Originally Posted by
Moisture
First off, find what sort of diameter tires your bike was designed for. Whether you stick to 650b or 700c you want to stay close to that diameter, although you can deviate a little bit.
if you for example, use your 32t ring in the front, but use something with less than 42t for the rear cassette, you likely wouldn't need to resize the chain. All depends on how much you're choosing to deviate from whatever setup youve got now.
It's an Ibis Hakka MX. It's made to work with either 650b or 700c. The bike originally came with Ibis 700c carbon rims and I already bought a set of 42mm Rene Herse Snoqualmie Pass tires, which are supposed to be gravel rideable, but they are pretty slick and supple and good for pavement. The guy I bought it from never used those wheels and replaced them with Enve G27 650b wheels with WTB Venture 47mm tires. I have a road bike already, but since I have the 2 wheelsets for the gravel bike, I'd like to have two different setups depending on the ride I'm going on. However, all of the configurations need to be able to climb big hills.