Sweetpea Bicycles

You have probably seen the pictures, heard the buzz, maybe even seen the real thing at the Made in Portland Bike Show or outside of Stumptown on 3^rd. But we would like to formally introduce you to the 26”er. While this isn’t the first of its kind, it is rare enough to warrant comment and shameless promotion.

Here’s why we built it:

We’ve got a friend who loves to race cyclocross, but after a handful of bikes, she just couldn’t seem to find a bike that really fit. She is around 5’5”, but found that most of the cross bikes were just too big to be comfortable and mountain bikes were just too heavy to run with. And yet, like a lot of women, she is out there kicking ass and having fun in spite of it.

The 26”er was my tribute to her - a solution to the problem of the smaller ‘cross racer. In my prototype, I scaled the traditional 700c road wheels down to 26” wheels. This reduces toe overlap, shortens the wheelbase for more nimble handling, and prevents the dreaded and uncomfortable stretched out position that results from too long of a top tube. The scaled down frame features the same geometry as larger ‘cross bikes – higher bottom bracket drop, ample mud clearance in the fork and rear triangle – with less bike weight. UCI legal? Good question. We’ll check with our legal department and get back to you.

(Click the picture above for details about the bike.)

Ladies, don’t you think you deserve something better than your boyfriend’s old mountain bike? Heck, yeah. You deserve to get ridiculously muddy in style and comfort. That is the 26”er.