Has anybody 650'ed a Riv Road?

[Peter Bridge]

Has anybody on the list 650'ed one of the old Rivendell Road frames, the ones that take short brakes and that max out at 28c tires?  What was the outcome?  

~pb

[Cody Marvin]

I have one, a '95, that I bought recently and put a few miles on before taking it apart and sending it off for a repaint at Waterford. It had 650 x 38 Pari-Motos with Tektro 556s. My experience riding it has been limited so far, but it was a fun ride, no problems that I could see. I think the person who I bought it from, and who did the conversion, put a lot of miles on it with the 650b.

Cody in Chicago

On Tue, Mar 14, 2023 at 12:58 PM 'Peter Bridge' via RBW Owners Bunch <rbw-owne...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Has anybody on the list 650'ed one of the old Rivendell Road frames, the ones that take short brakes and that max out at 28c tires?  What was the outcome?  

~pb

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[Eric Norris]

My ’97 Riv Road came to me with 650B wheels. I ran 38mm tires on it, which were the widest that would fit between the chainstays.

It was fun, but about a year ago I switched it back to 700c wheels, which required different brakes (the long reach brakes needed to work with the 650B wheels didn’t work with 700c).

--Eric Norris
campyo...@me.com
Insta: @CampyOnlyGuy
YouTube: YouTube.com/CampyOnlyGuy 

On Mar 14, 2023, at 10:58 AM, 'Peter Bridge' via RBW Owners Bunch <rbw-owne...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Has anybody on the list 650'ed one of the old Rivendell Road frames, the ones that take short brakes and that max out at 28c tires?  What was the outcome?  

~pb

[Matt Beecher]

That doesn't work.  You should just sell it to me, cheap.  :D  

I do think I have heard of people doing this, but I don't remember where I read that.  I've not tried myself, because I think I would still be limited to fairly narrow 650B wheels on my old road.  

Out of curiosity, did you get the pink one off craigslist?  If so, please don't paint it.  Be brave enough to ride pink. 

Best regards,

Matt 

[Fullylugged]

I put 650B on a 54.5 frame so I could stand over it more comfortably (my normal size frame for a 700 wheel road bike is 50 cm). I put 12,500 + miles on it and loved it.  38 is the max size. I thought the handling in particular was great. YMMV. Conti makes a good 28 mm 650B tire, others available in wider widths from Soma, Compass, Panaracer, Michelin.

Tailwinds!

Bruce

On Tuesday, March 14, 2023 at 12:58:07 PM UTC-5 Peter Bridge wrote:

[Doug Van Cleve]

FWIW,

Mine is a Joe Starck ‘99 (maybe the earlier Waterfords are different), but it fits a true 32mm with Campy dual pivots…

Doug

[Steve]

I can't speak specifically to 700c to 650b conversion on a Riv, but I have done the switch with a Sampson Silverton racing bike that I've been riding since the late 1990s.  . 

Fork clearance with 700c wheels limited the rubber to 28mm. With 650b Velocity Dyad rims (21 ID, as I recall) I am running RH 38mm Loup Loups  with 50mm fenders. Brakes were traded out for Tektro 559s. It works!  As a reference, the bike has 43cm chain stays and estimated 73 degree ST and HT angles. I've not measured fork offset (I should do that sometime!) but can share that it was built by a local bike shop mechanic who was just getting into frame building to give me a bit more trail than the original one. 

How about the ride?  The diameter of the 650b x 38 tires are just 18mm less than the 700 x 28s,  Though that reduces the trail a bit  my immediate impression was that it's all about the fatter tires, and after logging a few hundred miles on the bike that's still my impression. I've been running the RHs around 40-42 psi, so they're really cush, which I think totally outweighs any reduced trail effect. Recently I  added a front rack which settled the front end down even more. The ride is smooooth (or, dare I say, "supple"). I do ride it a bit slower than I did with the 700c wheel set but do have to say it increased the fun factor for a bike that after 20 some years I almost parted ways with.  

 

[JohnS]

Hello Peter, 

Have you checked on the 650b group? https://groups.google.com/g/650b

Steve, 

Super nice build. Plus 1 on using the VO/Roadrunner rando bag, I mount mine to the rack like you did. Just the right size for me, not too big, not too small.

John

[Peter Bridge]

On Tuesday, March 14, 2023 at 1:29:48 PM UTC-7 Matt Beecher wrote:

Out of curiosity, did you get the pink one off craigslist?  If so, please don't paint it.  Be brave enough to ride pink. 

Who, me? I carefully delayed until it vanished. I was tempted to chase it.  I'm already pretty heavily invested, emotion and energy rather than funds, in a bike that checks a lot of boxes for me, including clearing 38 tires. Would have taken no bravery for me to ride a pink bike. A screaming pink Eisentraut was my main ride for 25 years. Pink bikes might be the only bikes that are cooler than orange bikes.

Thanks, everybody for the responses.

~pb

[J S]

If I still had one of the 3 RR’s I had I would have done a conversion by now. Sold my last custom which was a 56cm, not sure how Grant put me on that one but it worked fine with 700’s. I believe 650b would have been better. 

[Matt Beecher]

Purple trumps pink.

[Len L]

I was just measuring and analyzing my 2000 Curt for a 650b conversion. I thought I might get a 42 in there but it would be tight. Thanks for the thread, this is all very helpful.

Len

On Thursday, March 16, 2023 at 1:51:02 AM UTC-4 Peter Bridge wrote:

[Hopalong Cassidy]

Here's a Riv-inspired 650b conversion on a mid-80's Trek 400, which would've been in the 700c by 28mm range. Fit 650b by 42mm tires front and rear (barely), and used a Tektro R559 brake in the rear. Crust Lightning Bolt fork made it simple with canti posts and plenty of clearance. I ran 700c by 38mm tires on a similar frame, but this one could probably fit fenders with some chainstay dimples and/or smaller diameter tires.