There are many decisions that need to be made for my upcoming custom 650b project. I have researched, asked builders tons of questions and been looking at various geometry specs. In the end I need to ride a 650b wheel bike often. Which is very hard as I can’t go demo one from my local bike shop or even find one in the remote area of Charlotte, NC. A few weeks ago I contacted Pacenti about a demo bike. He has one but he won’t let it out of his hands until after NAHBS which is rightly so. Plus I hope to have my bike well under way by then!

Enter in demo wheels. Pacenti agreed to send me a demo set of wheels/tires to mount up to my Surly 1×1. Yesterday the beautiful dirty Cane Creek wheels showed up. Once home I quickly tried out the front wheel on all of my 26″ forks and frames (I will start forming a list around this shortly.) I even found that I owned a fork that cleared well with the Baby Bear  (Neo-Moto) tires! An ‘04 Marzocchi MX Comp that I had recently traded some parts/cash with a friend for. The 1×1 went together with a 34×18 gear and Hayes hydraulic brakes. I am so amazed how much clearance is still left on th 1×1 with the 650b wheels. I could probably put a 2.5 tire in the frame with out rubbing. Tonight is the first ride and I am looking forward to seeing how the wheels, tires and gear feel all together.

Detailed pictures will be up shortly but due to low light last night this is all I have.

Out of the box

Tires not fully mounted

Fuzzy photo of tire clearance

Sexy