The only piece I've seen missing from this great discussion is a consideration of Erik's height and weight. So, being a tall, 200 pounder with long legs, I'll "weigh" in.
Short of going custom, it's pretty tough to find a tall-sized, appropriately built carbon bike - especially one that will allow wider tires for mixed riding and a more comfortable ride. Even Riv's new Roadeo will not be entirely appropriate for a rider of my size and weight for the kind of riding Erik is interested in. Although I weigh under the 250 pound limit for the Rodeo, according to Riv's sizing, the largest size (63cm) bike will be too small for me. I live in the mountains in AZ and my "go fast" bike is a 64cm, steel Soma Smoothie ES I built with a compact crank, light wheels, brifters and 28c tires. It does indeed roll faster than my Atlantis on my usual 50 mile training ride and I "keep up" just fine with normal humans on MCRB's. I do just fine on my Atlantis as well when I set it up with lighter wheels and smaller 33.3 Browns. Even on the Soma, I get dropped by guys who weigh 20 to 40 pounds less and who are just as fit as I am. I usually pass guys my size regardless of what kind of bike they are riding if I'm in better shape. I'm always really comfortable on my bikes because they fit and I can run wider tires appropriate for my weight and the rough roads we have here. My buddies on their carbon bikes are comfortable too, because their bikes fit them. Erik, as has been said before, fitness (and your pain tolerance, I might add) is the key to whether you can hang with other riders. FWIW, I rode a 25-mile mountain road ride today with 3 other fit cyclists, all smaller than me and all on geared carbon bikes. I was on my 64cm Quickbeam with 35c tires. They killed me on the downhills and were waiting for me at the turnaround point. Going back with a consistent climb and no long downhills, I had no problem leading the pack and I was first at the top of the pass. We weren't racing, but I certainly didn't hold anyone up, either. DC On Sep 1, 12:22 pm, 40_Acres <mgla...@gmail.com> wrote: > Erik, > > I live in San Francisco Bay Area, and though it's not exactly Boulder, > there's plenty of climbing here, too. I have a Hilsen as well as a > MCRB. The Hilsen (with Jack Brown "blues") outweighs the MCRB by a > good 10 lbs, and on the same routes, I'd say that I'm about about 1 > mph slower on the Hilsen. That's a "so what" difference when I'm on > my own, esp. since I enjoy riding the Hilsen more than the MCRB on > most days. If I were trying to keep up with a faster-riding group > (whether they were on MCRB's, vintage Schwins, recumbents, or > unicycles), I'd probably grab the MCRB first. But that's the only > situation in which I'd reflexively grab the MCRB before the Hilsen. I > use the Hilsen to fetch groceries and take-out food. I've taken the > Hilsen on fire-roads and trails. I use it to get around the city. > I've taken it on the train. You get the picture: super versatile. I > use downtube shifters out of nostalgia more than anything else. My > wife's Saluki has bar-cons, which are great. The MCRB has brifters. > > If you think that most of your riding will be unloaded, fast-ish club > rides, then I think you might be better off with the Roadeo and 28mm > tires. That will lean you in more in the direction of performance at > the expense of some versatility, but it will still be way more > versatile than a MCRB. If you go with a Roadeo, I'd stay with > brifters. Bar-cons really shine (for me at least) with loaded > riding. I don't think downtube shifters are an option on the Roadeo > (which seems to have cable stops), but I don't know that you were even > considering those. FWIW, I'd love to see a Roadeo set up as more of a > vintage racer with downtube shifters. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
