European members, help request! (650B Randonneur wtd)

Hi all. Long-time lurker and appreciator of classic bikes here. I've always liked the idea of a retro project but never really had anything in mind that would actually get the use to justify it.

I'm doing more longer road rides carrying some stuff for weekends away and have done a few road tours in France. Been riding my audax-style road bike loaded up and it's great, just not as pretty as some of these old bikes. Slowly come around to the fact I need a 650B rando bike in my garage.. but they're not easy to find. Probably for a shimmying, flexy, low-trail reason! I'll find out : )
Perfect retrobike project aim though huh, potentially too expensive, good chance of rubbish handling, loads of component incompatibility, plus language barriers.. ! (my French is passable, but not good enough to really help here)

If anyone can point me in the right direction or knows of a bike or F+F suitable for a 6ft rider, I have funds waiting. It has to be something worth investing time in but a Singer is above my budget. So far I've found Le Bon Coin and looked on french ebay but not much coming up, esp in 58-59cm (~570-575mm TT?)

It'll be fully worked on (re-chrome and paint, parts etc as needed) and posted up here when I'm done.

Thanks for any help you can offer,

Cheers
James

Hi James

Responded to your thread on STW Intrigued why 650b? :? Is it for sturdiness? Apologies not something I know a lot about as tend to only take interest in 700c versions. Why not a 700c bike? Plenty of good examples about

expensive: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Jack-Taylor-6 ... 43c0e02a3a

and http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/bicycle-colle ... 19e35e935e

Andy

Hi Andy - 650B, just a fan of the French / Rando style and that was a part of it. Elegant bikes designed for long distances. Something a bit different to what I'm used to, that kind of thing. Plus I have a few 700C bikes already (new not retro rides).

How could anyone not love something like this? : )



..apart from the £4k price once you've found all the bits.

Cheers, James

Oh that's lovely, but 6 years have made me wheelist sadly

This ones lovely

I posted that one first, then a quick edit when I saw it had 700Cs on it : )

oh did you?

Thing is though the little wheeler above is what a 52/54. Does look lovely, but might look a bit odd on a bigger frame. Would look a bit odd on a 62-64 for me for instance. Totally get the aesthetics of riding a classic bike though, but then that why we are here.

Well they all look the same from a distance really..! They do look a little less road-proportional in the size I'd want, more like an old '84-85 MTB, but maybe that's why I like them.