650b Road bike

[iLB]

HI all,

I'm giving some serious thought to adding another bike to the stable, and have had my eye caught by the 650b area of the market.

I already have an all out road bike, and an all out touring bike - so I'm looking for something that sits in between the two. More versatile than a road bike, and more fun to ride than my tourer with it's handling reminiscent of a barge.

In particular I'm considering the latest offering from Pinnacle :

Has anyone snapped one up already - or otherwise have any strong opinions on this genre of bike? Design fad or utter brilliance?

Cheers,

A

 

[Trickedem]

I might be biased, because my son is the Product Manager, but I have to say this is a great bike. Very versatile, comfy and great looking. Handles great too.

 

[StuAff]

For those crazy people who insist that they only need one bike, that bike should be a gravel bike. I may have mentioned my Litespeed and how much I like it several thousand times…mine has 700Cs but most definitely not a barge (rather more speedboat).
Pretty much any gravel frame will take 650B wheels even if they're not specifically designed for them. Litespeed are doing both 650B and 700C builds of their current gravel models, but back in 2015 a dealer built a T5G (same as mine) up with 650Bs.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

I have very strong opinions of the genre. Genius.

 

[iLB]

I have very strong opinions of the genre. Genius.

Do you have one Greg?

 

[Randomnerd]

I’ve been riding 650b bikes for a few years. Now run a 650b adventure tourer alongside a 700c road bike / CX. 650 is comfier, as fast on twice-as-wide tyres, with nice long trail geometry. Saving up to get a 650b fast road bike built once I’ve worn out the 700.

 

[Cycloslalomeur]

Given that my London Road needs a hub dynamo to power the Edelux II that Santa brought, I was thinking of jumping on this groad/road plus bandwagon as well. Does anyone have any experience of squeezing 47-584mm tyres into (or under or somewhere near) mudguards? I´m thinking of WTB Horizons and the widest Gilles Berthouds, which I realise will be too narrow, officially speaking. But what about the arc, should I go for the 650b or 700c version given the fatness of the tyre?

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Do you have one Greg?

Sadly missing from the current stable, though some of the OTS options like the Pinnacle do cause my wallet to flutter. Back when they weren't cool, fashionable, nor available off-the-shelf, and the tyres were in relatively short supply I built a couple inspired by St Sheldon's ramblings on the subject. Most comfortable dry weather off-tarmac bikes I've ever ridden and no slouches once on tarmac.

EDIT: And with the advent of discs converting is so.much.easier.

 

[iLB]

Hopefully @Trickedem will be along shortly with info on his choice of guards

 

[iLB]

I’ve been riding 650b bikes for a few years. Now run a 650b adventure tourer alongside a 700c road bike / CX. 650 is comfier, as fast on twice-as-wide tyres, with nice long trail geometry. Saving up to get a 650b fast road bike built once I’ve worn out the 700.

Very interesting. What kind of riding do you do ?

I'm wondering if this would be suitable for doing rides like LEL and PBP in reasonably quick time. Or if the extra rolling weight of the tyre is too much of a penalty speed wise.

If it proved to be fast enough and comfortable enough I'd even scale that up to a TransAm or Tour Divide type ride.

If it's such a winning combo why didn't Mark Beaumont run 650b's last year?

 

[John_S]

Hi iLB,

That Pinnacle is a nice looking bike and how much does it cost?

Following your message I also found woodenspoons message above really interesting and a bike with 650b wheels is definitely on my radar as well.

If you do buy the Pinnacle I'll look forward to hearing all about it!

If you're still looking and comparing against some other bikes here are some others which could potentially be considered against the Pinnacle but I don't know how much that costs to know whether they're in a comparable price bracket or not.

One of the Kona Rove models:-
http://road.cc/content/tech-news/22...rove-adventure-bike-choice-steel-or-aluminium

Some of the Bombtrack Hook models come with 650b :-
http://bombtrack.com/cx-and-gravel/

Chumba Terlingua (if you can get it over here):-
http://www.bikepacking.com/news/chumba-terlingua/
http://theradavist.com/2017/11/chumbas-made-in-texas-terlingua-all-road-bike/

The Kinesis Tripster AT (which had design input from Mike Hall) is compatible with 650b :-
http://road.cc/content/review/226602-kinesis-tripster-frameset-2017
https://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/kinesis-tripster-at-mike-halls-legacy-bike-50050/

I also just think that the Fairlight Faran looks like a loverly bike and I don't know if it's available with 650b wheels as standard but with Fairlight I think that there is a degree of customisable options available and so speccing 650b wheels might be a possibility if you contacted them :-
https://fairlightcycles.com/faran/?v=79cba1185463

John

 

[iLB]

So the Pinnacle is only specced with Sora, but comes in at an impressive £950. @John_S

 

[Randomnerd]

Very interesting. What kind of riding do you do ?

Solo camping touring av. 100km per day; fast two-day rides with a Thermos, a meat pie and a Bivi bag/hammock av. 130km per day; slow, bimbleur style day rides dawn till dusk av. 140km.
Had a fork made with plenty of offset for my favourite old Diamondback Ascent and rode that for many years as a tourer with Panaracer 35mm slicks on Araya rims.
Of late been spoiled with a hand built low trail tourer / off-road frame running 30-50mm tyres depending on load.
Don’t know if I’d run more than 35mm tyre for fast rolling unless I was carrying some gear. Jan Heine would have you believe there’s advantage in wider, but I think it depends on the rider. I grind out the miles uphill and like very comfy and reliable descents with weight out front, which is where 650b reigns.
Don’t know about Beaumont’s choices. Was he sponsored?

 

[John_S]

£950 for what it is seems a pretty reasonable price and probably more competitive than quite a few alternatives out there.

 

[Trickedem]

So the Pinnacle is only specced with Sora, but comes in at an impressive £950. @John_S

I was impressed with the Sora groupset. Shifters seem as good as the 105s I'm used to.