650b tires seemed to gain in popularity because you could fit wider tires than 700c (with 700c being traditionally narrow in size both in the tire clearance of frames made and the tires availabile), but now that wider tires have gained in popularity in all sizes, including 700c, what are the drawbacks to going 700c instead of 650b if you can easily and readily get wide 42mm or larger tires on a lot of the new fangled gravel and allroad bikes? Is there a tradeoff for making a 700c frame around large tires? Or has frame building come around enough to compensate for any trade offs?
I say this because I've tried a few 650 bikes but constantly find myself gravitating towards 700c with wide tires. I understand from some of Grant's writing that for smaller riders like myself 650b is a better design choice and that's why there are several sizes within a model depending on the size, so maybe it comes down to trade offs with geometry and rider height? Even then, as a small 5'7" rider I still find I prefer wide 700c tires over 650b. Or is it really just a matter of personal preference at this point? Was just skimming Jan's 'How Wide is Too Wide' article in the recent BQ which got me thinking as they tested multiple widths and diameters, but didn't really say how the wider tires on different diamaters came into play (unless I missed it). -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
