Specialized Diverge comparison 700c vs 650b Rene Herse tires

Hope my experience the last 4 years might be useful:

Riding my Diverge since June 2020, here my thoughts on different tires and tire size I’ve tried since:
– Rene Herse 700×38 slicks extralights on Beast Components carbon rims: Really fast and comfy tires, also good on gravel and in the forest in dry conditions. In my opinion carbon wheels are not worth it, they are too expensive for saving 1% of total weight, even though they look really sexy and have a great sound. With this tire size the Diverge feels still nimble. Habe driven them tubeless, zero issues.
– Rene Herse 700×48 knobbies extralight: very comfortable, fast and quiet on pavement, very good for gravel and even wet mud. With that huge tires the Diverge feels like a Hardtail mtb, you can really shred through trails. What i don’t like about the size is the bike doesn’t really feel nimble anymore. Drive them with tubes, no issues.
– Rene Herse 650b x 48 slicks extralight: My absolute favorite, the same fast on pavement as 35mm racing tires or the 38mm Rene Herse slicks, very comfortable, very nimble feeling like a road bike with narrow tires, very good grip and cornering. Drive them with tubolito tubes, zero issues.

In my opinion the 2 best upgrades for the Diverge:
– 650b wheels with Rene Herse extralight tires. The Diverge is my 3rd Road bike and I’ve driven lots of differen tires, there’s not one tire out there that is that good as Rene Herse tires, With the knobbies the Continental Cross King is close.
– Buy a mirror 3d printed saddle. Never had issues with my saddles, but this is a real game changer, 100% more comfy than a standard saddle, perfect for all day comfort.

The Diverge with the 650b setup is in my opinion the most fun bike out there: fast, nimble, very comfortable, sexy.

by Chris-haegi