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Lynskey GR250: Checkpoint “Plan B”- by Grannygear
Editor’s note: Grannygear, our SoCal friend and editor over at TwentynineInches.com, is also a back road, gravel riding fan. He has written reviews for us previously and here we share his latest project- A titanium framed gravel road rig from Lynskey. His introduction to this bike can be found by clicking the link HERE and his first Checkpoint post is HERE.
Plan B- What Are The Options? One of the things that attracted me to the Lynskey GR250 was the ability to run up to a 2.1″ 650B/27.5″ tire. So while the aluminum Gen2 Warbird I had would handle a 42X700c tire, which was as big as I would ever want to run in that wheel size for that kind of bike, it would not work with the smaller wheel and bigger tire combo. The widest part of the 650b tire would interfere with the shaped chain stay on the Warbird. Basically the 650b set up ended up ‘out of the pocket’ so to speak. I figured with the GR250 I could run a 27.5 XC type MTB tire for days where the trail conditions would be rough and loose. How often would that be?
Now then I had some concerns as to bottom bracket height. The GR250 has 75mms of bottom bracket drop and that is really good for stability on loose surfaces at speed , but not so good if you are inching that bottom bracket closer to the ground with smaller wheels. Pedal strikes coming to a corner near you? Also I needed to build some 650B wheels. How and what to use?
The wheels built up at 884g/754g for the F/R. 1638g total. That is not bad at all for 32 spokes and brass nips. I taped them with Gorilla Tape (WTB does have their own tape but they forgot to send some) and I used WTB branded stems.
NOTE: The Lynskey GR250 frame and 3T fork were purchased by Grannygear and is being reviewed/tested for RidingGravel.com. RidingGravel.com is not being paid nor bribed for this review and we will strive to give our honest thoughts and opinions throughout.