That would reduce the mechanical advantage of the brakes, but maybe enough to let you use them with short pull levers?

******g brilliant!

Also ******g brilliant!

First, do no harm. Don't mess up the integrity or alignment of the frame, break any parts, bend the fork or bars (worse than the may be), lose any of the screws, sell off the parts before you really know what you want to do in the build. Don't tighten the bolt on the front of the leather saddle. Don't separate the chain with a chain breaker if you don't have experience or you get a book or a few You tubes about how to do it. Don't just dive in and true the wheels or tension the spokes. Check that your seatpost is not too small or too loose for the seat tube collar or pinch bolt, before diving in with a ratchet wrench and starting to (OVER) tighten it.

Apologies for making this a big pile of negatives. I've been wrenching on our bikes and strays I bring home for maybe 50 years now, and I still have to tell myself some of these things, as I want to dive in and start pulling things off.

Other than that, just recognize your problems and questions, and use the experts to help you solve them. Looks like you're on that track!

oh....you are going to fit in :)

Thanks for all the responses so far! I had to take a break from the banter because the forum wouldn't let me post...

Setting aside the question of 650b vs 26... there's not a lot of either in 130mm rear spacing (or 126 for that matter, which is what this frame is)... Do you just build your own wheels? Is buying used wheels legit?

To be clear, all I have is a frameset, so I'm starting from scratch. A blessing and a curse I suppose. Here she is sprawled out in the sun

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...cc538afb4.jpeg

The venereal 531 :)

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...1e0ac3727f.jpg

I was happy to discover this bike shop is still in business! Plus it's a nice ride along the coast from here to Laguna beach, so I hope once the bike's roadworthy to take it over and say hi. Think the warranty's still good?

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...7c00c6f9bc.jpg

And just for fun, since we've been arguing about wheels. Here is the frame with a 26x2.125 front wheel from a beach cruiser and a 700x38 back wheel from a Miyata triplecross. To my math that averages out to 650b. Maybe mullets are coming back in style?

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...cc7301728c.jpg

"Venerable."

Big difference.

:D