sean.hwy

buy 2nd wheels set for commuter bike or pay a little more and get a 3rd bike? ( in the last 3 months went from zero bikes since 1992, to two bikes )


I took my commuter bike with 650b 47 road tires here today.
https://www.raleighusa.com/pavement/...er/redux2-r143

https://www.alltrails.com/explore/tr...dge-trail-loop
Tony Lookout, Hayfield and Coyote Ridge Trail Loop



It was muddy and slick.

For about $250 I was thinking about getting this wheel set. Is it comparable to what I have?
Would it work on my bike? My bike has 9spd cassette, 650b rims and 160mm disk brakes.

$200
Brake Shimano Hubs Plus Free Continental 29x2.2 Race King Tires and Tubes!
https://www.amazon.com/Mavic-29er-Wh...g-goods&sr=1-3


$13
160mm 180mm 203mm Disc Brake Rotor with 6 Bolts Stainless Steel Bicycle Rotors Fit for Road Bike, Mountain Bike, MTB, BMX (Stainless Steel, 2pcs)
https://www.amazon.com/160mm-Stainle...12&sr=8-3&th=1

$28
Shimano HG50 9 Speed Mountain Bike Cassette
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1


Is this combination any good or it's junk and I need to buy a 3rd bike?
Should I just pay a little more and get a bike off this list instead?
https://reviews.mtbr.com/best-mountain-bikes-under-1000


You can't really tell from these pictures but it was steep and slick.

Happy Feet

Will a 29r wheelset fit a 650b?
Short answer - no.
But you also don't need another bike. Just some more aggressive tires.

travbikeman

5 years ago, I used to continually change out tires on my hybrid bike depending on what trail I was going to ride. At time I liked tires with more traction for C&O and less traction for paved trails like the W&OD rail trail. After two years of doing this, I was fed up with it. I bought a second set of wheels to quickly swap out wheel and tires and am much happier on that.

But adding 29 inch wheels to a 650B bike, I"m going to agree with Happy Feet, although I've heard of bikes going down to 650b from 29 inch, not positive you can do that the other way around.


Oh and FYI, N+1 is a great formula!

sean.hwy

How come?

That's a wide 47 tire with lots of room to go bigger. The inner frame is just slightly over 2 3/8 inches or about 60mm.

This is my commuter bike. I would like to use road tires 90% of the time riding to and from work. Then have another wheels/tire combo I could throw for the weekends.

sean.hwy

Do I not have enough room? I am not sold on 29 inch rims it just happen to be cheap on amazon and came with tires.

Happy Feet

I'm assuming you want to keep the 650b wheelset for commuting, as otherwise you will need to buy two sets of new tires instead of one (offsetting the cheap aspect of the search). In that case, even if you could squeeze a 29r rim in you would be limited to narrower tires for it. If your goal is off road, mtbing, you want the wide option going with a 650b wheelset will allow.

A 650b x 45 has a circumference of 2117.43mm
The match for that in 29r/700c is 29 x 26

That's a very narrow road tire. You still have some room it looks like but not so much that you can fit a decent sized mtb tire in.

Here's a calculator https://www.bikecalc.com/wheel_size_math

In the left column, look for the tire size you have now. Then go across to the far right column and see the circumference.
Now look at the rim size you want and try to match the circumference, that will show you the tire size.

Or, look at a 29r mtb tire size 2.20 is not bad. That has a circumference of 2305.18
The closest 650b tire size is 3" (2313.47).
Will your current bike fit a 3" tire?
If not, it won't fit a 29r 2.20 mtb tire either.

sean.hwy

I was commuting to work everyday when it was not raining before the WFH/lock down started. I am happy with the wheels/tires for that and would like to keep them.

I just wanted another wheel/tire set to do some trails like I posted above.

I will skip the 29 inch wheel combo and see if I can find an affordable 650b set up. When it too expensive it's like just a little bit more money you can buy a decent mountain bike.

Thanks Happy Feet and travbikeman for saving me from buying wheels that would not fit my bike.

Happy Feet

I have the same problem with wanting a second wheelset for my fatbike.
There are no off the shelf 29r wheelsets that fit my 26" Fatboy spacing so I need to get a custom wheelset.
Costs as much as a half way decent used FS 29r mtb.

But, think of it this way. You have a nice bike, an investment in a second wheelset means it becomes very useful and saves some space, if that matters.

I want the second wheelset for my FB because i have way too many bikes as it is. My long term goal is to create three bikes to cover most everything:

Hardtail fatbike with 26 and 29r wheelsets
All roads bike with gravel and road wheelsets
FG.

travbikeman

Just doing a quick google search, found this set on clearance for $160 just for the wheels:

https://www.levelninesports.com/sun-...xoC0wYQAvD_BwE

travbikeman

Ebay has some nice wheels as well:

https://www.ebay.com/i/111875879522?...RoCLGIQAvD_BwE

Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/CyclingDeal-M...ds&sr=1-8&th=1

SilverRubicon

I think a set of WTB Ventures would be a better solution. They work well on pavement as well as that trail which I would consider "gravel".

https://www.wtb.com/collections/grav...oducts/venture

sean.hwy

loving the links and suggestion. I am clueless to bikes. Have not owned a bike since 1992 ish.

Thanks for the links I will go through them today.

sean.hwy

Someone sent me this link. I will not be riding the mud anymore.
https://christysports.com/theridgere...on-wet-trails/

alo

I would get another bike. There can be parts fail other than the tires or wheels. When they do, just get on the other bike. You may also have the other bike set up differently, for different uses.

Sertsa

I'm not the OP, but if you and the OP don't mind the question, are you still swapping the cassette and disc brakes when changing wheels? I'm getting a mountain bike (hopefully it'll come in today) and have been thinking about an extra set of tires for a paved rail trail. I also looked at a set of wheels, but it looked like changing over the cassette and brake was at least as involved as changing tires.

travbikeman

No, I bought an extra cassette and disc rotor for the new wheel set. My hybrid that I do this on is only a 9 speed. So when I buy things like this, it's usually during winter when it's less expensive and on sales. So an additional 9 speed cassette, the Shimano HG400 was only $22 and a decent disc rotor was about $15. That way I don't continually have to change those as well.

Sertsa

Thanks. That's a lot less expensive than what I was thinking/pricing at.

sean.hwy

f-it. I am going to just buy a mountain bike. After I figure how to get my bike there. I swapped my miata with my friends 2013 rav4. Damn that thing can move and handle really well. I was thinking about getting an fj/4runner/tacoma but I might have to reconsider and get 2006 / 2013 used rav4 with a v6.

A few days ago I took my commuter bike up in the hills
see first post.

It was wet some no one was around really. I road by myself. I had lots of fun.

I go back today and it's mostly dry and saw lots of people on dedicated mountain bikes. Now I can see what a huge difference between gearing an traction makes.

I had my bike in first gear standing up using the bar ends working hard! Everyone else was just sitting down pedaling up at high cadence with lots of traction and great gearing. ha-ha

The gearing and traction of true mountain bike vs my commuter bike with 1 x 9 gears and road tires was night and day different. Even it I put good tires on and I change my cassette
with better gearing I would still need to change the front sprocket also. I would probably have two different chain size also. What PITA.

sean.hwy

looked at the gearing on my bike and a mountain bike Trance 2.

luismboc

How about simply buying a new set of tires that with a proper off-road tread...a bit bumpier on your commute, but also good extra work-out.

sean.hwy

My bike I can put on about 2 inch tires which would help a lot. My bike has only chainring which is a 40. I would have to chain the chainring an cassette to get the proper gearing for the really steep hills. I was the only one doing the hills with my gearing and tires. Everyone else had tiny little gears and just went up the hill spinning the pedals while sitting down. I had to stand and pull really hard. There's just to many things I need to change on the bike. It's great for beating around town.

Happy Feet

This is the reality of generalization vs specialization and why bikes get split into ever increasing sub genres.

For each activity there is an optimum set up. Those mtb's are geared lower true but they cannot travel as fast on a road as your commuter probably and would be more uncomfortable to ride over distance. A dedicated road bike would be faster than your commuter but less durable or able to carry supplies etc...

It's a bit of a rabbit hole if you really like a lot of different genres. I have a FG, an endurance road bike, a commuter, an mtb, a fatbike and several vintage bikes plus a project bamboo bike...

In the last few years some interesting flexs have become possible. The first flex was the locking fork (and now rear shocks) that allowed suspension for mtb and rigid for travel. An all roads or gravel type bike can now fit both road tires and gravel tires, allowing one bike to serve both duties reasonably well. A plus bike, or a fatbike can fit 3-4" tires on one wheelset and narrower 29r wheels on another.

But even in the mtb genre you are going to find specialization from XC, trail, enduro to DH. The more you get into it, the more those differences seem to matter. Or you remain a generalist and try to have a couple of bikes that do most things reasonably well, but not always optimally.

sean.hwy

I probably could have got away with it a little more if I my commuter bike redux 2 had two chainrings instead of one. The frame still would have been a compromise. It's only wide enough for 2 inch wide tires. Seems like most off road tires are 2.2.

1990 mtn bike
1990 ish to 12/24/2019 no bikes

xmas 2019 redux 2 ( commuter bike )
mar 2020 systemsix ( road bike )
??? 2020 mountain bike ( ha-ha )