abshipp 

Speaking of one color powder for rider frames with rough paint...

mountaindave 

Hmmmm, early 720?

abshipp 

1981 710.

650b located canti posts and an aftermarket fork from a Velo Orange Polyvalent MKIII

I also had two more sets of bottle bosses added as well as downtube shifter bosses.

Should be ready to ride tomorrow

bikemig 

Yeah but what about all the cool stereo gear in pic? Inquiring minds would like to know . . .

mountaindave 

Nice!!! Can’t wait to see the build!

DQRider 

Another thread that is new to me. And timely, since I have two 650b conversions in-process at the moment. One of them is a `78 Motobecane Grand Touring, and the other is a Trek (531) 400 Elance, not sure which year. I've done one already, and it has featured here in a few threads. But here are a couple images I don't think I published:





This bike, with its comfy Col de la Vie tires, is a real mile-eater. When the day calls for a long ride, I usually reach for my Sequoia.

.

abshipp 

Nothing special, really. Some cheap-ish Sanyo receiver, an Audio-Technica LP120 turntable, a thrift store cassette deck, and some 8" two way speakers. It sounds good enough for me though I really need to raise those speakers up about a foot or two, though.

abshipp 

Done

nlerner

^ Very nice! Ready to rando!

gomango

Looks great.

How much gear can you haul in the front bag w/o it screwing up the handling?

Also, what are your thoughts on lighting for the bike?

Any plans?

abshipp 

That's the plan!

I've put a 6-pack in there before and nothing gets weird. I do have a 63mm offset fork on there, and with the 73.5° head angle I have around 33mm of trail. So this is absolutely a low trail bike and should handle front loads very well.

I currently have battery lights, I just didn't include them in the picture. I think I might go with a dynamo hub on the next wheelset for this. I've got a pair of Velocity A23 rims that I plan on running on this bike.

TenGrainBread 

abshipp are those Nitto bars? Which model?

abshipp 

Yep!

44cm B135

inkandsilver

Looks fantastic abshipp!! And I am confident it rides that way too.

mountaindave 

Dang! That is one sweet looking ride!! My wife’s and my 710’s haven’t been so heavily modified, but are set up Rando-style as well. Some off the best tidings bikes we have!

Post up over in the “show your Trek” thread too!

scarlson 

abshipp what front rack and bag are those?

natterberry 

Thanks Miguel! One of the upcoming changes is on your recommendation - a SR Apex 86bcd crank.

Thanks jlaw! I’m actually back to a non three pulley cyclone. I don’t need the extended range where I live, I’ve changed my crank setup a bit.

abshipp 

That is the Nitto rack made for the now defunct Granary Bicycles.

Bag is a large Swift Ozette from the discontinued "Cascade" collection. They had been blowing these out for a while, but I guess they finally sold out of them.

The bag color was actually the reason this bike is now silver. I didn't like how the green and the original blue looked, and it ended up being much more economical to change the bike color instead of finding a new bag

scarlson 

Thanks. Are those racks still available anywhere? I like that the platform is a little bigger than your average Nitto thing. I have a similar Trek 650b project going, and I'm hung up on the rack situation right now. I have a Berthoud bag for recreational rides, but it's not big enough for commuting with a salad jar and a laptop. I was going to TIG weld a rack with some sort of modular system with a porteur platform or basket that bolts on, but that's a lot of work. Your system looks great for both commuting and riding recreationally, and would not require any fabrication.

abshipp 

I looked around a bit, and didn't find any for sale. I did measure the dimensions, and the overall platform dimensions are 4"x 9". It actually looks like the Nitto M12 is fairly close in size at 8.5" x 4.25".

This Swift Industries bag is huge. Definitely bigger than I need, but it's the size that works best aesthetically.

LeicaLad 

That's a real beauty. I'm curious how it handles on corners. That bottom bracket looks really low.

Always a key concern in 650B modifications.

: -)

bulgie 

I might quibble with "always". If you convert from 700c x 23 mm tires to 650b x 42 mm, the bottom bracket height stays exactly the same. Well OK the wider tires will be used at lower pressure so there's more squish. But almost any bike can stand to be lowered by that much.

On my recent '50s Follis conversion I did just that, except it was made for road racing tubulars, prolly more like 21 or 22 mm. But then I put 180 mm cranks on it, and wide Lyotard 460 pedals which do not have a cutaway underside for cornering clearance. Still haven't caught a pedal yet.

Reminds me of this interview I saw with Greg Lemond. He said he favored a bike with a low bottom bracket, and someone asked him "but what about when you pedal through corners?"
He replied "Why would you pedal through a corner?" This is a guy who won way more than his share of criteriums. If you're not racing, then pedaling through a high speed corner is inept.

The only practical downside to the lower BB is scraping your toke lips if you pedal a stroke or two before flipping the pedal and getting into the clips. So (1) don't do that! Get into the clips before pedaling even one circle -- not difficult. Or (2) use clipless pedals, problem solved.

Mark B in Seattle

gugie 

+1

It's often mentioned as the first thing to check, but I've only had one (1) bike that had a smidgen of an issue with low BB height. The pedals would scrape when I rode in the speedbump cutout through an apartment parking lot shortcut on my commute home. The bumps were a bit high, I just learned to keep the pedals horizontal when riding through there.

Rarely an issue.

abshipp 

Yeah, basically I don't pedal through corners

I can drag my heel if I try to even on level ground, so yes, the BB is quite low. But for the style of riding that this bike inspires that's really not an issue.

jlaw

Agreed! I have read about pedal strike many times on BF and never said anything about my own experience of going from 700 x 42 tires on my Spec. AWOL to 26 x 2.3. As you can see from the huge fender clearance in the photo I clearly lowered the bike quite a bit - the original 700 x 42 tires had about 3/4" clearance.

I haven't had a pedal strike yet. Using SPD pedals and not pedaling through corners is probably why.