I took a test drive of my Raleigh Ltd. 3 yesterday. At first, everything was fine. Then I tried to shift the SA 3-spd. hub and the cable broke at the chain linkage. Okay, so I'll cruise along in high gear. So Far, so good, just bebopping along then BAM! the rear wheel has a blowout. Dogs barking, children crying, ears bleeding. Dang! That was LOUD!

Well, I did overinflate the wheel a bit. And the tube wasn't exactly a 26 x 1 3/8. But once I got home and inspected the wheel, I noticed a couple of dings in the rim. So what was the cause of the blowout?

I've ordered a bona fide replacement tube and promised not to overinflate the tire again but I got to thinking that if it blew out again I was going to replace the rims.

I've got one choice for 650A rims and while considering this I got to thinking about how much praise has been heaped upon the 650B, a similar wheel that's just a teensy bit smaller. Both wheels are kinda rare, both normally run wider than the average road wheel. This website seems to think 650B is the cat's meow.

So, what do you think I should do?