Yup, and you typically gain room for fenders on a bike that doesn’t have room over decently fat 27”/700C’s. I use short reach calipers with 700’s (pads at the bottom of the slots), and Tektro 556 calipers (early version of the 559’s now available) with 650’s.

The 650Bx38’s on my Marinoni, installed for about 1,000 miles so far this year, are noticeably more comfortable on Seattle’s crappy pavement and just a touch more “relaxed” feeling compared to the 700x32’s also used in this bike. Here’s the 650B setup without the fenders for best visual comparison:
https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...-8wbQpM3-L.jpg

And with 700x32’s:
https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...-QcggPxm-L.jpg

That's it!

Thank you !

And now you're selling it on eBay?

Yes, I am. I've decided to move it on.

It's a gorgeous bike. GLWS.

Love the build and the color scheme. The all silver with the tan walls and the dark leather bits...unreal!

You weren't asking me, but I also have this fork and wanted to add to what @amedias said. Very nice fork, build quality seems great, looks excellent in person, rides nicely.

The only thing I really don't get is the bottom of the crown / steerer area. The steerer comes down quite a bit under the bottom of the crown which leaves very little room for a fender and decent sized tires. I'm currently running a 35c tire without fenders and there is about 4mm of gap between the bottom of the crown/steerer. I doubt I could run a 32c tires with a fender...or it would be super tight.

Still a great fork for the price (even though they raised it this year by ~$30)

I really appreciate going color-coded with the stem and seatpost on a vintage bike. That sort of aesthetic has been fairly exclusive to modern carbon bikes and apart from a dark/black anodized seatpost and stem on a black vintage bike (or some crazy custom painted custom or Italian bike), this has been absent the vintage bike scene. Not that rocking silver componentry is bad, since so much of it is beautiful, but sneaking in some modernity gives us the chance to evaluate things. The black headset is a good choice, IMO. And as always, a modern groupset, certainly in silver, looks great on this bike.

@branko_76, as I think you know, the bead seat diameter (BSD) of a rim and tire does not have leeway. Your tire's BSD must match your rim's BSD.

Switching from 700c or 27" wheels to 650b can often get you wheels whose outside diameters (including the inflated tire) are very close to original. Sometimes the handling changes a bit, and sometimes it doesn't. In the case of my conversion, my outer diameter is slightly less, so my bike stands a little closer to the ground. But having wide tires at low pressure is a pleasure. It added a bit of weight, but I don't mind. I think I've figured out the handling weirdness. It tends to oversteer, i.e. it pulls the bike in the direction I'm turning a bit harder than I expect. And the solution is to figure out the ideal pressure for the front tire. I'm experimenting with that now.

Sneaking in another image of the Fuji S12S, might inspire someone to convert one of these as it will take 42mm with fenders and enough room to spare. I might have it stripped down and have canti as well as rack mounts brazed in place but the bike is fine as is though a nice paint job and new decals would be welcome it is a pleasant daily rider.


I disabled the Campy ergo shifters and went with traditional down tube mounted Suntour Power Shift and looking into a pair of Origin8 brake levers.



https://i.imgur.com/IQ2shyuh.jpg

That looks every bit as nice as the Trek "Frek" bike, very well suited to the 650B conversion. Nice job! I need to get started on my Motobecane Grand Tourer 650B project soon: Gold frame with black accents, black V.O. Zeppelin fenders, black SOMA Oxford handlebar (mounted upside-down, natch), black Brooks Professional saddle, and black drillium V.O. double crankset. Not sure about the rest of the drivetrain yet, or the grips, so TBD. When it built itself in my mind it looked stunning! I hope the reality lives up to the vision.
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I've heard that
28=29er=622
650b=27.5=584

So... It means that

• 27" is larger than 27.5" by 46mm?
• 27" is larger than 28" by 8mm?

Am I getting this right?
🤦🏻😂


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Yup, that’s right. And to add to the confusion:

26” = 559mm
26” = 650A = EA3 = 590mm
26” = EA1 = 597mm

Sequoia 650b Dinner Cruise
 

Took Sequoia out on a dinner cruise last night - Taco Tuesday at the Mississippi Pub. I'm including both color and B&W images here, because they both turned out very nice.

Coming:

https://i.imgur.com/N3fHrt1.png

https://i.imgur.com/Rzzngdo.png

Going:

https://i.imgur.com/relfSDz.png

https://i.imgur.com/T2DJjpX.png

... and the tacos were excellent too.
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