Well I did it. Bought myself a Stan's NoTubes 650b wheelset. Okay, so there are no Tubeless 650b tires out there yet, but I guess that's the disadvantage of being cutting edge (I'm also guessing I could make these Kenda 2.35 Nevegals tubeless if I tried). As I explained in my earlier post, the frame was gift from my riding buddy Spike. I have always had a soft spot for a chromed bike, but now I had to figure out what to do with it. I already had a rigid bike, so I tried riding the SASS as a fixed gear. Very cool, but I was using the rear wheel from my other rigid bike so, I still needed to make the SASS unique in my stable. Then it came to me, All my mountain bikes are 26" and Spike riding a 29er. The SASS has tons of room for bigger wheels, so why not go with 650b. I wanted to keep the wheels under $500, but the choices in 650b rims is still pretty limited, especially if you want a rim with can handle rim brakes (needed for a flip flop hub). The choices seemed to be between a Velocity Dyad, Weimann Discovery or Stan's No Tubes ZTR355. Hub wise I wanted a disc freehub and not necessarily SS specific; disc because a SASS is a disc specific frame (although I'm going to use a an old style cantilever on the back) and I have plans on drilling a cog to fit the rear disc mount. Oh yes, and I'm gonna need a wide base cog, as the freehub shell is aluminum; staring out with a 32:20.
As I said at the begining, I decided on the Stans Notubes Wheelset. The one thing I did not think through, was the mounting of the rear wheel with a skewer; the house hub Stan uses is a cartridge bearing type. I have never used a horizontal tensioner, but in this case I might have to, as I don't think the hub can be easily converted to a solid axle. I installed the tires and mounted the wheels. There is tons of room for the extra 3/4" radius and 2.35 tires, except you can not push the rear wheel all the way forward in the horizontal dropouts, or you will run into the chain stay brace, but it's really a non-issue as there is over 2" of adjustment.
The only real issue is using the rear skewer. I tried the skewer that came with the wheels and didn't even come close to holding the wheel. I replaced it with an old Shimano and I could not get it to move, but tomorrow will be the test. Yes, tomorrow, Spike and I go to Demo Forest. I don't really know if the additional 3/4" will make that much difference, but it's well known that 1 1/2" does, so I'll let you know.
As I said at the begining, I decided on the Stans Notubes Wheelset. The one thing I did not think through, was the mounting of the rear wheel with a skewer; the house hub Stan uses is a cartridge bearing type. I have never used a horizontal tensioner, but in this case I might have to, as I don't think the hub can be easily converted to a solid axle. I installed the tires and mounted the wheels. There is tons of room for the extra 3/4" radius and 2.35 tires, except you can not push the rear wheel all the way forward in the horizontal dropouts, or you will run into the chain stay brace, but it's really a non-issue as there is over 2" of adjustment.
The only real issue is using the rear skewer. I tried the skewer that came with the wheels and didn't even come close to holding the wheel. I replaced it with an old Shimano and I could not get it to move, but tomorrow will be the test. Yes, tomorrow, Spike and I go to Demo Forest. I don't really know if the additional 3/4" will make that much difference, but it's well known that 1 1/2" does, so I'll let you know.