Originally Posted by
joejack951
Who's talking specifically about road racing bikes here? No one has previously mentioned 'neutral support' which is a laughable concept for most of us. I have never gone out on a bike ride with the idea that someone other than myself would be responsible for repairing my bike or making arrangements to get me back home. So far, so good (and I've never been stranded by a tube/tire failure).
I'm more likely to go on a group MTB ride than a group road ride FWIW, and based on what I see on Strava I'm not alone there.
All I see against smaller-than-700c wheels so far in this thread is tradition and a basic reluctance to accept that one size doesn't fit all.
I didn't mean that we are all engaged in racing, I was talking about the origin of the 700c 'tradition", which road bikes are generally wrapped up in while other cycling types don't care much about wheel size. I was talking about the psychology of the pressure to use 700c, not about whether it is important to do so.
It seems "laughable" that you failed to read when I said:
There is no reason not to use 650c wheels if you want to...