Super informative input, Patrick! I likely could have gone with 62cm, but with no Riv test ride/sight unseen, I was basing my decision in part on the 34" standover of my 62cm 1985 Univega Supra Sport (700c fixed gear conversion with 35mm Panaracer T-Servs).
I felt like 34" was about the upper limit in terms of standover heigh I'd like to have without leaning the bike/myself at stoplights/signs. And with planning to use tires no smaller than my 2.15" Big Bens on the Hunq, I guess I was able to pretty much match standover heights. If I was cool with using 35-45mm tires on the 62cm, I'm sure I would have been just fine for my comfort level. Again, all of this is just based on a bike I've ridden for a handfull of years now/personal comfort/imagination. Historically, I've used all of my bikes for commuting year round at one point or another and have found it nice to have just a smidge more standover.. For all of that off and on, off and on that comes with commuting in cities/towns. I'm also coming from this past season having ridden a 1994 Specialized Hardrock set up as a beefy commuter that was about 2 sizes too small for me. that might have played into the go with the 58cm..."it'll still be bigger than this" : ) But hey, I found the frame in a pile of garbage on the side of a local road so I made it work until the Hunqapillar was born. Can't beat free, I suppose : ) On bikepacking: I live very close to the Shawangunk Mountains so the initial rides will likely just be day trips, but the weather does have it's swings up there being about 1,600 ft in elevation above where i currently sit. Nothing nearly as intense as the fuctuations you see in the Rockies I'd imagine. >From what I hear and have experienced so far, just windier and slightly heavier precipitation that we might be having in the valley. At this point in the season I shouldn't have to worry about carting too much up there with me. Will probably just plan for 20 degree dips or so. Just gong to take it slow and get my bearings with the terrain a bit better and go from there : ) Patrick, all of the your pictures documenting your bike travels are unbelievable! I'd love to ride where you're so fortunate to. Super inspiring! Also, your Hunqapillar handling what you throw it's way makes me want to test it's ruggedness in a similar manner ; ) Thanks for showing what's possible. I work in a bike shop full of (newly added) Santa Cruz carbon so, I have to stand my ground with the Riv stuff. Once everyone at the shop saw it, however, minds were swayed a bit : ) -Bryan On Saturday, October 4, 2014 9:39:28 PM UTC-4, Deacon Patrick wrote: > > @ Dave: You've likely heard me say this before, but I absolutely love my > 62 cm Hunqapillar and I ride some pretty rugged stuff. My PBH is 90 > barefoot. Of course I also love my 66 cm Quickbeam, so I like them bigger > than the average. I intentionally got the QB so it matched the top tube and > seat tube dimensions of the Hunqapillar. So, obviously, my vote (since I > have zero say in the matter) is there is nothing wrong with going bigger. > I've never had an issue with not being able to get off the bike or with the > nutcracker experience on anything I ride. > > @ Bryan: What's your plan for your bikepacking set up? This time of year > in the Rockies means needing to be prepared for winter conditions (10˚F, > windy, heavy snowfall, no matter what is predicted -- of course you may get > indian summer conditions just as easily, or in the same day) -- is it the > same for the Gunks? > > With abandon, > Patrick > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
