For those of you that have an open mind and would like to read a subjective/objective first-hand opinion from someone that has been cycling for 17yrs, please read on. I am not looking for feedback or opinions here, I just want to share my real experiencing testing a 650b geared MTB.
For the last 7 or so years, most of my time spent on an MTB was on a Single Speed, the last 2-3yrs on a 29er SS, so needless to say I am a huge fan of the big wheels. So as I said, I have been cycling for about 17yrs and during that time I had acquired a nice Seven Sola 26 geared bike, but hardly ever spent any time on it, so I decided to sale it. I have plans to do a few MTB centuries and decided I wanted to the option to have gears for such events. I am a small guy (5’-5”) and the more I thought about it, the more I missed the handling/maneuverability of a 26, but I knew I didn’t want a 26 because every time I road my Sola, I missed my big wheels.
I was doing some research on 650b parts and of can across several articles and obviously Kirk Pacenti’s name came up, the more I searched for tires, fork and frame options, the more I became frustrated. I decided to send an email over to Kirk with a few questions, we had several email conversations and I explained to Kirk that I really wanted to try a 650b before I invest a big chunk of money, he offered to send me a demo frame and fork, so this is where it gets very interesting, read on if I have lost your attention yet, I think the results of my testing will spark your interest.
As soon as I had confirmation that Kirk had a demo frame that was a good fit for me, I called Dave Thomas over at SpeedDreams.com (I love the guy’s work) and had him lace up a set of Stan’s 355 650b rims to DT Swiss hubs, I had the wheels before the frame and fork arrived. I proceeded to order my SRAM components, as I was planning to use SRAM no matter what I decided to go with, 29 or 650b.
Kirk not only sent me the Frame and fork he sent me Neo-Moto 2.3 and Quasi-Moto 2.0 tires, which for obvious reasons I paid for. I started the build process and for some reason, this time I decided not to use Stan’s rim strips, this ended up costing me a reasonable amount of time. I mounted the tries using Stan’s old school no-tubes approach (rim tape, stem and latex), but when I inflated the Neo-Moto, it exploded off the rim, resulting in torn skin on my right forearm and fingers, it hurt really bad and my fingers were swollen and bruised really bad.
Several hours later…
I decided to give it another shot, but this time being very careful with the pressure, this time I got the bead to set. Yeah, I am ready to take it out for the first ride!!! I start making my way to the local trail head (Catawba – Charlotte, NC) and while I am driving I hear a loud boom!!! Guess what? The dang tire blew off the rim again! I picked up the cell phone and made a few calls to LBS and found a set of 26 rim strips.
Next day alarm goes off at 630AM…
Time to mount the rim strip I thought, I am crossing my fingers that this will do the trick! Sure enough, the bead sets without problems.
First test ride…
I make my way back to the local trail (Catawba) head for my first test. I start out slowly, just to see how the bike handles. My first impressive was man, the handling is like nothing I have ever been on and I cannot tell much difference than my 29er, except for the awesome handling/maneuverability of the 650b. As I get deeper into my ride, I pay close attention to how it rolls over the roots and takes the hits, trying to draw an objective comparison to my 29er. All I can think of is how awesome the bike handles and how fast it spins up. I thinking to myself, this bike is much faster than a 29er, I can really tell a difference.
4 days before our Uwharrie Xterra Race…
I volunteered to take the MTB leg for two buddies that wanted to do their first Xterra Race in the Open Team category. I haven’t been doing any training due to my job keeping me so busy lately, but I figured this would be a great real world test for the 650b. I managed to get several rides in on the 650b and my opinion of the concept as growing more positive with each ride, it was like nothing I had experienced in my 17yrs of cycling, and it really was that much of a difference.
Uwharrie Xterra Race Day…
Our friend Matt starts the first leg of the race 1000 meters, these guys is an All-American, and holds the record for his age division in NC. A 1000 meters for this guy is a walk in the park! He goes out for a warm up and actually swims 1000 meters.
The swim is actually 2 laps in open water on a 500 meter course, so I walk down and watch his first lap and he leads from the start and I can see that we will have a big jump (20 – 40 secs) on 2nd place. I make my way to the transition area and as I expected he was first there and I could see no signs of 2nd place. I jumped on the big and headed in the woods!
The course was 2 miles out and back on gravel then into single track. The south side of the course was nice and very fast, but technical. The north side was brutal, lots of deep mud pits and 2-3ft ruts in the steep descents and the climbs were steep and very rocky, on climb was so steep (33%) no one could spin up it, we all had to hike it and it was about 1 mile long. The course was 16 miles total and was recently opened to bikers, it was previous horseback and hiker only, so you can only imagine the conditions of the trail.
I could the tail end of the Sport class on my 2nd lap and by that time I was settled in on the bike and had time to think about the ride experience. The first thought that came to mind, was how well the bike and 650b wheels handled the steep rocky descents and deep ruts, I was expected more of a 26 experience, but it was more of a 29 experience with the benefit of better handling! I finished the leg in first place and we were minutes ahead of the 2nd place team! Kyle started is run and when he actually helped to increase our lead, we finished like 8 minutes ahead of the 2nd place team!
Ok, so far, I have had an impressive 5-10 rides on the 650b frame/fork that Kirk Pacenti sent me. I took Monday off, the day after the race and managed to get 4 more rides in since the race.
Here are the benefits that I am experiencing with the 650b and these can clearly seen by guys that are riding with me:
· Much better handling than a 29
· Spins up much faster than a 29
· Climbs better than a 29, I literally can spin faster through the switch backs
· As fast downhill as a 29
· Faster in the flats than a 29 because if can spin up quicker
For me, my testing has convinced me to build my next geared MTB as 650b.
Keep in mind that I am big 29er fan and have no plans of selling my 29er SS, yet! I would ask before anyone discredits the 650b concept, to try it, it’s the real deal!
BTW - The Neo-Moto and Quasi-Moto tires are awesome and roll very well. Keep in mind that neither of these tires are designed to be tubeless, so you risk running into the issues I described.
