At 12/15/2007 01:30 PM +0100, Hilary Stone wrote:
> Another possibility is 26 x 1 3/8 (650A) with bead seat diameter
> of 590mm and consequently only 4mm brake drop. There's quite a good
> choice in these tyres but 32/40H rims of any date are really rather
> rare. Sun does some really quite 36H 650A rims which if the
> stickers were removed do not look too out of place.
Sun have recently made some more in 32/40. QBP has a limited supply of them.
>Simon PJ wrote:
> > What's the relationship between the 26" rim size used in Britain in that
> > period and 650B size used by French randonneurs? Might it make sense to use
> > 650B rims so that tyres such as the 32mm Grand Bois ones recommended by Jan
> > Heine could be used?
The Panaracer Col-De-La-Vie Randonnee is available in 590 AKA 650A.
It irritates the heck out of me that Grant Peterson made a cause out of resurrecting 650B instead of 650A when there were a few thousand 650B bikes in the world vs. a few hundred million 650As. His logic was that there needed to be a size 1/2 way between the American 26" (559) and 700C (622) Well, (559 + 622)/2 = 590.5 If those few people who had old 650B bikes had to switch to 650A to find good tires no one would notice the 3mm difference in radius.
Mark Stonich;
BikeSmith Design & Fabrication
5349 Elliot Ave S. - Minneapolis. MN 55417
Ph. (612) 824-2372 http://bikesmithdesign.com
http://mnhpva.org