I also like the 559 wheel size. Mainly due to the stronger wheels available to heavier than "normal" riders such as myself. (Okay, I'm fat. Not as fat as before, but still fat.)
My Atlantis is 559 and my newly acquired Surly LHT is also 559 (in 58 cm frame, too). There are a few reasons why I think a new Riv 559 might not work - 1. When 559 was more common (Custom and Atlantis) 650B wasn't widely available. Now, there are more 650B. 2. Related to above - "back in the day" there weren't wide 700C tires available. Now 35s are not too uncommon and 40 or more is available. So one can get at least semi-wide on a non 559 bike. 3. Surly just came out with a 559 LHT in the bigger frame sizes. And from early indications, it's a slow start. Maybe things will pick up in the spring, but QBP didn't sell the 58s and 62s quickly. So the demand just might not be there. Would I like to see one? Yeah. But don't think the buying public is willing to shell out the money for it. At least not right now in the current economy. Eric Platt St. Paul, MN On Jan 7, 6:19�pm, beth h <[email protected]> wrote: > At the end of a lengthy and thoughtful discussion between me and a Riv- > owner who's mad for 650b, his upshot was that there just isn't enough > "passion" (his word), not enough mystique (my word) perhaps, to get > the bike industry excited about making super high-end tires in a 559 > (26" ATB) wheel size, or for that matter, mass-producing a > "sensible" (um, Atlantis-styled) 559-dedicated frameset to garner more > attention and raise something near the level of novel buzz that 650b > has generated. > > After giving this a lot of thought, I find myself wanting to be the > cheerleader for more and better bicycles built around this still- > useful and awesome wheel size. > > True, there are a lot of 20-year-old steel mountain bike frames out > there that can be rebuilt as all-rounder type bikes -- but either > their owners are selling them on ebay for tons of money, or they're > sitting on the frames expecting their cache to increase further > someday. > > As someone with four bikes and three of them built around 559 wheels, > I just feel worried that the love for 559 is going to fade at RBW. > Yes, some Atlantis framesets are still available, but after this it's > unclear what the future of the Atlantis will be (and so far, the > Rivendellians have said little). > > Am I the only one on this list who really, deeply cares about the > future of 559-wheeled bikes? If anyone else out there loves 559 like I > do, write in and say why, and what you hope the future brings for a > Rivendell model built around 559. > Atlantis? > Notlantis? > Feel free to opine. > Beth, considering a jersey design for lovers of this wheel size...
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