Here's a story on the development of Tom Ritchey's early mountain bikes <http://www.handbuiltbicyclenews.com/c23-bicycles/209-the-genesis-of-the-mountain-bike-according-to-tom-ritchey>, which includes his early flirtations with 650b.
The article references Ritchey's conversations with Brandt regarding optimal wheel size: Brandt’s understanding of physics as an engineer meant that he encouraged > Ritchey to use the largest diameter wheel he could manage, to embrace the > inherent efficiencies of a larger wheel. Ritchey settled on the 650b, which > represented a compromise between the 700c wheel - fine for taller riders > but hard to fit on smaller off-road bikes - and the 26” wheel, which at the > time was heavy and much less efficient. So there's a tangential reference to both Brandt and 650b. No idea if Jobst considered the idea of 650b for road and mixed terrain applications, but he was no doubt at least aware of their existence. Maybe 700c just made more sense to him because it was the larger wheel. I don't pretend to understand the "inherent efficiencies" he's talking about, but I also didn't study engineering at Stanford, nor have I conquered the Alps on 22mm sew-ups. Jeff Hagedorn Los Angeles, CA USA -- 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.
