Hmm, nothing a Spokey and five minutes wouldn't fix — even on the side of the road.
Yes, if you have the talent to do it. I don't have the skills needed to true wheels yet. It's on my todo list.
(The other advantage I love with discs is being able to have varied wheel sets, swapping between wide, thin, 650b, 700c, even 26", all without issue. But we digress)
650b's on a ROAD bike? Really?!! Edit: as opposed to a gravel bike, obvs.
I'm really still not convinced, J.
Oh yes. You see when a frame gets a bit smaller, when you start adding size XS and XXS below S, so normal sized people can buy a bike, you start to find that the 622mm wheel format makes for compromises to the geometry. At this point moving to 584mm wheels can improve the performance of the bike, esp for riders who are below average height. Remember in the UK, average height for a woman is 1.63m. This means 50% of the population are shorter than that. I am 1.68m (not 1.7m as previously thought
), and for me on a Genesis Croix de fir I need a size XS frame, the smallest they make. If you look at some of the canyon womens specific frames, they swap to 584mm wheels at the XS and XXS sizes.
So, say I had a gf who's shorter than me and rides a 584mm wheeled bike, in a pinch, I could borrow one of her wheels on my bike.
That said, my current steed is a franken bike with clearance at the front for 75mm of tyre, and at the back for about 65mm. Meaning if I wanted to I could go for 584mm wheels with honky big lumps of rubber for a very supple ride, or extra float on weird surfaces (like pavé), or just for the hell of it. Obviously as I put bigger rubber on, I'll need to keep my wheels closer to true. I doubt many would call my bike a road bike. The new bike is spec'd for clearance upto 622x42mm, which is slightly more road like, tho I'm sure many would call it a gravel bike. I prefer the term "comfortable bike", my bikes are all built for long distance racing (except for the Brompton, that's built for... um... the shops?)
J