For those into 650B or thinking of converting
 

This is my first post in the touring forum. I am normally in the C&V forum but this seemed more appropriate here I think.

Not sure if anyone posted this yet but Niagra is selling off their pre-built 650B wheels for a really low price. Awhile ago I had priced these out and they were fairly close to the budget Rivendells but now they are about half the cost of those.

Basically they are exactly the same specs as the budget 650B set that Rivendell sells except 32 spokes versus 36. I think it works out to less than $100 for the wheelset and if you figure in some truing by the local shop if needed you would still be into a set of wheel sway cheaper than Rivendell. In fact Niagra sell the Col de la vie tires cheaper than anywhere I have seen so you could get the tires, tubes wheelset and even a cassette for under $200. Best price I have seen so I thought I would point it out to those that may be interested.

http://www.niagaracycle.com/advanced...s=650b&x=0&y=0

The wheels at Rivendell use a better rim and a better and and most importantly are handbuilt. The Dimension wheels from niagara are machine built with lower end components. The last set of wheels i bought were machine built and put on a commuter, with less than 100 miles on them I had to have the rear wheel basically rebuilt. The lbs had to loosen up all the spoke and pretty much start from scratch. It was 40-45 bucks to have done and well worth it, I expect to do the same to the front wheel in the future.

If you do want some cheap machine built 650b wheels though, you can go to ebikestop.com and get the same that Niagara has cheaper.
http://www.ebikestop.com/dimension_f..._3x-WE6538.php

http://www.ebikestop.com/dimension_r..._3x-WE6539.php

These are what I am talking about at Rivendell. They are budget 650B sets with the Same Velocity Twin Hollow rims and Deore hub as the ones from Niagara that I linked to. Also they are machine built (at least it sounds like it from the description).

http://www.rivbike.com/products/list...product=18-312

I am fairly certain they are close to the same thing. Right?

Bumping an older thread but I noticed that Niagara is now closing these out at a really really low price. I got a set of these when I posted this, had them checked out by the LBS for final hand truing and have put quite a bit of miles on them. I think they are great for the price.

Anyway they are now down to less than $20 each. Got a new set just to have around and spent $42 shipped to my door. Heck the Deore rear hub cost less than that by itself.

They were the exact same wheels with the same rims, spokes, etc. but now they're all sold out. I bought a set before they were so cheap (d'oh!). They're machine built at Velocity (I think) but they're very well built. I've put hundreds of miles on the set I have and they're as true as the day I pulled them out of the box. I think Velocity Dyads are now the cheapest wheels available though you can slightly "off" ZAC-19s and Sun CR-18s at icyclesusa.com. I hear you can get tires on those rims with a little effort but getting 'em off is a big problem. I may try a cheap set of ZAC-19s anyway.