Is There a 39er in Your Future?

Ever get to thinking we need more tire/wheel sizes? I mean, between 700c/29er, 650b/27.5, and 26-in., not to mention plus-size and fatties, it seems that there just aren't enough choices. What's a die-hard equipment junkie to do?

(All photos from Patrick Ng's Behance page)

Enter the Ridiculous XC Interpolate 39er, from the same people that introduced us to the Roost Carbon. That hypothetical, satirical mountain bike defied all current bike industry standards with its 188 mm rear dropout spacing, 28-in. wheels (situated between 29er and 27.5), and 11 - 53 tooth 13-speed cassette.

Ridiculous Bikes is back at it again with another standards-defying XC bike, computer rendered by Patrick Ng. With its 39-in wheels, the bike is completely nuts, but has some unusual design features to make such stupidly large wheels at least theoretically workable. And there's probably no terrain that those wheels wouldn't just swallow up.

The Interpolate's 39-inch wheels dwarf the 29er - but the the overall riding position is claimed to be similar. On the other hand, it has an unwieldy 1487 mm wheelbase (around 58 inches), and I'm thinking the overall length would be around 8 feet.

One of the more unusual features is the bike's geared steering system. The front fork is positioned far out in front to keep the huge front wheel from clipping the pedals or downtube. The handlebars are positioned closer in toward the rider and connected to the fork using sprockets and a chain.

The geared connection between the bars and the front fork help make the bike seem workable - and the designer points out that different sized sprockets could be swapped in or out to alter the bike's steering characteristics.

Ng's computer rendering skills are pretty damned good - good enough to probably fool more than a few people that the 39er is real. Right now, somewhere in America, a bike shop sales manager is trying to explain to a customer that he can't actually buy a 39er XC bike. And somewhere else, in a major bike company's marketing department, someone else is asking "why not"?

Ridiculous or not - don't rule it out.