I've been nosing around 650b alternatives and thought I'd mention a couple of sorta off-topic newer tires here, just to have the info all in once place. And I've been messing around these past couple of days with a couple of the tires mentioned, so I have some observations and data.
As for tires that have already been mentioned, I haven't found any seemingly easy/reliable non-French sources for the Confriere. XXCycle is usually the first to pop up on google, I've bought from them before in pre-covid times. Not sure what air mail from France is like these days. The tires are pretty affordable at around $25ea at today's conversion rates, not sure what shipping costs. I thought I had a pair on hand, bought 10yrs+ ago, could only find one yesterday. The Confriere is lighter than my equally-aged Grand Bois Cypres standard, 280g vs 311g actual. Current spec is 267g for the Confriere and 320g/260g for the Grand Bois std/EL. Both tires are spec'd 32-584, while the Confriere measures a little bit wider, 33mm vs 32mm on Velocity Aerohead rims. But the Confriere has a tread overhand on the side of the tire, meaning the tread wraps around the side of the tire and sits above the casing, like the Vittoria Corsa tires, so the actual casing width is the same. At least on the ones I played with yesterday. The Confriere was probably never mounted/inflated, so it might expand some. The GBs were well-used, so they've stretched about all they will. The GB Cypres are readily available out of Japan, as long as retailers have stock and covid doesn't interfere with air shipments. Ordering direct from i's Bicycles in Kyoto, or Blue Lug in Tokyo, is pretty straightforward. Blue Lug I think will allow you to check out directly online with paypal, i's will send you a paypal invoice including air shipping costs after you order. Scott Davis also imports GB tires, and is their official US distributor, and he usually has listings on ebay. He had red-tread 32s on ebay yesterday, nothing with black tread. I think I saw him post elsewhere that he wasn't likely to get another shipment of anything till mid-May, due to covid impact on, I guess, everything. Japan domestic production/shipping, Japan retailer operations, US>Japan shipping. There are a couple/few alternatives that are narrower than 32mm, again sorta off-topic, but interesting. Schwalbe makes the G-One stubbly tire in a 30-584, but not in the highest-zoot Race spec. I think it's their second-tier spec, Performance or something. Continental makes the GP5000 in a 28-584. I'd get real fired up if they moved that up into the 32mm+ range. Both of those are relatively recent tires, but I also just saw that Ritchey makes the Tom Slick in a 28-584. The Tom Slick has been around for a long time, though there might have been changed/improvements over the years. As to why these narrower 584s exist, I think it's probably a Euro thing, with a lot of vintage especially French rando bikes designed around 23-32mm 650b tires. They also might be just the ticket if you had some weird aero-schmaero track time trial frame designed around 700x21c tires. 28mm 650b tires would get you more cush, and you'd probably still have decent ground clearance. Paul Brodek Hillsdale, NJ USA On Wednesday, April 22, 2020 at 6:55:41 AM UTC-4, Fullylugged wrote: > > The Continental Contact Speed is available as 650B x 32. Blackwall only. > (English supply) Hutchison Confriere is also 650B x 32 and has a gray > sidewall (French sellers). Grand Bois Cypres 650B x 32 is available with a > tan wall. (from Japan or from Berthoud). You can also ask on the 650B > list and hunt Craigs or Ebay lists. > > Soma B-Line (or Express if you find some around) all are listed as 38 but > run 36 on my bike. Instead of Nifty Swifty, which has wire bead, you might > see if you can get Maxy Fasty with fevlar. It's 33.4 mmm Tan sidewalls. > > Bruce (26" & 650B only!)in Alabama > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/582ca6d3-c12e-4faa-9fc7-94eab7dab64f%40googlegroups.com.
