Nordest Albarda On 650B
After 217 kilometers my new wheels have proven that 650B is my ideal road and gravel size. I made this discovery with my third Volagi Viaje years ago already. But for the last two years, I rode my latest bike, my Nordest Albarda, on a set of 700C wheels. Such wheels roll well, but they don't like to change direction as quickly as a smaller 650B wheel. I like a bike to be lively and agile. Directional stability can have its advantages, but I generally prefer quick, sharp steering. Switching my Albarda to smaller wheels, instantly gave me that. The bike is so much more fun to ride. Not just when going downhill, but when climbing as well. When riding up a climb out of the saddle, it always seemed like the 700C front wheel was working against me. After putting 650B wheels on the bike, that feeling is gone. The bike now is a better extension of myself when motoring up a climb out of the saddle.
At speed, the wheels and wider tires are an absolute treat. They smooth out everything. Rather than feeling road vibrations, it feels like sitting aboard a hovercraft. Most riders equate vibrations with speed. Narrow, hard tires transmit all the road chatter to the rider. So, when we feel the road more, we believe that we're going faster, even if the speedometer says otherwise. Separate your body from such vibrations, and you suddenly think that you aren't all that fast, even if the speedometer may say otherwise. I have yet to put enough miles on the bike to figure out how the 650B wheels affect my average speed. And this year isn't representative anyway. I'm unable to train nor rest as much as in the past.
I was probably one of the first Swiss riders to move from 26" to 29" wheels in 2006. I lived still in the US when I bought my first 29er but had already set things in motion to move back to Switzerland. I was long an advocate of the "bigger is better" movement. Interestingly, now that the 29" wheel has become the de facto standard from XC to downhill, I find myself moving away from the trend. I own two 650B road bikes, a 27.5" fat-bike and I just put a down payment on a 27.5" mountain bike. There are some interesting months ahead, as I need to shop for components. The frameset should be arriving sometime in August.
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Nordest Albarda 2023 Update
My Nordest Albarda was built on a budget in the fall of 2019. I used a Nox Composites wheelset that had previously been on my red Volagi Viaje. The braking system and 2x11-speed SRAM Red eTap HRD drivetrain were borrowed from my Ritte. In 2020, I purchased a SRAM Red AXS groupset for the Nordest and moved the eTap HRD parts back to the Ritte. In the spring of 2021, I asked 47° Nord to lace a pair of Chris King R45D hubs to a set of Light Bicycle 650B WR35 carbon rims. That’s how I’ve ridden the bike for the last two and a half years, sometimes swapping out the wheels using the Nox with grippier tires during the winter months.
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Nordest Albarda 2021 Update
When I built my Nordest Albarda in the fall of 2019, I didn’t spend the money to get all new parts for it. I took the SRAM Red eTap HRD groupset off my Ritte and used the Nox Composites wheels that had been on my red Volagi Viaje, which I had sold. A year later, the bike finally got its own drivetrain components. When I switched to 650B RoadPlus with my third Volagi Viaje, I was immediately sold on the slightly smaller but wider wheels. The Viaje felt way better with 650B wheels. If I weren’t climbing and descending as much, I’d be perfectly happy rolling around on 700C, but in the mountainous Jura, 650B just feels better.
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Nordest Albarda
Although the Nordest Albarda sort of was my 50th birthday present to myself, it was built on a tight budget using the wheels I had on my red Volagi Viaje and robbing my Ritte Snob Disc of most of its parts. Building the Albarda was a slow process. An hour one evening, two hours another evening, and sometimes more when I lost track of time. Everything was built in stages. One night, the BB and crankset. The next night, the drivetrain. One night headset and fork. Another for the brakes and one last evening to bleed them. No hiccups or problems, except that the Chris King headset Nordest sold with the frameset isn't suitable for the fork. At least not in my opinion. So, a Cane Creek 110 was installed instead. The fork and DT Swiss Centerlock lock ring didn't have enough clearance for me. Then I remembered that my wife's Alfine hub had an older DT Swiss lock ring with an inner spline. This one would leave a wider gap to the fork leg, so I swapped lock rings since it really doesn't matter what type of lock ring is on my wife's bike.
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