So, I’m entering a mtb event in Feb that is open to cx/gravel bikes. Rather than doing it on the fatty, I’m thinking I’ll do it on the plug.
BUT….. With 650b wheels and tyres.

Has anyone tried 650b in there plug yet? And if so what tyres?

I have tried 26″ wheels with 2.25 tyres, didn’t fit. 😀

Mmmm 700c and 42’s with some adjustments to the chain/seat stay bridges it may be…..

Yes. Horizons and resolutes. Loads of room. Horizons were great in the dry summer for road, railway paths, shooting roads, moorland doubletrack. Amazed what they could do with no shoulders. Resolutes were fine. Like a thin mountainbike tyre. They are a bit small and there is room for more. Made the bottom bracket a bit low. There are lots of similar treads around in a better size. I’d like to try a byway.

That sounds good! I moved from 23 and 25 to 28 and now 37 and I thought that’s gonna be it but I want to try something bigger… But i’m already invested in a 700c wheelset. I wish Charge would have moved up the chainstay and seatstay bridges just about 1.5-2cm. 🙁 But for the price I won’t complain.

(I should add that the 26×2.25 tyres I tried were knobby MTB tyres and the knobs hit the chainstay 😀 )

Does anyone have photos with 27.5×47 in the back? I would love to see the clearance at the chainstay.

I’m seriously thinking about going down to 650b but i’ve done some measurements and to me it looks like the side to side clearance at the chainstay would be super tight.

I will ask a framebuilder if he could dimple the chainstays, that would help a lot.

Still got the black disc fork for sale if anyone wants one

I missed out on these. If anyone’s got an L or XL (suitable for a 6’1″ gentleman) they’re thinking of getting rid off, I might be interested…

What’s the biggest 622 tyre you can fit in the back with fenders? With my 37 Vittoria Voyager Hypers there is about 2mm of clearance to the chainstay and seatstay bridges so fenders are out of the question.

However riding in the winter my bike constantly looks like it just had diarrhea, I need fenders. Thinking about 32 Gravelking SKs. Thoughts?

How much for the fork?

I can’t be the only 650 curious plug owner out there surely?

I’m very curious too… Tried doing some measuring and I don’t see 650x47s fitting in the back width wise.

Don’t want to jump the gun on an expensive 27.5 wheelset, I might get a super cheap 27.5 rear wheel/wheelset in the summer just to try if 650x47s would fit.

Imagine the tyre clearance if Charge would have just dimpled the chainstays and moved the bridges a bit more… 🙁

If only someone had run horizons in an eBay charge plug all last summer and found they fit absolutely fine. ^

How much clearance is there side to side with the Horizons? Any pictures? Is there room for fenders with them?

And just to be sure, you’re talking about this generation of Plug, right?

http://road.cc/sites/default/files/styles/main_width/public/images/Charge%20Plug%205/Charge%20Plug%205.jpg?itok=VmfJApOO

http://Clearance post op https://imgur.com/a/K4WYy

Thought I’d share tyre clearance photos after I tool off  the bosses.

That’s a 42c on one gravel something or other.

It is still threaded for a mudguard abviously no chance with that tyre but something slicker and slightly smaller would probably be a goer.

Nice work joshvegas!

What is the actual width of that tyre?

My dream would be to fit 43 mil GravelKings front and back…

I’ll measure it tonight.

I told a fib. They’re 40c and come in almost bank on 40mm wide carcass and knobble width.

Knobble s are 2mm high.

Tightest clearance is by far and away the chainstay bridge that’s only 5 or 6mm

I did consider dimpling the chainstay but its not going to gain anything unless the bridge is altered further and the crankside dimple will overlap with the wheelside on.

Thanks!

I think i’m going to play it safe and get 38mm GravelKings for the back and 43s for the front. I gathered some info and the new 38s measure more like 40mm so it’s gonna be a pretty good setup. If it turns out the 43s somehow fit in the back i’ll get another one later on…

I’m going to file down the bosses too if it’s necessary. Right now i’m on 32mm GKs with fenders, but with my 37mm Vittoria Voyager Hypers the bridges were super close. (No fenders with 37s of course)

Now I just need to wait for spring/summer so the fenders can go. 🙂

I’m still really curious about 650b too.

I’m running the 35mm Voyagers (622×37) with 45mm SKS commuters on my old Charge Filter (old model before they changed the name) & whilst it’s a bit of a faff getting the clearances sorted it’s do-able, not ideal, but do-able. Over the years the rear spacing moved from 130mm on mine to the current 135mm but I always assumed that was just some extra bending at the factory & not a change in the rear triangle as the geo charts looked the same.

Thought about building a 650b wheelset for mine as i’ve a spare set of wheels for it but never got round to it, this thread makes me want to trawl ebay for a cheap set of rims!

Duff photo of mine with guards – showing nothing of the actual clearance – but you get the idea 🙂

How did you manage to fit fenders with the 37 Voyagers? I have the same tyres, I can fit the fender itself in the back with about 0.5mm clearance, but getting even a low profile a screw in there is impossible.

Although the GravelKings are much better winter tyres, with the Voyagers I did way too many unintentional skids in the wet. 😀

The rear of mine looks pretty similar – I mounted a flat-head countersunk bolt straight through the guard to give as much clearance as possible, the guards are only about 1.5mm thick so your ~5mm of clearance goes further than you think with slick tyres, my rims are about 24mm wide so I don’t think they’re lowering the height by spreading the width out either. In all honesty I’ll probably replace the 35c with 32c once these wear out for a bit more room, but thought i’d give these a go as they were already on the bike before I fitted the guards – seems to work so far, although I did almost grind to a halt a few times in the recent snow/slush as it compacts under the guards before it flies out in a huge icy chunk.

Maybe I got lucky with the placement of the rear bridge – does seem like I have a bit more room height-wise – always thought they missed a trick not having the bridge slightly higher.

Yeah the counter sunk bolt might have done the trick, when I tried to fit the fenders with the 37s I just couldn’t see it working even though I was using a low profile allen bolt. I could barely slide in the fenders between the bridge and the tyre.

My wheels have a 19-20mm ID, that might make the tyre a bit more tall. With the 32 GKs I have enough room so riding on wet dirt roads (not super thick mud) or light snow is not a problem.

Yeah moving the bridges would open up so much space… I love this frame but the tyre clearance is the only thing that’s annoying.

I’ve some 27.5 wheels on the way for a bike build for the daughter so I’ll stick the rear in the plug and see how much space is left…. Hoping to get some pics by the weekend.

I’m following this with interest. I’ve the Plug 3, so made with Tange Infinity rather than the Tange Prestige, but I expect the frame dimensions to be very similar.

My personal experience is that the Voyager Hyper 35s (or 37s depending on which label you read) won’t work with guards without modifying the bosses on the bridges (I’ve not tried that). They fowled the guard and when I took the guards off but put the standard SKS bolts into the bosses the tyres contacted the bolt heads when inflated to 60 PSI. I’ve since bought some countersunk bolts, but am using the original 28mm slicks that the bike came with.

The Vittoria Adventure Trail 38 (or 40) fits with similar clearance to the Hyper Voyager.

@monkeyboyjc
That’s awesome, i’m super curious!

I’ve only a choice of a 2.1 or 2.35 tyre to try with the 27.5s at the moment. If it looks doable I may get some others. Oh and I’m running a variety of 35c tyres at the moment.

Regards the boss bolts on the seat/chainstay bridges I’ve filled all of mine with stainless steel grub screws – im never going to use them personally. I used some black nail Polish to firmly grip them in place as I don’t want any unexpected rattles down the line.

I’ll hope for the best but i’ve tried some 26×2.25 knobbies and the knobs were rubbing the inside of the chainstay. 🙁

I can fit the fender itself in the back with about 0.5mm clearance, but getting even a low profile a screw in there is impossible.

Leftfield thought but could you not drill the guard so that it fits around, rather than onto, that boss? Then stick a tidy fillet of Sugru on the outside, tucked behind the bridge as you look from the rear. (If you make the hole a snug enough fit—eg drill it slightly undersized and carefully finish it with a circular file rather than going for the next drill bit—you might even get adequate retention from an interference fit on the boss alone.)

Should be sufficient to hold the guard, should be near enough invisible, and should mean your clearance is exactly the same as it is without the guard.

Not sure if I explained that perfectly, but it works in my head 🙂

I thought about hacking the rear fender somehow to fit them with 37mm tyres. Two problems.

First, even without the fenders the clearance is tiny with 37 tyres. If I maintain that same clearance but make the fenders somehow work, snow or mud is going to fill up that tiny gap very quick.

Second, toe overlap. I’m using a Genesis Croix De Fer fork with a large frame and size 44 shoes. With 32mm tyres and fenders the toe overlap is horrible, with 37 tyres and fenders it would be even worse.

I’m pretty happy right now with 32mm GKs. The tyres are amazing, yeah because they’re small the ride is a bit more harsh compared to 37s. But I don’t ride that much in the winter, and I ride much less offroad.

so I finally got around to fitting tyres to my daughter 650b / 27.5 wheels and tried them in the charge – tyres are 2.25 and 2.1 magics and suffice to say, they don’t fit. The 2.25 won’t get In the frame and the side walls of the 2.1 rub on the chainstay. It’s fine on the seatstay area so with out some serious crimping you won’t get a regular mtb tyre in there.<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>e</span>

<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>However I recon a 1.8 or 47c would fit fine though. Something lick a gravel king or wtb byway?</span>

Not sure I want to fork out the 30 quid to try though

Currently building up some 650b wheels (Crests/XT rear/dynamo front) for my Plug. 47c WTB Horizons fit both front (Kaffenback fork) and rear with plenty of space, even room for guards. I’ll try and get some photos posted up once I re-lace the rear wheel with correct length spokes, having mis-measured the correct length first time round and being unable to dish it correctly. With the idea in mind of using the bike for the Torino-Nice Rally later in the year.

The Plug with 650b in the front (trial fit with no disc/guards not properly adjusted etc.) I’ll try and get a photo of clearance in the rear when the wheel is built up next week.

New narrow wide ring and 11-40t Sunrace 9 speed cassette in the post now, and then a flared drop bar/bar end shifter conversion at some point too.

Sidenote: Never had a tighter rim/tyre combo than the Crests/Horizons. They did pop up tubeless though with only a hand pump and held pressure for a good few hours without sealant too. Needed pumping up to quite a high pressure to pop the bead onto the rim though (even with soapy water). Not ridden with the Horizon on yet, waiting for the snow to clear and the rear wheel.

Wow that’s awesome news, can’t wait for the pictures. Thanks so much! 🙂

@hollyboni

Spokes and new cassette arrived today so I’ve built up the rear wheel and renewed the drivetrain this evening. There’s ample room for the Horizons and guards both front and back, with 5mm clearance to the chainstays either side (the tightest place for clearance). Loads of room around seatstays and both bridges, even with guards, which I struggled to get 700x32c in without rubbing on the bolt going into the chainstay bridge through the guard.

Haven’t test ridden yet because the new chain isn’t playing ball with the really knackered old chainring, gonna have to wait a few more days for the new one to arrive. As an aside, I’m very happy with the Sunrace 11-40t 9 speed cassette for the price, with a 40t ring it should give a fairly decent range.

Ditching the rack and getting some dropbars sorted soon too. Could do with wider guards as they barely cover the wider tyres. Hopefully the photos work!

^
That’s amazing, so much room! Thank you very much for the pictures.

I think i’m going to stay on 700c for this summer with 43mm GravelKings in the front and 38mm in the back since I don’t want to throw away my wheelset that’s jut a few months old, then i’ll probably try 650b.

47mm GravelKing SKs with fenders… Sounds like heaven to me. 😀

Awesome, thanks for posting that. I may look into getting a set of 650b wheels fir the summer.

650 looks like the way forward if you want something bigger.

Just fitted some 38mm Vittoria Adventure Trail’s on my 700c wheels, leaves about 2mm gap on bridges!

Here’s mine in it’s third (and maybe final) build revision. I bought one of the eBay frames on a bit of a whim, thinking that it’d be a nice N+1 option, but i’ve honestly ridden it more than my road bike or mountain bike.

I’m completely sold on the idea of these gravel bikes now, so versatile. Its my commute to work bike and my first choice for getting out of the traffic and into the bridleways and trails when i’ve only got a couple of hours on the weekend. They shouldn’t really be called gravel bikes because it’s a niche term for something that is really just a great, versatile, fast bike. It makes the bits that are boring on your mountain bike a lot more interesting, and reminds me of why I got into mountain biking in the early 90’s… to travel far through wilderness quickly, something that got less enjoyable as MTBs got ‘tougher’ but more cumbersome on less demanding open terrain.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/obcnTBqPhpMl4Kou2

I’m getting way too specific but to me there are gravel race bikes like the Salsa Warbird for example that are just road bikes with bigger tyres and a tiny bit slacker geometry.

And then there are adventure bikes that have even more relaxed geometry, taller front end, shorter reach, rack mounts, and fender mounts. And of course sometimes manufacturers mix the two to blur the line.

I would say the Plug falls more into the “adventure” category, although as always I wish it had more tyre clearance but I feel like it was an early bird back in 2015 marketed and designed more as a road/commuter bike. The 650B option changes things a lot tho.

I agree that these bikes are really versatile and fun and for a lot of people they can be all the bike you need, and i’m happy this category is trendy now so we are getting more options for bikes and parts. I also hope that the big manufacturers will soon come out with groupsets that have lower gearing for these types of bikes.