My new Ruby comp disc - welcome home!

[Nandy]

Nandy - I live in Seattle where Rodriguez bikes is. He's a 650 evangelist… He tries to put everyone on the things, even people who are fairly tall. You think we've drunk the cool aid, well yours is just a different flavor. Some of us are actually built right for the way small bikes with bigger wheels fit. I'm also like Crankin. I've small feet and proportionally longer legs for my height. I've never had issues with stand over - not even in the bad old days when bikes had straight top tubes and the smallest thing available was equivalent to todays 49cm. If they work for you, that's great, but not every smaller person suffers if they don't have them.

I have and have used both wheel sizes. In my basement I currently have a 650 ti bike that I use as my all weather commuter and a nice carbon Amira that is has 700c wheels. Neither is any more or less comfortable than the other and neither handles much different from the other. Granted there are too many differences to attribute it to just one thing, but I have ridden both with a power meter and can definitely generate more power with the position I have on the Specialized than on the ti bike. It is a pain in the rear to get rims, tubes and especially tires, these days for the 650 wheel set - the choices are very limited and unless I have the time to special order and wait sometimes months, I usually end up with whatever is available rather than having a choice and even if I wait the choices are very limited. I have 0, zip, no toe overlap on my 700c bike. If you want to get ironic, the bike I have with the smallest wheels is the only one that I have toe overlap on - it's a kid sized cross bike that has 24" wheels. I can't put a front fender on that one as it hits my foot with even a very slight turn of the front wheel.

As far as handling goes - I don't get the shimmies and I don't think my bikes feel twitchy. I have short arms, so I do have a fairly short stem - that goes for both the 650 and 700c bikes, *but*, I've certainly never ever had any problems keeping enough weight on the front wheel, so I don't have any squirrely handling. If anything, just because of my body shape and proportions I don't have as much weight as I'd like on the rear wheel.

Rodriguez doesn't have unusual opinions, they just write them down better than most, backed up with good data and anecdotes (like, "a lot of small 700c bikes get returned to us for fit and handling problems"). They've been in the industry and making bikes for a long time, and they do repeatedly emphasize that they'll make small bikes in whatever wheel size someone wants. Personally, I love older bikes with flat top tubes, like Terry style bikes. I like to be able to have the same ride quality 5'10" people get, and it doesn't feel like I'm steering a truck and small wheels save tons of weight. You're right 650c isn't a huge difference, only 8%, but it does help. Here's my bike next to my husband's (if the photo upload works). My tt is pretty much at the height of his 700cs, if my bike had those wheels the tt would be at a ridiculous angle and give me back pain. 650cs give my bike normal proportions. I'm not totally against 700cs, ease of availability is definitely an important factor, I'm just surprised at how much hate I'm getting for it. Is this the official Specialized fanclub or something? No discussion allowed? Sorry, I must be drowning in koolaid, all my lived experience is irrelevant. Real welcoming forum here... That old Olmo has 24" wheels, and looks really really good!