about wheels

Before I was a framewright, which by default means that before I was of the sycling subset that thinks of the frame as the most important component of a bicycle- not ever to suggest that I, at any time, did not feel very fondly for frames and forks; certainly not to imply that I was unaware of the importance of a decent frame to the overall ride quality of the complete apparatus; not even to hint at a lingering fondness for shiny bits and pathological component upgrades intended to impress lowly unworthies and avoid the true nature of any dissatisfaction with the performance of an underachieving velocipede, which I have certainly experienced in ignorant first-hand- but well into my cycling life, I had a fascination for the bicycle wheel. Mind you, not always- I spent many of my early cycling years completely unaware of the intricacies of the spoked wheel- most of us who ride can attest to the same truth. Even in more enlightened adulthood, I knew nothing of truing and tensioning, beyond that such was occasionally required, especially for those who rode as I did in the immortal era; however, I had not the skills, nor the equipment necessary to effect adjustment and repair.

Fact- the first time, years after investing in a particularly fine road bike, that I procured for same bike a replacement set of wheels, I rode same for several years without checking, or knowing enough to have someone else check, the trueness or the tension of said wheels. I am content; I bare my neck for the blade...

All this changed, I will have you know. Around the time that I began, haltingly, to learn a little more about bicycle wheels and their theory and their construction and their upkeep and their uber-coolness in general, I found myself in the cozy confines of the United Bicycle Institute, where anointed ones provided, for a price, the Masonic secrets behind the mysterious spoked wheel. I am allowed to write no more, lest I be found and secreted away, never to build another frameset- suffice to say that I did, in fact, make my own the knowledge necessary to produce and maintain bicycle wheels.

Anyway- I have an expensively-procured certificate, signifying my place in the DT-Swiss* Certified wheelwright pantheon; this and two dollars will get me a good espresso almost anywhere I find myself.

What, pray, is the point of all this?

The spoked bicycle wheel, the marvel of technology effectively unchanged for over a century, is the most important contributing factor to the bicycle's ride quality, after of course the frame. Count grams and chase performance upgrades anywhere else on the machine that you like- the most significant change a bike owner looking for a bump in performance or comfort can make is in a better set of wheels.

But all that is dancing around the point of this page. The link that brought you here was the term 650b, which refers to a specific wheel size. Technically, all bicycle wheels are sized / categorized / differentiated by the bead seat diameter, which is the diameter of the round structure defined by the point inside the wall of the rim on which the bead of the tire (if a clincher-type tire, of course) seats when said tire is inflated.

A 650b wheel has a bead seat diameter of 584 millimetres; the term "650" is based on the approximate diameter of the wheel composed of said 584 mm bsd rim and a tire of 32 - 35 mm tread width, which ends up close to 650 mm. The "b", as far as I know, is merely to differentiate this wheel size from other, similar but nonetheless non-compatible rims (most notably a 650c, which has a different b.s.d.)

The two b.s.d.'s most familiar to riders and buyers of contemporary adult bikes are 557 and 622, which are known as 26 inch and 700c, respectively. Confused?

The staff at Wildebeest will likely refer to your bike's wheels by the actual b.s.d., in a Quixotic attempt to bring a little sanity, and apples-to-apples reference, to this wacky bike biz nomenclature. We believe that cyclists everywhere are capable of embracing truth and accuracy. It takes no more effort to say "six-twenty-two" than it does to say "seven-hundred-see". It makes no sense to walk into a shop in a metric system country and ask for a "twenty-six-inch" innertube, when "five-fifty-seven" would accomplish the same thing.

Offered only for entertainment, and perhaps to inspire change, by the folks here at Wildebeest.

* - DT-Swiss is arguably the best-known manufacturer of high quality stainless steel spokes and nipples, as well as other items, for bicycle wheels.