Wheelbuilding / Wheel Building / Wheel build help

I don't road tour enough to justify an all out asphalt 650b tourer...so I'm thinking of building a set of 650b wheels for the roadbike with long drop calipers. Obviously need to check the fork clearances etc, but my question is are there any road touring specific rims? All the 650b rims I've found are for disc-mtb...not sure if it's appropriate for a braking surface.

Which spokes did you get? And did the novatech hub take the bladed spokes okay?

Edit: oh, think I've found them

Velocity made a rim called the Synergy but it seems hard to get over here.

VO make a polished-finish 25mm-wide rim called the Diagonale which FreshTripe stock.

Pacenti make a 650b version of their fancy-pants tubeless rim but it's expensive (and previous versions had issues).

Seem to be a few euro online stores with 28H DT Swiss R460 in stock but 32H nowhere to be seen.

These:
http://www.cnc-bike.de/product_info.php?products_id=1337

They fit fine through the hub hole, not very wide blades plus the holes are very slightly slotted.

650b rims with long drop calipers. Somyou want rubbish braking then. 650b is a disc brake rim size now. very few rims about for rim brakes that you can buy in the u.k. in fact there may be none in the u.k. dutch shops and some ammerican stores may have them. 650b was a older size going back a few decades. You cant even get a good selection of road tyres for them. Why not use 700c wheels alot easier.

Schwalbe Kojak 35-584 folding? SJS has them.

The range of tyres, rims, frames and number of riders is actually growing. You heard it here first.

Why not use 700c wheels alot easier.

For me it was to run larger tyres and full mudguards on an available road frame.

rubbish braking

It's absolutely fine with my experience of Tektro 559s. In fact just fitting some swissstop blues puts them way ahead of short-drops on standard pads.

650b road tyres are available from;
Compass
Grand Bois
Panaracer
Soma
Hutchinson
Michelin
Rivendell
... and probably others.

3 tyres is not alot of choice but thanks for the info its more than i thought.

Glad to know swiss stop pads improve these brakes. I sell them and used them on an old spectrum and found them lacklustre. Sold the bike as i was not using it as it had toe overlap for me.

That was the plan, 650b to run about 30-34c sized tyres in my road frame (which has about 1mm clearance with 700c/25 to seat tube). Tektro long drops have been reviewing quite well, especially with upgraded pads.

Cheers @miro_o , I was spying the synergy, I'll have to see if I can hunt a pair down from somewhere.

I managed to get some NIB Chris King R45 hubs (18h front, 24h rear) for a song over here (I should preface by saying that I live in Japan - the only relevance to this being the quality of the roads, i.e. a lot better than the UK).

Speaking to my mechanic friend here, his cyclocross team use Chinese/Taiwanese carbon rims and he proposes using these and, from the Chinese carbon thread, I don't see this as a problem.

Also, he will use Sapim CX-Ray spokes for the build (together with some good quality nipples).

I will enter some hill climb races this year over here and so, as you'd imagine, want to build something as light as possible. I'm also thinking that I'd like something I can ride fairly regularly for long-ish (100km+) weekend rides.

Given this, I'm looking for some thoughts from you guys on rim depth and/or the wheel build in general (I am thinking 24mm depth with 23mm width in a clincher for general ease of use).

Tubs? Might as well go 38mm, still really light and bit of aeros too.

There are lots of 30mm tub rims to choose from. I think they should be a bit stiffer than the shallow box section rims and only heavier by a few grams.

Carbon clinchers are likely to delaminate if you ride interesting roads.

I can only see 38mm or 24mm for most Chinese carbon places...

Plus, I had considered tubs but wonder whether they may be a bit of a risk (even here with the nice roads, the mountain roads are a full of stones etc that may cause punctures).

How much do you weigh?

I'd go With 38mm wide U tubs for everyday climbers. ACE do some Nice ones. They'd biuld into a stiff wheelset at 18/24.
If you're lightish and seriously want climbing Wheels, then theres Gigantex rims at BikeHubStore 30mm deep by 25mm wide (so still wide) that claim they are 300g

Weather or not you want tubs is Down to Your own experiance.

Puncturing isnt a disaster on tubs. You can usually just empty a can of pitstop into them and carry on. Or on a longer ride carry a spare.

But if you find you puncture frequently. Replacing tubs is far more expensive than replacing inners obviously.

I weigh 65kg at the moment...

I know I will have cursed this but, in Japan (definitely not the case when I lived in London), I have never punctured.

In other News I'm looking for some Magic rims.

Tubular
Alu braking
Light as feck
Quite wide 23mm+
bit of Depth 25mm+. As I plan to use a 20/24 hubset.
Cheap.

Currently thinking Kinlin TB20. Any other suggestions?

I toyed with the idea of the R460 and couldn't be bothered to wait so went the R440 route, asymmetric at the rear.

Smart looking rims when laced to Chris King R45s

I'd go tubular.

Lighter and nicer rolling on the way up, and carbon tubular rims are a far better idea for descending than cheap/light/carbon clinchers.

Try and Source these locally?
http://www.bikehubstore.com/product-p/wh133ul-2024.htm

I'm into those if I can find them (just dropped an email to them to see about stockists in Japan) but am not entirely sure about the price.

Ultimately, they may well be perfect for use and better quality than the usual Chinese/Taiwanese rims but they are also double the price of the 38mm tubulars.

Its a big tax on the weight saving.

These are nearly as light for a lot less. I've just ordered some ACE rims. They are very Nice.

http://www.asiancyclexpress.com/road-cycle-cross/carbon-rims/wide-aero-series/38mm-tubular-wide-aero-carbon-road-rims-wa3t