I'm in the midst of a 650B conversion that I'm pretty excited about. I've acquired a 1984 Miyata 912, and it's getting resurrected. The major enhancement in my eyes is that I'll be converting it from a solid road bike that can take 700x25c tires without fenders, into a bike that can take 650x38B tires with fenders. This conversion has a couple new aspects for me. The clearance at the forks and the seatstays was wide enough for Hetres, but it was cozy down at the chainstays. I researched a little through the various forums and on flickr and got my courage up to crush the chainstays a little bit to make some extra room. That worked great, and I'll go at it again if I actually decide to run Hetres. For now it'll be Soma B-Lines.
The other highlights are that I'll be running the new, lighter weight Velocity A23 650B rims, exclusively available from Longleaf in New Hampshire. Those rims, along with some advice from Anthony at Longleaf has got me convinced to give tubeless a try. I'm a little freaked out by the concept, and I'm nervous that I'll make a mess of the whole thing, but at the same time I'm excited to learn something new. Finally, this bike will be the home for a Sugino compact double that I beautified as my first bike part polishing project. It was a 52/42/30 130/74mm crankset, that I've converted to a chainguard/42/26. This bike is tagged to become my new commute bike. I've been using the Bombadil for my daily commute. That commute involves bike on the roof of the car in the morning (carpool), and then a bike/BART commute home in the evening. The ride home from BART is 2 miles, 600ft of climbing. The Bomba is obviously smooth, rugged, and reliable. The shortcomings are that the Bombadil is heavy for the roof rack, heavy for BART steps, and heavy for the 600ft climb, not to mention valuable to be subjected to 30 miles of freeway roofrackage every morning. This Miyata will essentially be everything a Bleriot or a Betty Foy would have been for me. Hopefully I can have it running by next week. pics show some of the progress: http://www.flickr.com/photos/45758191@N04/sets/72157629709054752/ -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rbw-owners-bunch/-/yz7JLaV-0n0J. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
