650B wheeled bicycles :

650B wheeled bicycles

What is the 650B Pacer Project?

It's a concept put together by Tim Rangitsch of ACME Bicycles in Rapid City, South Dakota. Take a Surly Pacer frame/fork and use it to build a good quality, reasonably inexpensive, 650B bicycle from current production parts. Nothing on the bike is particularly esoteric - at least if you don't count the 650B wheels! It's mostly built from parts supplied by Quality Bicycle Parts (frequently known as QBP or Quality) - a supplier for many of the bike shops in the United States. The rims, tires and tubes would come from Rivendell. Using the parts spec shown below Tim thinks the bike should retail for $1200 to $1300 in just about any shop that deals with QBP.

Isn't this just a 700c conversion?

Sort of. The difference here is that a shop is putting together the parts spec and doing the build up. No research. No surprises. No effort involved for the new owner.

The conversions to date have largely been carried out by passionate bicyclists. This is a good group to start something like this but it is also a limited audience. Tim's idea is to make what amounts to a commodity 650B bicycle. To the targetted end user the tire size is irrelevant beyond what it adds to riding experience. They don't have to have a passion for the size - as long as they enjoy riding and their roads are less than stellar they'll appreciate the cushy wheels everytime they ride. Frost heaves, expansion joints, pavement rippled by roots - the 650B wheels can soak these up with aplomb while still feeling light and zippy.

Better still, using QBP's bicycle program any dealer can have an almost completely assembled 650B bike shipped to them - QBP will put the parts that they stock on the frame at a very low labor rate. If QBP can find a way to stock 650B wheel components the bike would be shipped to the dealer in almost the exact same form that a stock bike would arrive in from on of the major brands. It won't be a Saluki but it will be available essentially on demand rather than having to wait for another run of frames if someone is more interested getting the 650B advantages than in having a beautiful lugged frame.

The Parts Specification

This is the parts spec that Tim currently envisions:

Surly Pacer frame and fork
DiaCompe STS Aheadset with lots of spacers (full length steerer!)
Dimension 8 degree flip/flop Ahead stem for 26.0 bars
Salsa Moto Ace bars
Kalloy seatpost
Planet Bike saddle
no-name cork tape
Sugino XD300 cranks
Shimano UN40 bottom bracket
Shimano Tiagra triple derailers f & r
9speed Shimano Bar Con shifters
Tektro 810A sidepulls (61-78mm reach)
Tektro R200 brake levers (built in QRs)
Tiagra or Deore level 9spd cassette
SRAM 950 chain
105 hubs/velocity rims/straight guage spokes, CdV tires and tubes (all sourced from Rivendell)

The Basic QBP Version

This is a 58cm Pacer frame & fork built up with minimal parts from other suppliers: rims, tires & front hub from Rivendell, with Shimano levers as QBP was out of the Tektros. Tim expects this to retail at about $1300 for the full bike.

The Deluxe Pacer Project Build

Same frame & fork (though the pictures are of a 62cm version), but Nitto bars, stem & seatpos, Tektro levers, Sugino XD600 cranks, 105 derailleurs, Dura-Ace barcons, and more. Tim's estimate is about $1850 for the complete bike. Still a heck of a good deal for a nice riding, good looking country bike!