So continuing with my daft questions, and having now spent getting on for 500 miles 'gaining' experience on my new gravel bike, I'm now thinking of adding to my biking repertoire with an alternative, gnarlier wheel/tyre/rear cassette set up that I can pop on and off, depending on my intended route for the day. To be fair the bike is already pretty gnarly, but I like the idea of being able to mod/twat about with the bike at my whim.
I appreciate that most of you guys are more geared up for pure road biking stuff but any steerage you can give me would be great either way. I don't want a mountain bike by the way (at least not yet anyway) but do like the idea of making my existing bike more flexible
My new set up would be with 650b wheels (27.5 inch), wider tyres and maybe a lower set of of rear wheel cogs
My bike frame is 'medium' and with the 700c wheels attached I'm just tall enough to fit comfortably and stand over the crossbar without knackering myself. I've got everything set up well and am really comfortable in the saddle. I am quite small though, at 5 ft 7, so I figure that the 650b wheels will seem a super fit for me, giving me small drop in height and making for a more compact unit. With their smaller circumference they'll also effectively act as a lower gearing I'd guess. I have quick release wheel fittings so I'll need to make sure the new wheels are compatible with this (and maybe need some kind of QR conversion kit?)
My existing tyres are 40mm but, with the new wheel size, I'm thinking of some 42mm gravel bike tyres. I think the bike will have sufficient clearance for these (the spec says up to 50mm on the front and 44mm on the back) but I understand that tyres can come up wider than their spec so I may have to be careful with tyre choice
I now understand a point that had originally appeared complete gobbledygook to me in that I can fit a new lower rear set of cogs to my new back wheel, using a CS-HG50-10 Shimano cassette, which gives me a 36-tooth sprocket - two extra sprockets than what I have at the minute I'm thinking/guessing which can only come in handy around here
Having done a shed load of internet searching, I've found a possible set up of what might fit the bill:
Shimano CS-HG50-10 11-36t cassette
Fulcrum Rapid Red C24 gravel wheelset
WTB Resolute TCS Light Fast tyres
Tell me why I'm being stupid and what if anything I've missed
Thanks