Messing With Wheels

Messin' with the aspect ratio

I was busy building two sets of wheels on my own time here recently. You might be surprised to know that they were ISO584 rims. Yep.....27.5"er, or in French Camping Bike parlance- 650B.

I wrote about the wheel deal yesterday, and although it may come as a surprise to some, I don't discriminate when it comes to wheel sizes. I started out on 26"ers, had a 650B mtb before they were a thing, and of course, have really gravitated toward the 29"er thing. I still have a 26"er for a townie, and so these new wheels are 27.5"ers. Okay? Big deal.

The whole reason for this is to explore the B+ thing and contrast and compare it to the smaller wheel size. Of course, the whole "plus sized" tire deal has really thrown a wrench into how we perceive tires and wheels as cyclists. I wrote about that as well right here. Well, I didn't think about it at the time, but car tire manufacturers have had this figured out a long time ago. It's called "aspect ratio" and it takes into account rim width, tire casing width, and gives you over all diameter. Check out how car tires work here.

Anyway, I'm still in the throes of dealing with my impressions, getting rides in, and formulating an opinion. I'll have a lot more to say about it all soon.......