Rene Herse 650B Video…

7 03 2011

This video discusses some features of a custom Rene Herse 650B rando rig. Functionally my Boulder All Road is the same, but without some of the custom details like the internal wiring, lugs and my bike uses the skinny ultralight tubing Mike talks about at the end.

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3 responses

7 03 2011
Ben (20:11:22) :

What a beautiful bike. Not my choice of colour, but everything else about that bike makes me drool. Thanks for posting this Vik.

10 03 2011
Andrew (12:20:23) :

it sounds like he is confusing diameter with width. 584mm (650B) would not feel cushy if the tire were 650B x 23mm. Similarly 622mm (700C), 559mm (26 in), and other rim sizes also have fat tires with low rolling resistance made for them. as far as i can tell, the only thing that sets 650B apart from other sizes is its fop appeal.

10 03 2011
thelazyrando (13:39:33) :

@ Andrew – I thought so as well a few years ago. Then I looked closely at the clearances. There is no way to build a performance 700c road bike with 42mm tires, they simply wouldn’t fit in the chainstays with fenders without going to a massive BB shell or making the chainstays uber long and even if you did that width of the tire on the bigger rim would result in less than optimal handling. Similarly 26″ wheels handle best with 50mm tires and they still don’t handle as well as a 650b/42mm or a 700c/32mm. If look at the high performance bike world you see 700c in 23mm-32mm and you see 650B in 38-42mm, but you don’t see anyone on 26″ wheels until you get to the mountain biking, touring and cargo biking worlds…where they are running 50-60mm tires.

650B makes a lot of practical sense, but the reasons are subtle and require a careful look at how you deign a bike. For most people that’s a level of detail they are never going to to and so it just looks like a silly obsolete wheel size.

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