Why do the French always have to be a PITA. After reading this thread and seeing pics and mentions of a 650b Px10 I thought why not let's give it a try. I have a 72 px10 that has been repainted and upgraded with a mostly NR Campagnolo drivetrain. It also has a French Cinelli stem. I have been looking for a long French Cinelli with no luck. I bought it earlier this year and with the too short stem and needing new tubular tires I have ridden it. So I figured a 650b conversion might be in order.

I test fit the 650b wheels I pulled from an 80's schwinn mtn bike and put on a set of col de la vie tires I bought awhile ago. Everything fit perfectly and I found some weinmann 750 brakes that reach with room to spare. Then I found why the French can be a pain. The bolt hole on the fork isnt drilled even close to straight. I have thought of a few options and think I am going to replace the fork with a dimension 700c I can get from work. This way I can fix my brake issue and stem issue all at once. The wheels are steel hubs laced to single wall aluminum rims. I rebuilt both hubs at work today and converted the rear to a q/r instead of the stock bolt on.

I am thinking Tiagra hubs to Velocity Dyad rims running a 7 or 8 speed cassette friction shifted of course. The bar and stem will be Nitto Noodles and a Technomic I just traded for the other day. The CdlV tires will stay in the meantime and I plan to order some Tektro R556 brakes along with the wheel parts and fork. I just hope the fork can fit the 650b rims and the tektro brake has enough reach. It has the same axle to crown as the stock PX10 fork so I hope it will work.