All The Six Fifty Bees Thread! (650b, 27.5 etc.).

Are the KOMs a good option for everyday commuting / light gravel/offroad days out or would the Frequency be a better choice for that? I noticed the latter are on a deal too + have i-beam but they are heavier and don't look as cool :/

KOMs are much tougher than the weight would indicate. I have them on my Salsa, which takes a LOT of touring/shopping weight and curb hopping, my Kona, which is a rigid singlespeed I abuse to the fullest, and I had them on my longer travel hardtail too. None of them have gone out of true or felt noodly. Just put i21s on Kate's new tourer and I'd have got them for my new full sus, if I could find them at a reasonable cost in wide 29" flavour.

And they look ace.

double post!

Awesome, thanks so much! Very reassuring.

The £20 shipping is pretty annoying though! Rims seem to == wheels and therefore don't qualify for free postage ANGRYFACE

Not sure what's going on there. Postage comes to £3.99 for me (going to order some too I think). Have you got it set to the right country?

Aha. I wanted two pairs, played around with quantities and it turns out postage for 2 rims is £3.99, 3 is £30, 4 is £20.... dafuq?!

Weird. PX website is always a bit of a shambles.

yeah sometimes you have to buy in 'batches'

How many rims in a batch? 4/8/12 rims shipped to the Netherlands is 115GBP... I don't get it. I ship a frameset/disassembled bike tracked/traced/insured to UK for 18 GBP/20€.

there was one of the 650b rims i tried to buy last year that was £20 postage on its own, but if i bought a saddle as well suddenly it was just normal price!

Planet X is shit on international postage. It’s also 37gbp for one frameset and 140gbp for two

I'll try to ad same small parts then. Have asked about the postage and will post the answer here when I get it. Postage of frame(set) used to be reasonable in the past (4 years ago?).

Yeah, it changed right around then. Since then it’s been to expensive to buy from them (from Denmark), it’s like they tried to brexit themselves beforehand.

An 'answer' to my shipping costs-question:

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You're not wrong in thinking it might look naff.

But, since having this setup, I've honestly never ridden this bike without the bag!

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Thanks, really appreciate that

So I've ordered Novatec hubs and WTB i21 rims - does anyone have a suggestion for spokes?

Are i21 rims wide enough for 1.75 tires?

Probably not.

Would be fine I think

I've been running i21s for a few years and currently have 2.2" front and 1.9" rear. Have thought about replacing them with something wider but also have had zero problems with them

As long as you dont drop your pressure too low, so it wont want to roll off the side.

But think about all the 2.25" and bigger tires that are run on retro mtb rims, which are narrower than the i21

I was running 2.1" slicks on 17mm rims. It was fine.

These are great spokes:
https://www.sapim.be/spokes/butted/d-light

I was going to offer you Sapim Lasers but it seems that they are not suitable for use with disc brakes.

Anyway, before ordering the spokes I suggest you to discuss it with a person who is going to build your wheels

https://www.cyclebasket.com/m9b0s454p979/ACI_Alpina_Stainless_Steel_DB_Spokes_Silver_Singles_

For cheap. Quality seems to be alright, I've used them in a couple of builds. 24p per spoke including a brass nipple.

What are the downsides? Butted are stronger?

Downsides? The threads don't seem as neat as DT/Sapim spokes but you really can't go wrong at the price, especially for a budget build.