Originally Posted by
big john
The lady with the Moots is about 4'10", I think. She quit riding to run a restaurant which surprised everyone. She said she would have preferred 700C wheels because of more choices of tires and wheels and the weird gearing caused by 650.
She was reasonably fast on climbs and could tuck in behind anyone on the flats but it was on twisty descents where she could really fly. The joke was if you tried to draft her all you would feel was a little less wind on your legs.
I have occasionally seen truly amazing deals on tires, only to discover they were 650s.
It is a bit of a self-perpetuating phenomenon, of course - nobody buys bike with 650s because there aren't enough tire choices, the gearing is weird, etc, so nobody bothers to make tires or rational gears because nobody buys bikes with 650s.