I had the pleasure of adding a new chapter to a customers long-lived road bike. He has owned this 1999 LeMond Zurich since new. His interest was starting to head towards the rougher less traveled roads above Santa Barbara, and he wanted to get a bit more comfort out of the bike. We exchanged a few emails, met, I was able to take the needed measurements, discussed options, orders were placed, and today it all cam together.
This is where we started, 700x23mm:
The wheel set came from Anthony at Long Leaf, the new Velocity A23 rims laced to White Industry hubs. The clearance at the chain stays is pretty tight, and the widest, at 32mm, 650b tire that will fit is the Grand Bois Cypres. Tektro 559 brake calipers provided the extra reach, with KoolStop salmon pads to replace the stock. New cables and bar tape, finished out the build. The original drive train has been going strong and we decided to save any work there for another day. I will let the pictures tell the rest of the story:
As far as 650b conversions go, this one went perfectly. Detailed planing led to a smooth execution. Everything bolted right up the way you would hope. IMO the bike looks more balanced with the fatter tires. The only tight spot is at the chain stays, as expected. There is about 3mm on each side of the tire. That said, I was unable to get it to rub on the test ride, and I weigh about 40lbs more than the owner. The bottom bracket drop can sometimes be a problem with conversions. The Zurich has a drop around 65mm, with a finished height of 264mm to the center of BB after conversion. There is no real danger of pedal strike than with conventional road bike set ups.
This bike has already been on more local adventures than most, but I am pretty sure this new chapter is going to be a long and good one. Thanks M.K. for the chance to build this up.
I am putting together the bits and pieces needed for a customer who wants to dip their toe in the 650b waters before diving in with a propose built frame set.
As always these projects require a bit of measuring and test fitting to get things just right. In this case we were able to meet so that I could pull the required measurements myself from the bike to be converted.
The biggest part of the investment, the wheel set, is directly transferable to a Rambler he finds the waters to his liking. The 32mm tires would work fine, but I am sure that he would want to go fatter as the Rambler would allow. The only thing that would end up in the parts bin is the Tektro brakes.
The knowledge and components needed to pull off a successful 650b conversion are scattered throughout the web. What would you think of having that information in one place, as well as the needed components to pull it all off? Rivendell used to have something like this, but does not appear to be a focus of theirs as much any more. How about a kit price on a package like the one above?
This is the most beautiful bike I have built up yet. I would even go as far as saying it is nicer than my roadeo from Rivendell. After years of reading on the web and doing multiple 650b conversions on my own, this one went together perfectly the first time. With some careful planning, part procurement and patience this bike went together as if it were always meant to be this way.
This Trek 613 started its life as a 27" wheeled touring bike back in 1981, and by the looks of it once in my garage, it was barely ever ridden. There are a few scuffs in the paint, but most of the damage appears to have happened while in storage. The visible portions of the frame's interior were pristine. I treated the inside with a liberal coating of T9 to keep it rust free as long as possible. For this build I was able to reuse much of the drive train, replacing only the wheels, cassette, and bottom bracket. The headset was preserved, and rebuilt with loose balls and phil grease.
The cockpit was built up with a Nitto Technomic Delux stem, Albatross bars and Shimano brake levers. The brass bell is from Crane in Japan. The grips are blue Neubaums cloth tape over a layer of cork tape. Three layers of garnet shellac brought the final color to a fantastic dark patinaed coppery green that is a perfect contrast to the copper color of the bike. Te saddle is a Brooks B17 Special Select.
The front rack is a Bruce Gordon MTN rack that used to reside on my bike and will be the temporary support system for the Wald basket. While the basket provides incredible versatility, the stock hardware is not up to the task at hand. In the long run this will be set up with a rack that will allow for panniers in a low mount with a high mount to support the basket. The fork dropout only has a single eyelet to support both the rack and fender. My work around for this is to thread in a hex bolt from the inside, providing a stud to mount both. The whole assembly is then held on with a lock nut. In theory if the nut ever came loose, it should all still be able to be held in place with a zip tie until you could get to a hardware store.
I utilised Dia-Compe 750 centerpull brakes to get the required reach to the smaller rims. The stock pads were replaced with KoolStop Cross Pads. The wheel set is Shimano Tiagra laced to Velocity Synergy rims. I opted to use an 8spd rear cassette to hopefully be a bit more forgiving with the Suntour Symmetric DT shifters. The downside to this is that the shifters only move the chain across 7 of the 8 cogs due to the limited throw.
Now for the part that everybody cares about. I opted to use Panaracer Col De La Vie tires on this bike to ensure adequate tire clearance at the chain stays. These older Trek frames, pre 82, will generally have room for a tire up to 38mm wide without needing to dimple the stays for more space. Spreading the rear from 126 to 130 mm at the dropouts while adding tire space in theory did not make a noticeable difference in reality. The fenders are Berthoud 650b x 50 mm. These were fairly simple to install, only requires minor re-shaping to accommodate the horizontal stays, leave plenty of room to install wider tires in the future and resulted in near perfect fender line around the tire. I did make a wooden mandrel to help shape indents for better fender clearance at the fork and chain stays. The rear brake bridge attachment was made with Honjo hardware. The connection at the chain stay bridge was made with a long bold and spacer. While a spacer is not ideal, it seemed a better option than moving the bridge on a bike in this condition.
Rear wheel at mid-dropout.
Rear wheel all the way back in the dropouts.
I would like to thank a whole bunch of people for sharing their knowledge on the web. If not for the collective knowledge provided by old Rivendell Readers, the iBoB and 650b email lists and the Bicycle Quarterly publication I likely would not have been able to work through this build in a single pass. It is the knowledge shared by those who have gone this way before that helped me to build such a wonderful bike.
Likewise, online vendors such as Universal Cycles, Rene Herse Cycles, Wallingford Bike, and Ben's Cycle all made it possible to source the needed components.
This bike is going to have a new lease on life. Its owner is going to pick her up tonight. The planned maiden voyage will be a 90 mile ride home from Jalama state park. I wish I was along for the ride, it is going to be a good day tomorrow. Thanks to Mike for giving me the chance to build this bike up as a blue-collar constructeur.
Off to cleain it up for delivery, thanks for taking a look.
I took some pictures this morning of the bike I threw together over the weekend from parts in the garage. The Frame is an older Trek 400 sport bike converted to 650b. By using the smaller rim I could run a fatter cushier tire, and also bring the front end geometry into a range that will handle well with front biased loads.
I have a few Trek frames in my garage that I bought off of Craig's List and they have been hanging from the ceiling for almost 2 years now. All three have their dents, scratches and other marks of age. I decided it was high time to do something about it. The fringe benefit is the fun in building a bike up instead of stripping one down to sell. With a little planning and 30 minutes here and there I was able to put this together from parts in my bins of spares.
About a month ago I picked up a pair of NOS Weinmann 750 brakes, and they pushed me to get this done. The 750 calipers have just enough reach to get to the 650b rims. There is plenty of room for the 584x37 Col De La Vie tires, and fenders are in the works. The wheels are decidedly not S&S, Phils laced to Velocity Dyads, but they belong to my wife and i am "borrowing" them. I used an old MTB stem, bars and levers that span 20 years of age. The shifting is handled by a Shimano Deore DX in the rear, Suntour XC high normal front and NOS 105 clamp on DT shifters. The front rack is the Bruce Gordon (made in Oregon) rack that used to live on my Rawland. The saddle is an Avocet Touring in pretty good shape. All of the cables and housings are from my recycle bin.
Initial rides have been unloaded and it handles fantastic. This will become my around town bike for errands and such. There are only a few things I hope to change. The handlebars will be switched out with some Wald 867 bars that are on the way. I may do something about the saddle, but i tis OK for shortish trips. I have some newer brake shoes to put on, but the old black blocks have been slowing things down acceptably. As for fenders, I have an older set of the VO zeppelins that were bought on clearance 3 years ago, and will be re-shaped to work here.
Yes, new bikes are fun, but sometimes the best bike is what you have. At least for the moment.
Remember - Reduce - Reuse - Recycle
This has been an interesting week, and for some therapy I went through te garage to help a phoenix rise from the ashes. You may have heard of the Bridgstone Urban Bike or even Jan Hine's much more refined GBUB (Grand Bois Urban Bike), I now have my very own S&SUB:
As in Sanford and Son Urban Bike, finally bringing a beater Trek 400 back to life a sa 650B conversion with a fantastic spread of parts from all corners of my garage. With the Rawland on its way out the door soon as well as a couple of others it was time to press some of the lonely frames back into action.
Initial impressions are pretty good too, this is going to be a fun bike in the stable.
The wheel set came from Anthony at Long Leaf, the new Velocity A23 rims laced to White Industry hubs. The clearance at the chain stays is pretty tight, and the widest, at 32mm, 650b tire that will fit is the Grand Bois Cypres. Tektro 559 brake calipers provided the extra reach, with KoolStop salmon pads to replace the stock. New cables and bar tape, finished out the build. The original drive train has been going strong and we decided to save any work there for another day. I will let the pictures tell the rest of the story:
As far as 650b conversions go, this one went perfectly. Detailed planing led to a smooth execution. Everything bolted right up the way you would hope. IMO the bike looks more balanced with the fatter tires. The only tight spot is at the chain stays, as expected. There is about 3mm on each side of the tire. That said, I was unable to get it to rub on the test ride, and I weigh about 40lbs more than the owner. The bottom bracket drop can sometimes be a problem with conversions. The Zurich has a drop around 65mm, with a finished height of 264mm to the center of BB after conversion. There is no real danger of pedal strike than with conventional road bike set ups.
This bike has already been on more local adventures than most, but I am pretty sure this new chapter is going to be a long and good one. Thanks M.K. for the chance to build this up.
