krems81 

oh my. how'd you paint the fenders? something about the simple beauty of this one just got me, even more than some of the flashier bikes posted on here so often. i had to catch my breath. thanks for sharing.

Edit: looks like the photos don't show in the quotation. See the very first post of the thread for reference.

krems81 

The prelude was a step or two up from the le tour in the schwinn lineup. I have an 86' prelude here that has 700c weinmann double walls stock, and I imagine the Le Tour of that era had 27' single wall araya rims.

soma2x

cs1,
I suppose 1mm is cutting it pretty close. I'm also not so sure that most 27" bikes would use short reach brakes anyway. I think short reach brakes got popular along with 700c wheels. I'm just saying it depends on the existing brake.

nlerner

I finally had a chance to test ride and take some pics of my PX-10 650B conversion. It sports Grand Bois Hetre 42mm tires, Rigida 650B rims and Campy NR hubs, Stronglight 99 crankset w/ 45-32 rings, 14-28t SunTour 5-speed rear cluster, Shimano Crane RD and Dura Ace FD, SunTour bar-end shifters w/ Campy hoods, Dia Compe 750 brakes (I needed 710mm reach) w/ Kool Stop Continental pads, Lyotard Berthet pedals w/ Christophe toe clips and V-O sew-your-own leathers, AVA stem, Belleri bars and Mafac levers, Nashbar cork tape w/ lots of shellac, original Simplex seatpost and Ideale 90 saddle. I have a set of hammered alloy fenders, an eBay find from Belgium, but haven't had time to fit them. One advantage of converting this frame is that it's a tad too large for me, so lowering it makes it work fine. A smooth rider so far.

Neal

fender1

Neal,

The Pug looks great! I am really interested to here your impressions of those tires. They look to be the same size as a set of Conti Town & Country tries I picked up recently for a mountain bike project. What is the max PSI on them?

nlerner

Thanks, Brian. I'm running those tires around 50 psi, which feels right (I had that wheelset on another bike that was one of my commuters all fall). At first, I was running them too hard, which made me really doubt the many folks extolling their virtues, but after some break in and loss of some psi, they felt much better. My test ride on the PX10 felt very good--rolls over everything without feeling draggy. There are bike builders designing bikes around those particular tires, so something good must be going on.

Neal

NormanF

Yep. It can lower the standover height of a larger making it safely usable by a smaller rider. Looks
like a cool set of original parts on your PX-10. If you decide to turn it into a porteur/ranonneur bike
it would look awesome! I'm saving the Grand Bois Hetre 42mm tires for an MTB. I'm running Panaracer
Col De La Vie on mine because it seems to look more or less correct for a 650B commuter.

nlerner

I have a 2007 Kogswell, which I've set up as my dedicated porteur: Col de la vie tires, albatross bars and bar-end shifters, cheap Nashbar front rack and a basket zip tied to it. I'll likely get the Kogswell porteur rack when it eventually/hopefully gets produced. I also use it to haul my trailer for large grocery store runs. The PX-10 will be for longer rides.

Neal

murphjam

Looks cool! What is the BB height after the conversion? Most of the older bikes that I've considered for conversion have had a very high bb to start with.

nlerner

It's at the pushing-it range: about 25.4cm. I'd probably be better off with 165mm crankarms, but I used what I had, and in my initial ride, I didn't have any pedal strike problems or feel like the BB was too low. Guess I'm not going to be using this one for mountain biking!

Neal

Grand Bois

I like it, in spite of the bizarre bar angle.

kroozer 

Great bikes! It's got me thinking about doing a 650B conversion, too. But I have a couple questions:
1. Where do you get 650B rims in the US? Finding tires seems to be no problem, but a quick check on the internet turned up very little in the way of rims. CTA in Australia seems to offer the most choices (including the nice retro-style Glider), but shipping must be expensive. Other than that, about all I see is the Weinmann ZAC-19 at Velo-Orange. Where can you get Sun CR-18's?
2. What fender sizes are most compatible? Would fenders for 26" wheels work?

kpug505

You can order rims & tires here:
https://www.vintagebicyclepress.com/componentoffer.html

When I built my 650b bike I used a NOS set of Bluemels Airlite alloy fenders That were made for 26" wheels...

FlippingHades

Any bike shop should be able to order Velocity Synergy 650B rims for you. I have 3 650B wheelsets with them - very nice rims.

soma2x

I hear the Sun CR18s are slightly too big making it an absolute bear to put on tires. If you want a cheap set, a complete set of Velocity Twin Hollow wheels with straight guage spokes and Deore hubs can be had for less than $160, including shipping (check ebikestop). Yes, they're single-wall (gasp) and four ounces heavier per wheel than the Synergys (gasp again) but they seem really solid, they look good enough and they spin just fine.

nlerner

The Sun CR-18 rims are slightly over-sized. I've found that it's not too hard to mount tires on them, using a VAR tire jack, but the bigger struggle has been removing tires to change to a different pair. I've broken or bent several plastic and metal tire irons in that effort. But at least there's no worry about tires blowing off of those rims!

Neal

balindamood

The 650B project is just finished. The following pictures are after I got back from the test ride.











Statistics:

-1987 Bianchi Sport SX (double butted Tange mixed steel)...parts saved include the seat post, stem and headset.
-Hubs are NOS Deore DX (parts bin) front and new Ultegra rear.
-Velocity Synergy 32H rims laced 3X w/ Sapim 14/15/14 (rear is offset).
-Panaracer Col D' something-or-other tires.
-VO aluminum fenders.
-TA little front rack I accidently won on ebay. It has been sitting around for a while, so I threw it on. The rear rack is an old blackburn which was on the bike.
-DA 9-speed bar end shifters (12-23 cassette).
-105 rear derailuer and Suntour Cyclone M-II front, both from the parts bin.
-Suntour Alpha-5000 (Sugino) cranks came with the bike (52-40). It is now 48-38-26.
-Japanese campy knock-off quills (SR) with AFA clips from the parts bin.
-Brittish alloy randonneur bars from the co-op.
-Mafac 2000 centerpulls with Modolo Speedy levers and Diacomp quick-releases all from the parts bin.
-Brooks B17 from the parts bin.
-New groovy red bar tape and brake housing.
-Aluminum bell.

Things yet to come:

-Lights and cyclo computer

Seems to run pretty well. One of the reasons I got this bike is I wanted to do a 650B conversion, but I do not like the way many of the brakes look stretching way down to reach the rims. This bike would barely (within 1 MM on the front fork!!) take 700x28 tires, plus the crank drilled for a triple, so I thought it would make a good canidate (it also is my size). With the 584x40C tires, it barely clears the chainstays (< 3-5mm).

We'll run it back and forth to work next week and see how it does.

nlerner

Looks sweet! How did it feel on the test ride?

Neal

kbjack

Nice build!

(Sorry to nitpick, but is your bar tape on backward? ... With bar ends I find it works best to double wrap the very end of the bar--to avoid using tape--and then wrap up to the stem. Leaves a clean end and I don't have to worry about rolling back the edges of the wrap over time.)

balindamood

Yes and no. I learned to tape bars when the choices were cloth or celo, and you started at the stem. I know cork will not stand up to this (I have several examples as proof), but I just cannot get used to go the other way. Anyway, I found this retro pleather stuff which traditionally goes top down, but I guess could go either way.

I considered going center out with the bar ends (they are a real pain), but at the end, I just wanted to ride it. I want to ultimately do shellaced cloth, so I considered this a temporary...potentially long term...thing.

soma2x

I bought a Maruishi for $27 on eBay and decided it made for a better 650b than my Schwinn Tempo. I put the race wheels back on the Tempo as my designated road bike and turned the Maruishi into a 650b country bike. The frame was in fairly good shape but the components were old, steel and rusted. I stripped it and powder coated it a nice silver then built it up. It has Twin Hollow wheels, Sugino crankset, Deore rear derailleur, the original Suntour Spirt front derailleur that I salvaged, Wald Touring/North Road type bars and some cool see-through Odyssey BMX platforms. Here're the photos:

Sigurdd50

Well after more than two years of scouting out (used) parts for a 650B conversion, I fell into the wheel set and a suitable frame within the same week. Wanted to avoid forking out 2 bills on a a new set of built wheels (times is tough!)

have a bum knee, so I've done precious little test riding but ride is very nice.
Bike Still needs bar tape.
Also will use some down tube cable guides (Velo orange) and add bar end shifters. Currently the shifters are (temporarily) Waaaaaaaaaaay down the tube. Did not have access to any shift levers for braze on bosses.

Mid 80s Takara Medalist
Ishiwata 022 chromo tubes
Alesa Rims
(came with) Kenda 584-44 tires
Some scrounged Suntour front and rear Der's
6 speed cassette (will try to bump that to 7)
double crank (will need to lower the tooth count there)
Tektro R556 brakes and scrounged levers
Brooks saddle
Some rando bars from one of my bins
smooth ride that will get some nice fenders soon

soma2x

Sweet! Looks great.

Sigurdd50

Decided to go for an upright bar set up on my Takara.
So here it is almost done



Carradice bag (scored used right here at BF)


Velo Orange Porteur bars with el cheapo forged steel city brake levers and PB bar tape





(need to trim them fender stays)

cs1

I've also heard that the newest run fits fine. Anyone try them?