Now you guys know my stance of 26″ fixed. I accept that people will ride what they want to ride and that small frames look a lot better with 26″ wheels. Even some medium frames look good with 26″ wheels. Now I get the whole durability argument but if you make a frame with bigger 700c clearance, your tires are larger and your wheel’s lifespan triples. Just look at Tom LaMarche’s Scissor. Massive tires and his wheels are holding up fine. Unless he clips a big marble manny pad.

Now where I’m not convinced of 26″: running them on large frames, as pictured in one of Slumworm‘s recent posts. I’m a man of proportions. It’s my architecture background. I’m also a huge stickler for builds. This bike is built really well but the proportions of it are all wrong if you ask me. It’s damn near impossible to design a large frame with 26″ wheels and make it look good. At least in my opinion. The main issue seems to be: 700c wheels, proportioned wheelbase and head tube, 26″ wheels, elongated wheelbase (visually) and over-compensated head tube.

My biggest qualm with this frame is that it looks squashed. Maybe it’s because they designed it with a ton of standover and the saddle is slammed? I dunno what it is but there’s something bad-ass about a large frame with 700c wheels and big tires that this one lacks. I know the Wheel Talk crew is working with Specialized on the P-Fix line, so I wanna see them push hard to make a large 26″ fixed that even I would wanna ride. I know you guys can do it!