Today, we're going to look at 27.5 versus 27.5 plus size.
♪ [music] ♪
So we've got the Scott Genius LT. That's my normal bike,
the bike I ride all the time, 27.5 versus the brand new Scott
Genius LT Plus, same bike. This is just the 27.5 plus tire, obviously with the
wheels go with it. So let's do a direct comparison and put it against the clock.
Okay, so the course I'm doing the timing on is a nice up and down single track
flowy trail, nice and dry today so let's try it out an see what's fastest.
I'm on the plus size bike now, so here goes nothing.
♪ [music] ♪
So that was the plus bike and it's very good actually.
I'm surprised how agile this bike feels. Timewise, I'm not sure.
I think it's actually going to be really close.
There's a few really loose little bits of trail there where it definitely sort
of feels good with that big contact patch on the floor,
so let's see how the old bike goes.
♪ [music] ♪
Okay so back on the normal bike now, 27.5. It feels weird just riding here on the
road, but it actually feels really small with the tires on it now.
So let's give it a whirl. Clock doesn't lie.
♪ [music] ♪
All right, so there's a decent run on my normal bike,
normal 27.5 tires. I definitely think it is going to be close.
The bike feels different to ride definitely. It feels quicker in the really
tight turns where I'm almost hopping the bike around. So really tight through
trees, feels great. Doesn't feel as good when I'm pedaling up the far road a
little bit with some of the loose stuff. It feels like I just haven't got quite the
same roll over as the bigger tires, so yeah, we'll see.
I think it's going to be close.
♪ [music] ♪
Okay, so two pretty good runs. It's a nice, fun track, really nice single track,
really undulated and no big ups or downs. There's only a 70-meter drop the whole
thing. So time's coming in, I'm actually really surprised in. The plus bike,
I did it in 4 minutes, 44. That's actually long enough the way it would be.
And then the normal 27.5 bike was actually just 1 second slower,
4 minutes, 45, so actually a lot closer than I thought. They both felt quite a bit
different, to be fair. The smaller wheels, the normal 27.5 bike felt really fast
and really agile in the tight stuff, and there is quite a bit of tight stuff on
there, but I wonder if they are similar speeds the whole way, or am I losing a
little bit of time on the bigger tires and the tight stuff and then gaining it over
the stuff when I'm not dropping into holes quite so much, a bit like a 29.
And so it's actually really surprising how close they are. So it did definitely feel
like I had lost grip on that 27 plus tire. According to Scott, they're only 1% slower
rolling resistace so there's really not a lot in it for that. But yeah, it almost
feels like the 29er. They do roll really well, those bigger wheels, but I find a
29er isn't quite so good on really aggressive stuff where you're stopping
and starting a lot. So that might be the similar of sort of a thing between 27
and 27 plus. The smaller wheels and tires might be better when it gets really,
really gnarly and aggressive, but for most trail riding,
I think they're pretty close. And actually the plus size, it felt normal
really quickly. It felt really weird actually going back to these.
This felt really smaller on the 27.5.
Definitely, pleasantly surprised with the 27 plus.
Leave us a comment down below. Let us know what you think.
Have you tried them? Do you want to try them? Are they the next big thing in the
mountain bike industry? I guess time will tell, but let us know what you think.
For more videos from GMBN, you can click up here for our "Top 10 mountain bike
innovations," or click down here for our "Tire patterns explained." Or click on me
and my bike to subscribe to GMBN.
It's free.