30-45 minute rides for now, but I should get some time for consistent, longer rides, after the holidays are over.

A few people have said what I was originally thinking - different wheel size, and a really different bike, would lend itself well to a different riding style, and potentially make me a more well rounded rider in the long run. Almost like two totally different bikes for two totally different approaches, that don't really overlap a ton until you get fairly good on both of them.