As the lightest on test - half a kilo or so under the competition - the Prophet has just 140mm at the rear. We set the Cannondale up in its low/slack setting, which the frame eyelet claimed gave us a head angle of 65.5° – we measured it at 66.3°. Cannondale’s time may well be coming back round as it has a few bikes in its line-up at the moment that are among the best in class, the Rush and Prophet to name but two.
This said a lot about the prestige of the brand back then. These kids might never have set foot on a mountain but they knew which bikes were the easiest to flog - the flashy ones with the best reputation. Out riding, we joked that in London 10 years or so ago, the thieves’ bike of choice had always been the Cannondale.
Desert Botanical Garden - Chihuly: Nature of Glass.The still proudly sports its ‘made in the USA’ badge and a look that has essentially been around since the 90s, as well as its ‘Delta V’ front triangle and single pivot set-up. Here's short vid of what my bike looks like with the new dubs: To learn more about 650B, here are a couple of sites: And Mike from Curbside Cyclery built the wheels. I got a good deal on the tires from Speedgoat. I purchased the rims and hubs from Universal Cycles. And if I roll on some super hard trail that demands a smaller wheel, I can easily swap out 'em out for my old set. I do sit up a little higher, so I haven't found the point where I can rail. It chews up the bumps, which allows me to keep rolling in crucial spots of a technical trail. And since the only geometric change is for my ride is a higher standover height, I don't feel hampered by it. And I tried to mitigate the slower acceleration by going with a faster engaging, high quality Hadley hub. So far the wheels feel far stronger than the cheap wheelset I've been rolling on, despite the larger less rigid wheel. That way I'll have a spare handy, in case I have a sidewall tear. Availability is also a problem, because I doubt there is a shop in AZ stocking this tire, so I ordered a third tire. Since this isn't that popular of a wheel size, the tire selection is pretty small, but I actually love these tires. The tires are Pacenti Neo Moto's, which I'll convert to ghetto tubeless in the near future. The front hub is a Woodman Lefty, and the rear is Hadley 135mm Quick Release. The setup I went with was silver Velocity Blunts (would've preferred black, but nobody had 'em in stock). There is also a change in the amount of trail by using the bigger wheels, but I really don't notice it. Although the standover height for me is now a little higher than I'd like, but its not that bad. The bottom bracket on my Prophet is already pretty low (XC mode: 13.7 & FR mode 13.0), so this isn't a big deal. With these wheels the only geometry change is that my bottom bracket height/ stand over height increases about 3/4". 
The goal of this conversion is to capture some of the benefits of bigger wheels, while mitigating the weaknesses that hamper the larger wheel. But in my opinion, those benefits come at a cost bike geometry that doesn't fit the smaller rider, less sturdy wheels, longer wheelbase, and slower acceleration.
The 29r (29" wheel)is already widely accepted tire convention, and using a bigger wheel chews up the bumps and roll really well. Why in the world would I do this? 650B isn't widely used, but its popularity is starting to roll. I prolly have 3/8" between the tire and the front derailleur, and about 1/4" gap between the tire sidewalls and the chainstays. And the chainstays also allow for a bigger rear wheel, but the fit is little more snug. What makes this a kewl fit is that the Lefty I have allows this bigger wheel with no modifications necessary. I noticed sometime ago on MTBR that riders are swapping out their standard 26" wheels for 650B's (27.5 inchers), and that the Cannondale Prophet with the Lefty is great candidate for this conversion. So I decided to at least go with a new feel, by getting a new set of wheels. After bashing away on my Cannondale Prophet for the past three years I desperately need a new ride, but that aint gonna happen anytime soon.
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