Dana from Canada has a question about 650 wheels. She wonders what has happened to those small 650 wheels and the tires. We hadn’t noticed that they had disappeared, so we did a bit of investigation to see what the problem is…
Question: Where did all 650c wheels & tires go?
Answer:
Hi Dana, there are still 650 wheels and tires available. On my last weekend ride, I asked my partners the same question and you were right…The reaction of many was quite frankly the same, where did they go. BUT you just need to look for them. Let me explain this…
Mavic and Rolf make top class wheelsets in 650 size and there are many rims available, particularly Mavic.
There was a bit of a fashion for Triathletes to use 650 wheels on their Tri specific bikes. They have moved away from this recently, but many bike manufacturers are making there smallest woman’s specific bike with 650’s.
650C PROJECT BIKE
You can see an great example of a 650c bike at slowtwitch. The concept of this project was simply to analyze and see whether a tall guy could ride a 650′ wheels bike. This article is fanstastic, and you should check it out to see the mechanical details between 700c ad 650c wheels.
Most good Triathlon shops and bike shops as well that stock women’s bikes should be able to help you with wheels or tires.
I’ve had a look around and found quite a few 650 tires that are fairly easily available. Here is a list below and I am sure there are many more that I have not found.
- Michelin Ironman 650
- Panaracer Extreme 650
- Vittoria Open Corsa EVO CX 650
- Vittoria Rubino Pro 650
- Hutchinson Fusion Comp 650
- Continental Gator 650
- Continental GP 4000 650
- Kenda Koncept 650.
Time trial bikes used to have a smaller front wheel, but with the new UCI rules now both wheels have to be the same size, so you don’t see so much 650 stuff around, but it’s out there.
