I expect that, if you choose as large a frame as Rivendell is likely to recommend, and that frame has the usual high head and sloping top tube, then you might well come to this problem. I would probably be put on a 60 if I were conventional (REI measured me for a 60 way back when the man who designed or helped design their lugged bikes was working here in ABQ and fitted me), but my Rivs are respectively 57 and 58. With the latter I can get the bars low enough but there are only 2 cm of usable quill left showing. (My bars are 2" below saddle.) My first custom Riv was only a 54! But it was a road bike built starting from the All Rounder (more or less = to the XO-1) template and simply tweaked in geometry and materials. The 57 and 58 are perfect.
FWIW, I do use 8 cm stems and my Rivs handle sublimely. I have short arms for my height. And, fwiw, all my other bikes have similarly short stems excepty for the mixty, which is very much too small for me at 54 c-c and with a 55 or so cm tt instead of the usual 57; it has a 10, and also a very high head, but even so, and with the Technomic all the way up, the bars are still too low by a cm or so. It's not a big deal since the mixty is strictly a grocery getter. Aren't there very deeply angled track stems you could use? On Mon, Apr 20, 2009 at 1:14 PM, Aaron Thomas <[email protected]>wrote: > > I haven't ridden the Independent Fab bike Patrick recommends, but I > can say that a dude on the club rides I go on has a non-lugged steel > IF and it looks pretty sweet (though for aesthetic reasons I am not > crazy about the straight blade forks). This dude's bike is equipped > with primarily silver alloy parts (except for carbon Record Ergo > shifters) and looks classic enough. And it is impressively light; > although I couldn't say just how much it weighs, it certainly feels > significantly lighter than my Romulus. > > Patrick's other point about ditching Riv's "velosophy" in this > instance is interesting. Since I am lucky enough to have a Bleriot and > a Romulus, I have the Bleriot outfitted with a Mark's rack for > meandering, and I've tried to turn my Romulus into a "go-fast" bike > with lighter wheels, a racy ti-railed saddle and no luggage > whatsoever, save for a small tool kit under the saddle. > > While the Romulus cooks pretty well in this guise with 25c Pro Race > tires, the one thing I keep butting up against is the body position > the bike seems to want to put me in. Far from the call to "Raise > d'bars", I cannot seem to get the bars low enough! At least not > without putting a drastically shorter stem on. > > At best, with my current stem, I can get the bars about level with the > saddle. Any lower and I feel much too stretched out. To get the bars > low enough to where I think I might like them, I'd have to swap a 9cm > stem for an 8 or even a 7! But I worry about how that might affect the > handling. > > Has anyone else had this difficulty of not being able to get the bars > low enough? > > On Apr 20, 7:34 am, Patrick in VT <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Apr 18, 12:49 pm, Phil B <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > >I don't even want to go there with this post - but, well, ...it's > >titanium. Sorry. I know that crosses the line for a lot of readers->of riv. > > > > > It shouldn't be anathema to recommend a ti bike to the OP, who is > > looking for a fast bike. makes perfect sense. > > > > It would also make sense to recommend that the bike not be set up with > > the handlebars at saddle height. > > > > In fact, it probably makes sense to just let go of the whole riv > > "velosophy," and get a bike that has more in common with a race bike > > than an all-rounder, which is now essentially every bike in the Riv > > line-up. > > > > sounds like an IF crown jewel or club racer (in steel or ti) would be > > perfect for the OP. > > > -- Patrick Moore Albuquerque, NM Professional Resumes. Contact [email protected] --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
