650B wheeled bicycles :

650B wheeled bicycles

What is 650B?

650B is an old tire size designation for what is known today as 584mm ETRO - a currently obscure size, at least in North America, that has been used in the past on some of the finest bicycles. 584mm sits nicely between the standard road bike wheel size - 622mm ETRO (i.e. 700c) - and the standard for off road bikes - 559mm ETRO (i.e. 26"). The tires currently available in the United States range from about 30mm wide to 38mm wide, though there are other sizes available in Europe. For more detailed information on tire sizing in general please see Sheldon Brown's article on the subject.

Why would someone devote a website to an obscure tire size?

As mentioned above the 650B size slots in nearly midway between the two most common size available in the US market. 700c wheels are big enough that they require geometry compromises when building small frames. Likely anything less than 54cm requires the frame designer to tweak the design soley because of the wheel size. 26" wheels are useful for building smaller bikes without the compromises but they can look out of place on larger frames and there is a bit of a stigma attached to the size by dedicated road bicyclists - it is now considered a "mountain bike" tire size. Not that you can't make a very nice road bike with 26" wheels! The webmaster's Mariposa was designed around 26x1.5" tires and it's a wonderful bike but if a 650B renaissance had occured before it was ordered it would have been riding on these slightly larger wheels.

650B exists in the middle-ground. It's possible to build uncompromised designs down to maybe 50cm or slightly less and bikes using 650B wheels will look "normal" up to at least 61cm. The tires that are most available are wider and cushier than the majority of tires available in 700c, while being narrower and more road oriented than most of thse available in 26". Ed Braley, a long time rider who has recently converted to 650B wheels had this to say:

In any discussion that you are likely to have with anyone who has either experienced 650B, or fully understands the implications purely from a theoretical point of view, the only downside is availability. That's it: availability. Make them available to people, and everyone breaths a deep sigh of relief and makes plans to go about building or designing bikesaround them.

To paraphrase a famous character: They're not too big. They're not too small. They're just right.

So why aren't they in wider use?

Well, actually they are - just not in all places. In Sweden they are widely used - there are probably millions of bikes running on 650B wheels there. In France they used to be very widely used but are less so today - though there are still many bikes rolling through the citites and towns of France on 650B wheels.

In North America, though, they've never been particularly common. The utility bikes that run on 650B in Sweden aren't common in a such a spread out region. Bicycle touring only became a widespread recreation in the United States around the time of the mid-70's "bike boom" - which brought thousands of racing style bikes to the country. Some of these bikes were designed as purpose built touring bikes but few of these were of the traditional French camping style, which was a bastion of the 650B size in France.

Goals

The goals of this website are simply to provide information about:

650B's possible advantages for people considering a new bike.
The possibilities inherent in 650B for changing the character of a bike that was built for 700c wheels.
Some of the fine 650B based bicycles that have been built over the years.
Companies that are supplying bicycles and parts for 650B wheeled bicycles.

Please feel free to contact me with any suggestions, comments or corrections regarding this wesite.