To "B" Again

I picked up a pair of 650B Gravel Kings to try out.

 The gravel bike scene has seen an integration of what was competing wheel sizes in the mountain bike realm. 700c based rubber and 584 ISO based rubber, or more commonly known as 700 vs 650B. In mountain biking, this is known as 29" vs 27.5. But whatever you want to call it, in the gravel scene, both wheel sizes coexist seemingly without much issue at all.

Bikes often will accept either wheel size and work out fine. I first found this out when I saw a Raleigh Tamland at the DK200 and it had the then new 650B WTB Horizon tires. I went home and pulled off the same thing with mine and it was just fine. Different, but fine. Then it was my first Standard Rando which I ran the 650B wheels and tires on. But since then I haven't run the wheel size much.

Occasionally I would get a chance to review a tire or some wheels in 650B, and then I'd pull out the Raleigh, or in later years, the Noble Bikes GX5. But I didn't use the wheel size in a regular way for a while. Not that I don't have wheels and tires for it, I do. But I just never really stuck with that wheel size. 

Lately I've been looking for something to spark a renewal of interest in my 650B set up. I have a new Standard Rando, the v2, and I did try the 650B wheels and tires I have now in there, but I wanted a better tire. Well, that tire has come along and I am excited to get this set up on the bike and get rolling. It also fits into another plan I have to swap some wheels around in the fleet. 

So, first I'll get the 650B set up going as these new tires are going to get reviewed for RidingGravel.com. Then when I get some time to mess with the rest of this plan I will swap around a couple of other wheel sets and tires as well on my other bikes. Once everything gets settled in, I'll be trotting out the changes here and letting you know why I did what I'm going to do. 

Stay tuned............