For about a year now I have been contemplating adding a second wheel set to my 700c Norco Valence Endurance bike, the bike I use for lighter road touring/long distance rides.
https://www.norco.com/bike-archives/...alence-tiagra/
As part of a plan to reduce my fleet I want to have two touring bikes that span all the conditions I might consider touring. Road - gravel - bikepacking - remote/off road. To do this I figured two bikes, with two wheel sets would do. As well as two bikes, I use the same set of bags, adjusted for needs modular style, for both bikes. This build is part A of the plan.
This is my bike with the 700c wheel set. I've retrofitted the 11-32 cassette to an 11-36 for better climbing. I usually use either 28 or 32mm Gatorskins for flat protection or more recently 28mm GP 5000's, which are pretty fast.
Light
Loaded
So, I finally bought a set of 650b rims (Evo Touring) and fitted them with a similar 11-36 cassette. At first I tried a set of 48mm tires but they just didn't clear the fork or stays so I ordered a pair of WTB Resolute 42mm. They fit with mm's to spare and I took it out for a test ride today. A little slower than before but still fast on pavement. The Resolute has a small knob pattern that allows good traction and is different enough from my road tread to not be redundant. These tires look about as wide as my other 26x1.75 tires.
Because both wheelsets are disc brake there was no problem swapping diameters and the indexing for each cassette remained intact. Swapping out the wheel sets takes all of two minutes and is no hassle as everything aligns properly. The BB clearance going from 700c to 650b needs to be considered and 48mm 650b would have been ideal, but 42mm is still not bad. This bike has a high BB regardless as it is a 60.5 frame.
Now I can begin fine tuning things.
The fenders are a temporary clip on style that I add and take off depending, but I think I will add a more permanent set - maybe, still debating. Yep, the rear one looks goofy.
I'm also using a second stem for my HB bag and want to find a more downward angled one to drop the bag more, so my aero bars can be put back on.
Lastly, I recently learned about adding larger rotors by fitting an adapter. These are 160's but I may bump both front wheel sets up to 180.
FWIW, my second touring bike is a Specialized Fatboy with 26x4.6 tires. To this I plan to add a second set of 29x3" wheels which keeps the BB at the same height. Also, for that set, a suspension fork.
