My new Ruby comp disc - welcome home!

[Eden]

There are compromises, it can just be hard to realize it if you've never had the opportunity to ride a proportional bike, because the big names have been pushing 700s on everyone for so long just to save on production costs.

Sorry, but look, I just find this and your first post (you poor thing with all of your terrible toe overlap….) extremely patronizing, as if the OP and other folks here who don't think 650's are the only option are just dummies who need a pat on the head and a lesson because we don't know any better….. Maybe you didn't mean to come across like that, but it's how I "heard" it and that's what I'm reacting to. I did not hear anything as innocuous as you like your 650c wheel bike and that it's an option.

I've decades of riding and many 100's of thousand of miles in on a variety of bikes and I've heard often enough that I MUST have 650's or I'm making a terrible compromise and I'm just stupid to not realize it. Bike fit is so individual. Great that it works for you, but lots of us have tried out, ridden and even own all sorts of bikes. I don't feel like big companies have PUSHED 700c wheels on me, but rather that they've given me the opportunity to have a bike that fits and handles well that uses them.

I own and ride a bike built around 650's and one built around 700's. Both have been professional fit to me. I've ridden them consistently and for long distances. I'm not talking about a comparison based on a test ride on hastily fit floor model or other people's opinions of whether or not my geometry can possibly work. I have real world experience and can compare the two objectively for myself and from that experience I can say that for my body type, it is not a compromise to have larger wheels on my smaller bike.