Schwinn Mirada w/ 650B wheels
 

Howdy,

Just got this one today, haven't decided yet what I'm going to do with it.
18 speed gearing, Biopaced.
Tires are shot from age, everything else just needs minor attention, probably been hanging in someone's garage for the last decade or so.
Priced some tires online and it looks like about $30+ each locally or $15-20+ each mail ordered, so with my local market it doesn't make sense to add new tires to this so for now I'm just going to test fit some 26" wheels and see how they work out.
If I then like the ride and fit then I'll look into either adding new tires or will save the 650B wheels for some other project.

This Mirada seems to have reasonably long chainstays so it might work with panniers for me and my big feet to avoid heel strike, and if so then maybe I'll rig it up as a commuter bike with either the 26" wheels or with new 650B tires on the wheels that came with the bike.

Anyway, just thought I'd pop in and show something I've got going on currently.

I did a quick check fit when I finally got home tonight.

26" mtb wheels won't work with the brakes and knobby tires rub the rear stays.
27" road wheel clears the rear stays, rubs on the removable reflector mount, but won't happily work with the brakes.
Got too dark to dig for a 700c wheel to see if one of those would work.
So tomorrow I'll make a few calls locally to see what kind of tire deals I can drum up, in the mean time this bike is relegated to a corner.

edit: I might also test fit these 650B wheels on a mtb that I have set up as a commuter, probably too tall but still another angle to play with. Anyway, 5:00am comes early so good night.

I'm confused. Mirada's come with 26" wheels, do they not? At least the Mirada that I bought new did.

650B = 584mm; 26 x 1 3/8" (wheels found on Raleigh 3-speeds and the like and a rim size that you can get in new alloy Sun CR-18s) = 590mm. I'd guess the latter would work with the existing brakes.

http://sheldonbrown.com/rim-sizing.html

I'm going to have to look at the tires I have in the garage and see if I have any 26x1-1/2" ones. I know I have some 26x1-3/8" tires, but those are close but not right.

Right- 650B sometimes appears as 26 x 1-1/2 or 26 x 1-1/2 x 1-5/8. The English used to mark theirs 26 x 1-1/2 and certain Schwinn tandems show 26 x 1-1/2 x 1-5/8.

I guess my point of confusion is;

My wifes Mirada has 26" MTB wheels, (559mm). I've had knobbies as large as 2.1" on it with no rubbing issues.

They might have changed the clearances between the 26" and the 650B configurations. Without side x side comparison measurements it's hard to say why your's clears and this one doesn't. The 26" tires/wheels I tried do have some fairly knarly knobs, if I had tried the street treaded 26" tires/wheels I have then it might have worked (apart from the brakes issue).

Interesting. I didn't realize there were different 26" and 650B versions. My Mirada appears identical to yours save for being blue in color and a size or maybe two larger.

1991 only. Miradas and Frontiers came with the oddball 26 x 1-1/2" tires. Not really sure why they did that...

I have read both that it was to avoid import duties on the larger tires and that it was simply a specification error by a nameless engineer (fraction versus decimal). I have my doubts about either story, but I do have a mid-1980s Raleigh Grand Mesa with stock aluminum 650Bs (the online specs for 1985 say 26 X 1.5 steel rims, however). Raleigh also sold the much better equipped Tamarack with 650Bs.

I just sold my 650b Mirada. Heavy & nimble as an ocean liner. A much better riding bike than I had reason to hope. I converted mine to 700c rims after the rear 650b rim taco'ed. It worked, but only with 28-25mm tires. Brakes didn't fully hit the sidewalls. Rode mine all over the place.

[IMG]http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...ps9e870f1b.jpg[/IMG]

I like that, " heavy and nimble as an ocean liner ". :)

Nice to know that this one is a 1991 model.

This one is a hair small for me, but for what it is it will work while I have it.

Never knew about this Schwinn size gaff, I had read about Raleigh doing it. I recently swapped GT 700D's for 650B's with great success, but ISO 559 to 584? Maybe with Tri-Aligns, but $200 worth of vintage brakes to correct the problem isn't very appealing. 650B to 700C would be a stretch even with those brakes, but then again, there are always S/A drum brake hubs... and of course, moving down a size would then be quite possible. Canti posts make great lighting mounts.:)

Cost is a major determinate in this project, not worth lacing on new rims (at least to me, might be to someone else), so I'll just watch for a deal on tires or find a local shop with a dusty forgotten pair of tires stuffed into a corner of their shop. Or I'll just ride it around the neighborhood until the tires finish rotting away and blow out. :eek: ;)

I got a good deal on Weinmann ZAC19's, the only rim-brake 650b wheelset I could find at a decent prices, comes with RM-40 freehub and QR axles. I used them to replace a set of GT 700d's and they're pretty good for the price. I forget exactly where I got them but there are a couple sellers on ebay hawking them.

Also, I got some nice Conti TourRides in that size at biketiresdirect for around $40 shipped, and they also have 650b-specific tubes available.