(Note: click on the picture of the bike to enlarge.)
I've had a few rides now on the orange bike, it's a lot of fun. I'm still fiddling around with the setup, and for now I've left the fork uncut because once it's cut, you can't go back.
The main thing bothering me at this point is that I am getting a bit of ghost shifting, probably due to using friction shifters with an 8 speed cassette.
The orange bike uses "650B" wheels which are somewhat smaller than a road bike (700C), yet about an inch larger (at the rim) in diameter than a mountain bike. As I explain below, I wanted slightly smaller wheels than the standard 700C, and it was a bit of a toss up for me to go with 650B versus mountain bike wheels. I think if I had a shorter torso, or liked wider tires (say 1.5" or even 1.75" in width), I might have picked the mountain bike wheel size. But I wanted to use narrower 1 1/4" width tires, and from what I've read narrower tires work better with slightly larger diameter wheels since they have a longer "contact patch" with the ground. Basically that says that 650B is a nice in-between size.
The 650B size was quite rare in the USA, although some similar sizes were common on the old "3 speeds" by Raleigh (650A), and yet another slightly different size was used on the 3 speed Schwinns of my youth. The 650B revival in the USA owes much to the efforts of Rivendell Bicycle Works to make rims and tires readily available, and they were the first to introduce non-custom bikes with the 650B wheelsize. The Riv 650B models (Saluki, Bleriot) are intended as "country bikes" that move easily from smooth roads to gravel or dirt.
I'm aware of two other small companies that have embraced the 650B wheelsize for production bikes: Kogswell and Rawland. While these production 650B models have their differences, they all have longer chainstays and different steering than a typical road bike. And while I only had a brief ride on a Rivendell Bleriot, my experience with 700C bikes leads me to generalize that a longer wheelbase and slower steering makes a bike feel more sedate, if not actually slower.
For the kind of riding I do (mostly smooth roads), 700C wheels with say 28 mm width tires work well. But for slightly wider tires and/or fenders, and if I want good clearance to avoid hitting the front wheel with my foot, then a smaller size wheel makes sense.
So I wanted to create a 650B bike that would use the relatively narrow Grand Bois tires and feel quick and agile like a sporty road bicycle. I'm going to continue test riding, but so far I think the orange bike has met its design goals. As I've noted, the idea of a "go-fast" 650B bike isn't an original idea, but to my knowledge no one has attempted to "standardize" the concept and make such a bike more widely available.
I plan to mount the fenders soon and get more pictures up in a few weeks.
