It was inevitable, but without making a song and dance about it, Orange just rolled it onto their stand at the Fort William World Cup and waited… I must admit, I walked past it a few times blissfully unaware of anything more than a pretty green Five, but thankfully the eagle eyed photographer spotted the next big thing from Halifax, the 27.5″ Five.

Just from looking at it, you know two things: it’s going to be as good, if not better than the fun loving 26″ and yeah, they’re going to sell like hot cakes… From talking with the tyre manufacturers, expect this to be THE mountain bike wheel size of the very near future with quite a few bike manufactures replacing existing 26″ AM platforms for 2014.

While hesitancy in the market place exists, the unfortunate reality for the consumer who doesn’t like change is that this is happening and this will become the norm. While the 29″ wheel took years and years to cement its position as a fantastic option for certain riders, the introduction of the “tweener” size will literally roll in over night and before you can moan about money grabbing bike companies and crafty marketeers, you’ll most likely have one or be looking to make the jump…

Photo Credit: Nathan “Nate Dog” Carvell

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