I was thinking recently about a situation where long reach sidepulls won't reach 650b wheels on an old 27" frame, but are at about minimum adjustment with 700c wheels, and suddenly thought ... what about that screwy 590mm wheel size? And the more I thought about it, the more it seemed to make at least some sense.
My only experience with 590s to date is *cutting* off a 590 tire that appeared to have been forced with screwdrivers onto a 597mm rim. That was one of my odder bicycle experiences, for sure!
A search on 590s turned up predictably little, but I did find this nice Rivendell Saluki with 590mm Sun CR18 rims laced to Phil hubs:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/emptyb...n/photostream/ ... and also this blog entry about trying 590s on a 700c Soma San Marcos:
https://somafab.blogspot.com/2013/03...an-marcos.html
So at least I'm not completely crazy to have thought of it - or rather, I'm not the only crazy one? Choices for parts availability are limited (Panaracer Col de la Vie and Sun CR18 rims seem especially to be unobtanium at the moment), but I found some eBay sellers offering 590/650a complete wheels (albeit with nutted axles) for very cheap, and also a NOS lot of six name brand Japanese 650a rims for sale. Current 650a tire choices on Amazon include Schwalbe Marathons and Delta Cruisers. (Come to think of it, it was the size lists at the Schwalbe website that probably got my brain started thinking this way!)
Anyone here running 590s, possibly even on a 27" or 700c frame? I'd imagine it's more common to take a 26x1-3/8 bike and swap to a more popular wheel size, but still.