Real life experience with 1 bike - two wheelsets?

[MattTuck]

I've recently been digging the Crumpton Type 5 All Road bike, which is billed as

Utilizing the same flat-mount brake and 12x142 through axle standards we’ve redesigned the chain stays to accommodate more tire clearance. Maintaining the goal of being able to run full size road gearing and typical road geometry the new Type 5 All-Road accommodates up to 700c x 40 as well as 650b x 50 making it the ideal choice for those looking to pound pavement on Saturday and grind gravel on Sunday.

Now, let's be clear... I don't have the cash to buy this a bike. But the concept is intriguing and attractive on a couple levels. I am sure a respected builder could accomplish something similar in steel or Ti. I'm just curious if anyone has such a set up and if they are actually realizing the vision of switching the two wheel sets with regularity... or if it is just a dream, and you end up sticking with one set, and letting the other languish in the garage.

[TheseGoTo11]

Well, not exactly, but...I bought a Bombtrack Audax frameset last spring with the idea that I wanted high volume 650b wheels with more of a road-like geometry (not the long chainstays and slack headtube of many "gravel" bikes). I didn't necessarily intend to swap wheelsets. Having ridden the bike for the past 7 odd months, it definitely is what I had in mind. It's fendered up with fat 650's for the winter, but it's rated to clear 700x35 tires, too, and I feel would be a capable road bike with that setup. If I didn't already have a road bike with similar wheels, I'd likely swap, but have the luxury of a two-steed road stable.

Anyway, you might check this out. Could be the more affordable alternative to that lovely Crumpton. Happy to answer any questions about the Bombtrack.

[Duende]

Yes. Last weekend I rode the Sf city loop on Saturday, and did wildcat canyon on Sunday. I love swapping out my wheels and hitting the trails or road depending on my mood.

It’s really the perfect solution for me. If I was racing or a serious downhill MTB rider then, I’d probably need another bike or two. But for my needs, it suits me fine. So glad I finally bit the bullet and bought a second set of wheels!

[davidb]

Run two sets all the time. However, I use the same brand/model of hubs laced to different rims. Then it really is as easy as just axle out - wheel off -wheel in - axle in = go ride. I know that all hubs are supposed to be spaced the same. With disc you need to things to be exactly the same, cassette/chain line and rotor. Well, most hubs get one the same. I have has the scenario that requires adjust rear derailleur set screws and or caliper alignment. In that case, you are right one wheelset just sits, becomes dusty and unused.

[joosttx]

I had a winter and a spring, summer and fall set of wheels. I rode my winter wheels in the wet winter and the other set when the weather was nice .

[Ken Robb]

I had two sets of wheels for my Rambouillet with 700x25 tires on one set and 700x35 on the other and swapped them around to suit my planned rides. Because the Rambo is spaced at 132.5mm in back I got some XT hubs with Mavic touring rims but I was happy with both size tires on Open Pros so I never used the wider rim set. I did have to let a little air out of the wider tires to squeeze them past the brakes that we adjusted to suit the OP rims.

[Spdntrxi]

I had originally purchased a Parlee Z-Zero XD (much like that Crumpton in looks and cost) with that in mind. Love the bike..semi-weight weenied to a limit since I wanted to take it off-road still.... Long story short despite a lightweight skinny tire setup it ( and I mean I) came up a little short on the faster group rides.

I still have 3 wheel sets I use with the bike.. road only and 2 650b setups and still love it, but it's now definitely more of a GRAVEL bike now. Suspension stem, dropper post , 1x drivetrain and ~8kg.

Purchased another Aero Road machine for those Saturdays on the rivet.

[fa63]

Similar experience here. My Argon18 Dark Matter rides fine with skinny road tires, but when the pace picks up, I am happier when I am on my Felt FR.

If most of my rides were solo, I would be happy riding the Argon18 all the time.

Originally Posted by Spdntrxi

I had originally purchased a Parlee Z-Zero XD (much like that Crumpton in looks and cost) with that in mind. Love the bike..semi-weight weenied to a limit since I wanted to take it off-road still.... Long story short despite a lightweight skinny tire setup it ( and I mean I) came up a little short on the faster group rides.

I still have 3 wheel sets I use with the bike.. road only and 2 650b setups and still love it, but it's now definitely more of a GRAVEL bike now. Suspension stem, dropper post , 1x drivetrain and ~8kg.

Purchased another Aero Road machine for those Saturdays on the rivet.

[redir]

I think that's pretty cool. You can put some nice fat tires on the 650's and it almost has the same circumference as a road tire on the 700c.

[Lanternrouge]

If you think a two-wheel setup can work for your, an Open might be just enough bike to help you feel like you don't really need to get the Crumpton so you may be able to go through with it. Of course, I think my money no object bike would be exactly what you're looking at right now.

[Kirk007]

I think you need to know how big you want/need to go. For road riding I much prefer a 700 x 26-28 tire, which has about the same circumference as a 650b x 42. A 650B x 47mm is roughly the same circumference as a 700c x 38, which I find too big for my liking on the road. So which range do you optimize for? 650 x 42 may be a bit too small for really rough stuff but if you design the bike around 650b x 47 then you may be changng things like bottom bracket height that impact the ride on the road with smaller tires. I think you can get a reasonable compromise, but it's still a compromise at one end or the other.

I like my 333Fab AirLandSeawith 650b x 47 tires, it does less for me with 700c wheels. If it was a one and only bike I could live with it but it's not the ideal bike for every ride.

All that said I would trust Nick to be able to pull together a killer bike.

[AZR3]

ive been living with a single bike and two wheels sets for almost two years and so far I have no regrets. I have an Exploro and switch between 650b with 47mm gravel tires and aero 56mm deep road wheels with 28mm tires. I’m running 1x so it might be a little constrained as far as gearing for certain days but a cassette/chainring swap and I’m good to go.

[d_douglas]

I see no reason why it wouldn’t work as long as you stay within the bounds of recommended tire volume.

I bought a 650b wheelset for my redline today commuter and while it looks awesome, I feel that it rides better at 700c. This may be as the result of it being ‘old geometry’ (aka level top tube and near road geometry).

I sold the wheels and am convinced that 29er is my size, with my mtb being the outlier.



.** you really should buy that Crumpton though

[SeanScott]

I have a 1 bike 2 wheel set-up and so far it doesn't work perfectly.
Both the brakes and shifting need adjusting everytime I swap.
It is di2 and disc with two differnt types of wheel sets, same cassette.
I believe in order to make it work everything should be identical.

[merckx]

Back in the day everyone had one bicycle, and two pair of wheels. One pair was a set of MA40s for training. In the shoulder seasons I would mount a pair of Michelin Hi-Lite 28c cross tires on them and ride the local dirt roads. This was in the 1980's. Most steel Italian framesets accommodated tires of this size. Otherwise, the MA40s would be the standard training wheelset. The other pair of wheels were a pair of tubs. These were usually GP4s, or GL330s. They were mounted for competitive events. This is all that was ever necessary. We were happy to have one good machine, a couple of wheelsets, and a good pair of shoes.