We stock ten 650B tires, which -- does anybody stock more? As many? At least four bike models have 650B wheels. We stopped making biggies in 650, because the head tubes get long, but even up to the 62 Saluki, that was still OK. Right now we have ten 58cm AHH frames for 650B wheels---something I ordered waytheheck back there because I knew they'd be the last of the Toyobuilts, and they're kind of arguably the a-fartsiest frames we sell, last-gaspers in the ultra handwork department, super underpriced at $2K/frame and fork, and as good a riding bike as any I've ridden ever, and yet....they sit. We don't spend money promoting them, true, but that's also true of most everything else, too. They're competing with 700c bikes, and most people get the 700s, justafact. I'm going to reserve one of these for myself even though I already have a 58/650 AHH. Anybody with a PBH of 84.5 to 86 who wants a Last Gasper (all stops pulled out), they're here, and they'll never go down in price.
I'm getting off-track here, but the point is, the 650B bikes don't seem to be able to compete against the 700s. We have frames up to 71cm (AHH). And the 64Sam and 62 HP and 64 Bomba have 6-deg upslopes which effectively give them the front ends of much taller bikes. We can fit 6-8ers easily. Now that we're the modern day double-top-tubing kings of the world, we could make 650B bikes in even taller sizes, but there has to be a reason, and we have NO reason to believe they'd sell, based on what we're seeing with the other bikes. I'm still of a mind that small wheels go with small bikes, big wheels with big bikes, and the medium 650B wheel with midsizers....and from a frame design perspective it's an easy case to make. Still, we're not giving up on them. A 52 Sam, for instance, can NOT be done well in 700C, and there's no compelling reason to make a 65cm 650B bike. Triple top tube? That might work! G -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
