DebW in the 21st century?

[Triskeliongirl]

That must be why the builder recommended BOTH 650s and 26" wheels. Plus I could put a mountain cassette on the touring wheels and something narrower on the 650s. I've always ridden 700c but if I don't place my cleats carefully I get toe clip overlap (size 41 shoes). I've never had a professional fitting, so I'm anxious to see what I learn tomorow.

Oh I get it, he could build it so it could use either a 650b or 650c wheelset, so you could keep one set for touring and one for fast riding. That's a very cool idea, I thought you had to choose one or ther other (cuz at least with cantis won't adjusting the brakes be a pita everytime you change your wheelset. I guess it would be easier with sidepulls). I kind of do that now anyway, that is for convenience I have a lighter wheelset that I keep 23c tires on and a sturdier one (more spokes) that I keep 32c tires on even though they are both 700c/24" sets. If I were to have gone custom, I would have really explored the 650 options better, but none of the stock frames with 650 wheels fit me since I need such a slack seat tube angle (I have a really long thigh so need a max STA of 73 deg, hard to find in smaller frame sizes). I found a link to the site where my friend shows the parts he used to build his waterford: http://forums.roadbikereview.com/showthread.php?t=84156

Another thing to watch for on smaller framed bikes is room to get your rack on. I find it is much easier to mount a rear rack on my bike with cantis than side pull brakes, so I strongly recommend going with cantis unless that will make the two wheelset thing too impractical, cuz that is a cool idea.

One more thought, I like your idea of keeping different casettes on each wheelset to. Do know with my XT rear derailleur, I notice no difference in shifting even a road casette (12-27) than with an ultegra rear derailleur, so while some things I read made me nervous about it, it was just fine (maybe its only an issue for very narrow racing casettes).

Do know one advantage of shimano 9 spd is that you can mix and match road and mountain parts, so I have road stuff in front and mountain in back. I am very happy with sti shifters and mountain gearing. I agree with Emily that on a bike like a friday where the wheelbase is quite short bar end shifting can work better, but I really like sti. You'll notice on my friend's waterford he chose bar ends so he could use a brake lever that is similar in feel to the campy levers on his other bikes.