650b Croix De Fer - Congratulations, it's an apple.

Rode my alu framed, 23c tyred road bike and had nowehere near as much fun :(

You're suppose to be SUFFERING, none of those "enjoying" lark, you tarot cock.

AHAHA! That's where I've been going wrong.

My neck started to hurt a bit after about 4 hours. Does that count?

mild pain or @skinny pain?

@edscoble Absolutely 100% mild. Now I have 26 pages of TCR thread to read!

Keep dropping the pressure on the 650b until it almost low enough to squirm but not enough to feel noodly.

I reckon your road bike simply have too high a pressure in the first place, plop in some decent 25mm at around or less than 80psi and you'll be fine.

I do like that ^^

Lovely, what are the guards? VO?

Thanks! They are indeed - 52mm zeppelins which I got from Freshtripe :)

I'm waiting for my Compass Loup Loup Pass tyres to be delivered from Velo Vitality, can't wait to try them!

Compass Loup Loup Pass

They will be quick as a summer tyre should be. You might kill it in winter though.

Yeah, I might go back to the Kojaks for winter training, I don't want to ruin the LL's, they were not cheap! Doing the Strathpuffer MTB race in January so the CDF is going to be in full winter beast mode.

Indeed. I think i need to start considering winter tyres too. So soon :(

I don't want to ruin the LL.

I did winter riding on those as well as the Hetres, actually two winters on Hetres and one on Loup Loup.

They're fine as long you don't go too high a pressure (no more than 40psi, the low pressure and extreme suppleness is a great way to reduced chance of puncture.

Love this... been thinking of 650b on mine for ages, this has pretty much confirmed that I should do it!

100% worthwhile!

First post, Hi. And sorry for digging up an old thread..

Still liking the bike after some time on it?

I plan building a 650B CDF, but the 2016 model has some changes from previous years, so need some advice:

Half a degree slacker HA is corresponded with a 5mm more rake fork (now 50mm, previous was 45). Thorn fork is 52mm, so no big advantage from swapping the forks, right? Any other reason for doing so? Hows the handling now with yours? If you can imagine it'd be a any slower, would it kill the fun?

Also the BB drop is now 73, 2015 was 70, 2014 was 65. Which year model was yours? Any thoughts on the BB lovering issue? Have any idea how much did it drop with your setup and have you had to time your pedal strokes for that reason while cornering/riding trails?

Any advice from OP or anyone else much appreciated!

Slacker headtube and more rake mean handling will be similar to previous model.

Smaller tyres mean less trail thus always a little more nimble than 700c, moreso when compare to 700c X 38mm

This I understand. What I was saying with the older model you could shorten the trail by installing the 7mm more rake Thorn fork. Doing the same only adds 2mm more rake to the 2016 model. Don't know if this is something you could actually feel and worth the price of a new fork.

I'm also in belief that although smaller tyres give less trail and so more nimble, at the same time the idea of running smaller tyres is having room for wider tyres (650B 42mm) that in contrary make the bike less nimble, so all in all we end up where we started (700C 32mm), nimble wise. So with a front load I wont be getting that magical nimble rando steering we are searching for.

I would says its not 100% necessary unless you want a proper low- trail design rather than mid (using 650b X 42mm).

The current fork with a 650b wheels will help make it feel more like a road bike and work with everyone.

If you want a low trail geometry, it's best to simply get either a custom fork or a different frames, incidentally a custom fork is a little more expensive than the standard Thorn fork (about £200).

FWIW I ride with a massively low BB of 83mm with 170mm cranks, it's actually lovely and decent with MTB pedals.

My tourer is 75mm (650b).

MTB pedals you mean flats or MTB clipless?

So you're saying go for it? You're right I can always fine tune and buy a custom fork later.

Thanks for your input!

Clipless, unless you want to ride on big flat MTB pedals.

Get whichever bike that appeal to you greatly.

Wow sorry @pate, totally missed your questions, but Ed's about a million percent more clued up that I am so that's probably for the best!

Haven't updated this in ages. Still flipping love it. Did most of the Festive 500 on it, which I loved. Thanks to the ridiculously warm weather I thought it was pretty easy if you have the luxury of time, and being able to spend hours a day riding is indeed quite a luxury.

@jtrent90 (BigxTop) done made me a rando bag which arrived just in time for Christmas and was almost instantly reduced to glorified mince pie/camera pouch. I love it.

Despite nearly 2500 miles on the bike now, I've done very little riding that isn't commuting, so being able to take longer rides and potter about on trails and tracks during the 500 was a lot of fun.

Anyway here's some snaps.

Christmas eve

Christmas day

Boxing day (rode to a shithole town specifically to lurk about under concrete in the rain)

Now with M18 fitted last weekend. 'scuse the dirt.

Very nice. Did you have to buy new struts for the M18 or did they reach the lowrider bosses anyway?

@Silly_Savage Thanks!

They just reached, and I do mean just. Though maybe if the rack slid closer to the headtube there'd be more strut to play with. Any closer and I'd not be able to get the bag's loop onto the decaleur (?) thing on the rack.