Originally Posted by
David Newton
Not enough specifics to opinionate.
Why in the world would you want to convert a bike originally 26 x 1 3/8?
Everything else is more expensive, except maybe mountain bike stuff, which would hardly work anyway.
Weight savings, perhaps? I'm thinking of doing the same to my Schwinn LeTour, which has Schwinn S-6 (26 x 1 3/8) rims. The ISO of 650B rims are about 1 cm off, so one should be able to use the same brakes without issue. My girlfriend's bike also has 26 x 1 3/8 rims (steel, even!), and the weight savings from only a new wheelset made her a lot faster in the saddle.
Yeah, it's expensive, but people have done worse.