Mountain Bike Wheel Size Explained. Past present and future explained brandon tyler april 18 2018 at 11 03 am. You ve done a great job in sharing good ideas and insights about mtb wheels.
Small light stiff agile. Old quick release hubs and 142 x 12mm thru axle hubs have the same widths between the hub flanges so there is no change in terms of hub flange positioning and wheel strength and stiffness. At 5 6 you re not quite in that very small frame category and it s completely reasonable for a frame suited to your height to use 700c.
Boost gives a 148 x 12mm spacing which allows for the hub flanges to be further apart which gives a potentially stronger and stiffer rear wheel.
Sometimes very small adult road bike frames will use a smaller wheel size like 650b but it s more common even for small frames to use 700c wheels. Along with the traditional adult mountain bike wheel sizes there are a host of kids bike wheel sizes too. You ve done a great job in sharing good ideas and insights about mtb wheels. Choosing a wheel size used to be a no brainer almost exclusively some kids bikes came with 24 wheels you d get 26 wheels on a mountain bike.