Thanks all for your replies and advice! I agree that it's personal and individual, and ultimately the choice is up to me. It's comforting to hear from you all that there's not a lot of difference in the way the ride feels between 700c and 650b. I'm guessing that the 54 didn't feel right to me because the frame was a little smaller than what I wanted (forcing the stem and seatpost to be higher than I'm used to). A lot of the perfect fit, I agree, will be getting the right saddle, pedals, bars, stem -- the little stuff that gets tweaked along the way.
I'll use this bike mostly for commuting, but with some longer rides and some European inn-to-inn tours. I imagine I'll choose tires between 32 and 38. The bike will stay on the pavement most of the time. I'm in the Bay Area now, but getting ready to move to Berlin soon, so I probably won't have much a chance to take it on the famed California fire trails before I go. I think that the 55 is probably the way to go, if only because it will ease my paranoia about getting stuck in rural Belorussia with a broken rim. As for toe-overlap, I'm not too worried about that, since it's rarely been a problem for me so far. It's good to hear that wheel size alone probably wasn't the issue. This will be my only "nice" bike for the next several years, but if the budget expands a few years from now, I'll definitely consider adding a 650b to the line-up. Thanks again for your help! -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
