I want to convert my old fuji club to 650b for more tire clearance. I have it set up as a single speed but am having issues finding a prebuilt 650b wheelset with a single speed freewheel. Any suggestions?

Thanks.

Have y'all tried getting a wheel built? That way you can choose the components you want such as a single speed hub and a 650b rim and get it built up. Single speed 650b in a road bike width is not really something that someone wants these days. There is no point in QBP or Wheelmaster or other distributors of wheels to make something like that because nobody sees it and nobody asks for it. Plus you are always better of going handbuilt that way you get to get what you want, how you want it and it will last and last. A professionally built set of wheels likely won't need much truing if any and with quality parts you aren't likely to have to do much aside from maybe switch or grease bearings on occasion.

Build your own! Single-speed wheels, like front wheels, are a great way to get your toes wet since they will end up symmetrically dished.

That's a 38mm reduction from 700c. Handling and steering will change. I suspect a pretty noticeable amount. You might check on Bike Cad or with a frame builder to get the exact number of how much trail reduction will occur. Your pedals will also be 19mm closer to the ground. That's not insignificant.

Bikes are designed with different geometry when 650b wheels are intended to be used. You might consider doing some more research before proceeding.

That's only if he uses the exact same tire width as before. Going from 700x23C to 650x42B would render the steering/handling/pedal strike thing moot, as the wheel diameter would stay the same.

That's why I said it's worth looking into.

I experienced the exact reverse problem.

I went from a 597mm old school Schwinn Lightweight rim to 700c. Also, from a 26 1/4 inch (31.75mm) tire to a 45mm tire. The trail increased to much. The effects were huge. I didn't mind reduced nimbleness and increased high speed stability. But the change introduced a significant (way too much) amount of low speed wheel flop. Freakin thing had a mind of it's own.

Ask at the bike shop, their distributors can assemble a wheel ready to ride for less than retail for the parts.
shipped to the LBS.

Now that sounds sucky! I hate wheel flop and heavy steering.

Did you consider re-raking that fork for less trail?

No because it was an old forged Ashtabula flat blade fork and therefore a critical component for the "Old Schwinn" build. It would be a huge (Nerd) faux pas to run a tubed fork on any of the entry level bikes. Plus the thing already had 50mm of rake. Finding a fork with 60mm or more would be as successful as unicorn hunting. And it would look wonky x 10.

By sheer accident, it all worked out perfectly. After a very short while I decided that the 45mm tires were WAY too heavy and had huge rolling resistance issues. On paper they were awesome, but on my bike they were horrible. I replaced them with 35mm Compass tires. The 10mm reduction was enough to get me over that invisible line and back into "normal" handling. BIG difference. Add to that all the benefits of the Compass EL tire and the bike went from a dreadful slog machine to a pleasure to ride.

Lesson learned to check every modification that affects geometry.

All's well that ends well.

I guess we shouldn't talk about brakes.

Profound post. A lot of valuable information and perspective. Wheel diameter makes a massive difference. Thank you for providing this info!

i put 700c wheels on my '97 gary fisher MTB, and it seemed to make little difference WRT handling, but when i put 26" (MTB) wheels on my '85 trek, made for old school 27" wheels, hands free riding was not only impossible, but dangerous to even try. 'death wobble", "speed wobble", "speed shimmy", type wobble occurred instantly.

but, interestingly, when i put a coaster brake on the Gary Fisher and restored the 26" wheels, and because i had no cables to worry about and could spin the front wheel, i experimented during a ride, by first turning the front wheel 180 degrees and rode like that for a while. mounting the bike was difficult with the handlbars in the way, so i loosened the stem and moved it 180 degrees, so that the handle bars were, in effect, normal when the fork was turned backwards. surprisingly, there was little difference in the ride, excepting the shorter wheelbase, even hands-free riding was easy.

what's all that about trail, again?

Of course it was. Running the fork reversed increased trail, making the bike more stable at speed.