John_V 

You can either do as several have suggested and buy the frame of your choosing, the components you want and build the bike yourself. Or, if you have around $9,000.00 to burn, you can always go with a Trek Project One.

DropBarFan

Disc Trucker has pretty good components; any special reason for wanting the 650b wheels? I'd lean to trying the stock 26" wheels first since it's pretty close to the 650b; tire choice could easily be a bigger factor in handling/comfort than a 1" rim diameter difference. With fenders, esp, 650b might limit max tire width a bit vs the 26".

Nyah

I thought I'd seen more examples of this bike/tire combo with what appear to be proper fenders but, apparently it's only these two:
https://live.staticflickr.com/7827/4...0d85b96926.jpg
https://store.bluelug.com/media/cata...pp_27511_1.jpg

I'll wait until I can get better confirmation.

(This here is why I would use a composition compatibility website feature)

DropBarFan

First pic tires look ~40mm-wide tires, second pic maybe 50mm tires but a smoother tread; both pics seem to show adequate fender clearance but I've read that with the wide knobby tires, fenders might not fit well.

Elvo

Here's my touring bike with WTB 650x47 Byways. Can definitely fit full fenders

Phil_gretz

I began composing bikes in my early teens. Not unlike Mozart, who began at 8, I believe.

My most recent composition took me to the far flung reaches of the Chinese provinces, from which factory workers had been harvested to create my parts from raw materials. With the exchange of currencies and global transport, receiving my cherished parts was easy, leaving me time to relax and ponder their travels. Assembly or 'fitting' posed little challenge, since I speak both Newton-meters and inch-pounds.

Ah, Newton...now there was a great mind...

Drew Eckhardt 

Any good bike shop will do that. If you're shopping for less expensive complete bikes you'll pay a lot more. Compared to expensive complete bikes you'll pay less without the manufacturers' premium for a built up "nicer" frame that might differ only in paint. Obviously you'll get what you want.

You can buy a frame and hang whatever parts you want on it, noting European online prices are lower than US wholesale.

You can even get used or New Old Stock components when they no longer make what you want. I switched to 2006 Campagnolo Record Titanium 10 speed triple parts with 2010 Cantaur Carbon Ultrashift levers in 2013.

Having a bike built in 1997 was a better choice for me than buying something off the showroom floor. Campagnolo Athena brakes + headset, 50-40-30 Racing-T crank + derailleurs x 13-21 cassette yielding a 13-19 straight block for flat rides plus low like 42x28 for mountains, Chorus ball bearing shifters, Chorus hubs with grease ports, Cinelli 66 deep drop bars to have both comfortable all-day and low fast positions, my favorite saddle, my preferred bar tape, and color coordinated cages:

That ran $2000 sans pedals/cages ($3200 adjusted for inflation). A decent steel or aluminum bike could have run $1000, same frame with 105 $1700 as a factory bike, and a stock Chorus titanium bike would have been more expensive. None of the stock alternatives would have matched my tastes or come with hand-built wheels.

I'm still riding the frame and fork 22 years later, including 35,000 miles over the last decade.

Drew Eckhardt 

Any decent shop will do that for you and mix component levels, noting that without Shimano's steep OEM discount you may not like the price..

I got mine from Excel Sports Boulder which was a few blocks from my office.

tkamd73 

You could try benscyles.com go to their Milwaukee Bicycle Co site, pick your frame, color, decals, badges, then the components. Their frames are custom made by Waterford in WI, great people at Bens, have dealt with them personally many times, one of the best bike shops in the Midwest.
Tim

Sy Reene

Yeah, well that's the issue. What we'd wish for is that the bike Mfgs are able to provide boxed-up component pkgs (cockpit A, B, or C; Wheelset A, B, or C, Groupset A, B, or C), have these available at their distributors, and the final build is made up of the config chosen by a consumer, but done at the LBS -- but with these options priced based on OEM pricing. As long as eg. Trek, Spesh, etc. commit to not selling or making these component 'boxes' standalone (like eg. Ribble, CRC, etc were doing) but only as part of a complete, then I don't see why Shimano etc. wouldn't make available? The only difference is that the final assembly would take place at the LBS and not in eg. Taiwan -- and for that, that would be the $200-$300 build charge would be applied.

Bike shop happy (extra couple hundred bucks to pay labor for staff they already likely have on payroll). Consumer happy as they can get something closer to exactly what they want. Manufacturer happy as they have differentiated themselves from companies who don't do this, and therefore sell more bikes.

Would like to see there even being size selection options in the component builds (eg. handlebar widths, stem length, cassette gearing). If Ribble can do this with their 'bike builder' options, and market internationally, there should be a way that the huge guys with their scale could figure it out.

Drew Eckhardt 

It's not economically viable.

Currently, if you want nicer components you're forced to buy a bike with a higher markup.

With the price broken down into line items for frame, group, wheels, etc. few people are going to pay a four figure markup to get a "nicer" frame saving 200g or in red not blue.

Companies won't be able to make that up on components because it will cost customers less to order frame + cheap throw away components then buy the components they want without the bike company's markup.

More SKUs will increase overhead and sales cost for lower profits.

While nice, more SKUs reduce profit. That's why all mainstream cranksets are 110mm BCD with triples and standard doubles historic relics. Campagnolo stopped offering cassettes with an 18 cog with the move to 12 speed, and SRAM didn't even sell the 17-18-19 sequence with 10. Campagnolo and Shimano both stopped selling 13T starting cog cassettes with 11 speed, and SRAM didn't with 10..

Bike companies do much better selling you a nicer bike for $5000 than letting you piece together one on a less expensive frame for $3500, and everyone in their retail chain benefits from the limited SKUs without cassette/crank/stem/bars/etc. options within that level.

Ribble just sells parts with optional assembly. It's a different business model with no sales at low price points and fewer at the top.

Sy Reene

Actually Ribble seems to very much out of the parts business, and much more into customized bikes. Many of their component options aren't available to buy by themselves.

I'm not convinced there would be more SKUs -- actually I think a lot less. There are I believe like 26 different Domane models on Trek's site. On average each available in 6 sizes and 2-4 color schemes. You can do the math... somewhere about 400-500 SKUs

OTOH, they could have basically 2 frames (SL and SLR) x 6 sizes. 5 Groupset offerings (Tiagra, 105, Ult, Ult Di2, DA Di2?); 3 Cockpit choices; 5 Wheelset Choices. About 25 SKUs. 2 Color choices for frames would go to about 50 SKUs.

Nyah

Elvo. I saw the photo before it disappeared. What bicycle make/model is it?