Originally Posted by
elcruxio
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what I'd like to see more is 650b touring frames and more importantly 650b touring tires. As it is it's a bit of a niche so not a lot of good tires out there either in absolute numbers or in terms of options. Going 26" is one option but for larger frame sizes that'd mean amazingly long headtubes. If the fork in use then doesn't have a super beefy steerer tube it means the front end is going to be flexy and that's not fun with high loads.
It is a challenge to be sure.
Two of my three touring bikes have 26 inch tires. Quite happy with those bikes. No toe overlap with fenders. I started to attach photos to elaborate on my thoughts but did not want to hijack a thread that is dedicated to a different model bike, thus did not. One has a very long head tube, the other does not but that one has a frame designed for either the rigid fork that came with it or a 100mm suspension fork, so lower headset bearing is quite high above the tire on that one. Both have long chainstays at 450 and 466mm, but they are touring bikes so they should be long.