The old French tire sizing had a more or less constant outside diameter, so there were no fat 700 tires. To go fatter you had to go down in rim size.
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700c and 650c were both supposed to be for ~38mm tires in that naming scheme
650b was for 33mm tires, with 650a being a whole other rim size for 30mm tires
a universe designed for Orc?
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Thanks folx. This thing would be in the relaxedway, so I’m not so worried about short chainstays or toe overlap. There’s probably some marginal gains from being able to lower the front rack platform with a smaller sized tire (it gets more floppy the higher the load, correct?), but have much preferred the way the larger tires have rolled on pavement compared to something like the Horizon. At least what I’m not hearing is that this is a terrible idea, which I trust tarck would tell me.
As much time as I spend on pavement, I haven’t warmed up to the Horizons, have to keep them pumped up high enough so they don’t feel so squishy (run them in the low 30s, compared to 30-35 in the cheap 700x38s on a different bike). They are nice when it gets rough tho.
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higher load is gonna make the same degree of flop feel worse?
but the less “flop” the better within reason. which is why low trail with steep ht works well i think. the wheel turns closer to perpendicular to the ground, so the load doesn’t change height as much when you turn
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I’m building up a Clydesdale, my options for frames at home are nonexistent right now…
So what should I buy? Should I just use my Gunnar Crosshairs and redo it come summer when I’m riding it as a go fast again? Should I buy a BLack Mountain canti monster cross for $300 and then basically have two frames that are the same?
I do have a 650b rear wheel, rim brake. I also have a 29er wheel but it’s 12x 148, is there some dumb surly frame to get instead at least that way I have options and don’t need to buy more parts?
Search Craigslist for an inexpensive rigid fork era mtb with decent components. Something that’ll take slicks and fenders if that’s a thing you need.
That leaves you with just building the wheel, a brake and headset stuff.
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I think a 29er frame has more AtoC than they recommend. You want 26" or a hybrid frame. My local CL/FB marketplace seems to have a decent amount of disc hybrids at this point.
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Yeah it’s been slim pickings here in town. I’ve got a 20” wheel being built right now, I can rim brake it or disc brake it so that’s neat
Yes recommendation is 400mm
Is it 1-1/8 steerer? What size road frame are you normally on?
Yes it is.
54cm or thereabouts.
I was hoping to get the 1" and everything would be a lot easier, but oh well, I make life tough-er for myself.
I’ve found myself a Black Mountain Cycles Monster Cross frame. That will probably be the donor frame for the Clydesdale fork.
I think there are plenty of 700c low trail bikes out there. I remember reading somewhere that Herse and Singer only made 700c fastbikes from like the 70s onward. So the nordavinden is not actually so aberrant.
700*38 + fenders is getting big though imo and starting to look like a reason to get 650b.
caveat: i’m a guy who thinks he remembers reading something on the internet at some point. not an expert of any sort.
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I probably should have qualified that with “since I’ve been paying attention to bikes other than roadie road bikes.” It was really only when Fred showed up at vsalad that the non-roadie bike world opened up to me. The Nerdawagon is the only modern one I remember seeing (and wasn’t smart enough to buy one).
Part of it is aesthetics. I like big bikes and I cannot lie. Even fat 650b tires look small on my sized frames. The other part is a better selection of cheap tires. The wire bead 700x38 Kenda Kwick Tendrils on two of my bikes are really pretty nice. And like 95% of my time is spent on pavement.
The Herse 700c racing bikes weren’t low trail though. Low trail was for randoneuses with demi-balloon tires and handlebar bags.
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anybody know about 126mm freewheel american classic hubs?
thinking it might be the perfectly anachronistic complement to some tubeless DT rims + fancy spokes + shimano dynamo for an old Trek I just built up with downtube shifters
alternatives (shimano 5700 or 6700 or there’s a cheapish 240 on ebay right now???) involve respacing to 130 which doesn’t appeal
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or are there other cool replaceable-bearing 126 hubs out there?
(or should I go cassette for better axle support?? I don’t break shit by habit but will ride bumpy stuff)
My 1983 trek 500 is 126 and I have been using a 130 6500 rear hub with zero effort installing or removing the wheel. No cold setting or re-spacing.
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well true, I could get the wheel in all right, but I’d be a little tempted to respace it for the bearings’ sake, especially if I paid real money for them
decent quality freewheels haven’t been manufactured for twenty years
great models are 30+ years old now, and most of the survivors are corncobs
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Get a cup and cone shimano cassette hub. Adjust pre-load with the slightest bit of play while out of the frame and never look back.
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