Anyone tried 650b wheels on CX bike?

alesupper

I went up Kentmere on my CX bike yesterday and found myself thinking "I wish I had bigger tyres". Has anyone tried 650b wheels in a CX frame with larger volume tyres?

roger_merriman

650b to the best of my knowledge has few if any cx tyres, that is off road tyres.

There are a few slick, or lightly threaded tyres for road and maybe a bit of gravel, but not CX tyres it's self.

97th choice

alesupper wrote:

I went up Kentmere on my CX bike yesterday and found myself thinking "I wish I had bigger tyres". Has anyone tried 650b wheels in a CX frame with larger volume tyres?

I very much doubt it.

You should start convincing yourself that you need a mountain bike.

alesupper

Yes I think the lack of tyre choice is going to end this project. I was hoping you could get may be a 1.7-1.8" tyre but you can't. Never mind!

roger_merriman

alesupper wrote:

Yes I think the lack of tyre choice is going to end this project. I was hoping you could get may be a 1.7-1.8" tyre but you can't. Never mind!

some of the gravel bikes have impressive clearances for 40+mm tyres or a monster cross?

I personally like the simplicity of cross bikes, remind me of some of the first MTBs.

ugo.santalucia

roger merriman wrote:

650b to the best of my knowledge has few if any cx tyres, that is off road tyres.

There are a few slick, or lightly threaded tyres for road and maybe a bit of gravel, but not CX tyres it's self.

But there are loads of MTB tyres, which are too big for UCI rules, but not for your local cake fuelled race.

I thought of building myself a 650 b wheelset, but I had problems fitting a 2 + inch tyre in the rear triangle and smaller tyres would give very little ground clearance for the BB

alesupper

I'm going to measure the clearance on my CX bike to see if they will take these tyres which would certainly help when I'm riding in MTB territory.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/wtb- ... prod121980

ugo.santalucia

alesupper wrote:

I'm going to measure the clearance on my CX bike to see if they will take these tyres which would certainly help when I'm riding in MTB territory.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/wtb- ... prod121980

I can fit 40 mm no problem on my CX bike. Pretty sure you'll have no problem at the front, the rear might be more of a hit and a miss

alesupper

Any recommendations for 700x40c off road tyres other than the one linked above?

ugo.santalucia

alesupper wrote:

Any recommendations for 700x40c off road tyres other than the one linked above?

No idea, the only 40 I have are studded tyres for ice... probably not much choice as 700c... you might want to look at those marketed as 29er... 40 mm is roughly 1.6 inches

trek_dan

Like most Continental tyres their 35C CX offerings measure up big when actually fitted. Wasn't enough clearance on the rear of my CX bike to actually make fitting them practical.

Moonbiker

How about fit a rigid a mtb fork then at least you can have a big front tyre which is more important for small drop off etc I reckon?

ugo.santalucia

it's much longer though, it will lift the front of the bike by a couple of inches at least

Moonbiker

My cx bike (ridley xbow) fork has pretty tight clearance with 32c tyres & thus annoying clogs up fast in muddy races, 35c or 40c tyes wouldn't fit.

Looking at all the other bikes though after the race i noticed some of the other cx bikes forks have alot better clearances & they didn't clog as fast in the same conditions.

Some cx forks here say the can takes 48c tyres:

http://whiskyparts.co/catalog/forks

penguin_of_death

My Boardman Team CX will take 650b with a 2 inch commuter tyre - only as an experiment, haven't actually ridden it

ugo.santalucia

Moonbiker wrote:

My cx bike (ridley xbow) fork has pretty tight clearance with 32c tyres & thus annoying clogs up fast in muddy races, 35c or 40c tyes wouldn't fit.

Looking at all the other bikes though after the race i noticed some of the other cx bikes forks have alot better clearances & they didn't clog as fast in the same conditions.

Some cx forks here say the can takes 48c tyres:

http://whiskyparts.co/catalog/forks

The cost of a Whisky fork is that of a new bike, give or take

roger_merriman

ugo.santalucia wrote:

roger merriman wrote:

650b to the best of my knowledge has few if any cx tyres, that is off road tyres.

There are a few slick, or lightly threaded tyres for road and maybe a bit of gravel, but not CX tyres it's self.

But there are loads of MTB tyres, which are too big for UCI rules, but not for your local cake fuelled race.

I thought of building myself a 650 b wheelset, but I had problems fitting a 2 + inch tyre in the rear triangle and smaller tyres would give very little ground clearance for the BB

Most MTB tyres be they 26/27.5/29 are 2.2-2.4 claimed though sizes varies in actual measured.

2 inch and below you have a few mud spike tyres such as dirty dan and MudX and a few slick/commuter type tyres, remarkably few tyres at that sizes ie 2inch and below.

Get a bit more choice if the frame can take 2.1inch and start to get your racing Ralph's and what not. Though more robust tyres are probably too fat starting at 2.25 and climbing.

luv2ride

alesupper wrote:

Any recommendations for 700x40c off road tyres other than the one linked above?

This may be a little late but Planet X were doing the WTB Tubeless (TCS) 700x40 Nano's for £35 a pair using their 40% off Stock Clearance code. I've just bought some as my "Monster Cross" singlespeed came with the wired bead version as standard and I liked them off road. Not too buzzy on tarmac either.