Will, That may well happen at some point, but the reason I started the whole low trail experiment was because I'd get a very uncomfortable shimmy when going downhill with rear loads on the Atlantis. Plus, since I usually ride with a camera and a couple of lenses so I can stop and photograph, having them in a front bag was a much better experience. Yes, I know most people get used to having a front bag on any Rivendell bike, but I wanted to have both, no shimmy and a front load as I experienced it.
This isn't about theory or philosophy. As I've stated previously, I wouldn't swap the forks on the Homer or the Betty and ride them as they were intended to be ridden. Yes, perhaps at some point in the future I should get a proper low trail randonneur bike, but now is not the time for that. My experiment worked for me, it gave me first hand experience on the topic of low trail vs. high trail forks instead of relying on others for the "truth" and definitely established that there is something for everyone and sometimes you can have it all, if not simultaneously. For me, that has been a definite factor in the overall experience of discovering and riding steel lugged bikes and coming out of the "darkness" of the racing bike fit that was pushed on me since I didn't know better at the time. And for that, I'm truly grateful. René On Sat, Mar 14, 2015 at 4:35 PM, Will <[email protected]> wrote: > Rene, > > Put Grant's fork back on. Take the porteur rack off. Put a Tubus Logo Evo > on the back with a quick release (Ortleib) roll top bag. The Ortleib > swallows gobs of gear and you won't know it's there. > > The Atlantis, as designed, is extraordinary. > > Will > > > > > On Saturday, March 14, 2015 at 5:32:44 PM UTC-5, René wrote: >> >> While debating if/when/how to downsize my bike collection, after >> collecting great feedback from this group, I was almost set on getting rid >> of the Atlantis first, since on its pros/cons list was that I'd never been >> really able to get comfortable on it, no matter how many handlebar >> configurations I'd tried. >> >> On the Hunqapillar, which I had been riding the most until I pretty much >> stopped riding about 2 years ago, earlier last year on a failed attempt to >> get back to riding, I decided to try a Cambium carved saddle since I had >> never managed to break-in the Brooks B17 or Berthoud saddles I had tried >> before. The Cambium proved to be a revelation in two aspects; first, it is >> more comfortable from the start than any of the other saddles, but most >> importantly and the reason for its revelation, is that its frame allows the >> saddle to be pushed further back than any of the other saddles I have, and >> that by itself allowed me to get overall more comfortable since it allowed >> my weight distribution to change so that there was less pressure on my >> hands. After discovering the Bosco family of bars, I had finally managed to >> get as comfortable as possible on the bike, but still had hand pain when >> riding. I tweaked the height and tried all available variations before >> finally going back to the original Bosco Bulmoose bars. From all my bikes, >> it was the most comfortable and also the one that could handle me easily >> with loads in addition to my heft (currently at 280+ lbs). >> >> So I decided that before making my final decision I was going to try >> using a Cambium on the Atlantis. With its low trail fork I had put Grand >> Bois Randonneur bars, but had hardly ridden it. I found the BG Randonneur >> bars to be more comfortable than the Noodle bars, but I still could not get >> entirely comfortable. I was using a 7cm Tallux stem with the bars quite >> high, but still felt I was too stretched forward and my hands still hurt. >> >> After doing quick "test" rides last week when I started the internal >> debate on downsizing, I realized that I had never tried riding the Atlantis >> with any upright bars other than the Albatross several years ago, which I >> absolutely did not like at that time. Still, a couple of years ago I had >> gotten several different bars from Compass Cycles and Velo Orange that I >> was going to use on the Betty Foy, but were still new waiting to be tried. >> So I quickly tested them on the Atlantis before deciding that the one that >> showed the most promise was the Nitto Grand Bois Elysées. It didn't hurt >> that aesthetically it also was a winner. I installed the Paul reverse >> levers I had before on the Hunqapillar which I found are great for road >> riding but not so much for rough dirt downhills since you have to exert a >> lot more pressure due to the geometry of the levers. I taped the bars with >> Cambium tape to match the saddle and rode it yesterday and today for one >> hour each time. >> >> I also decided to mount the Pass & Stow rack I had originally purchased >> for the Hunqapillar, which had since gotten a different configuration I >> liked better for S24O adventures (although I only did one with that >> configuration almost two years ago, (http://tinyurl.com/qb7rh4q). I was >> thinking of putting it for sale, but I also had a brand new Freight Baggage >> Porteur bag I had never used that I got because I didn't really like the >> Swift Porteur bag I had gotten initially. So I thought that since my main >> intent on the Atlantis was to give it one more chance as a short ride >> wanderer and commuter and I wanted to have a front bag so I could carry my >> camera and take photos easily, I might as well give both of these one last >> chance before putting them up for sale. >> >> I had never remounted the fenders on the bike, but decided that I >> wouldn't do that unless I decided to keep it since it's quite a bit of work >> installing metal fenders and the old ones didn't fit any longer (the new >> low trail fork doesn't have as wide a crown as the original one). >> >> Before this non-cycling 22 month hiatus, I had slowly been discovering, >> either by myself or by following the guidelines from Grant and folk at RBW, >> ways to remove the pain that had become synonymous with cycling for me. >> Even after discovering the Rivendell fit philosophy and getting my first >> Rivendell (the AHH), I still insisted on drop bars even if higher than the >> saddle, tried and discarded a number of bars for a number of reasons, >> persisted on riding clipless pedals and discovered really wide and awesome >> flat pedals (none of the Riv previous offerings had been able to remove the >> pain I'd get after a few minutes on my left foot due to a Morton's neuroma. >> I had finally managed to get rid of the neck/upper back pain and almost all >> of my foot pain, but the hand and butt pain persisted. >> >> Late last year, I discovered Altra running shoes ( >> http://www.altrarunning.com). I don't run, but I'm always interested in >> shoes with a wider toe box and these seemed perfect as a shoe to walk in >> with its zero rise, and they indeed worked well. Even with my flat wide >> pedals I had never been able to ride on flexible shoes/sandals without >> developing a lot of pain right away, but the combination of the more >> rearward position the Cambium saddle afforded, combined with the quick >> decision to do a ride on those shoes (Instinct 2.0) due to laziness and >> curiosity, resulted in the discovery that I could ride with no pain on my >> feet even with those flexible shoes. >> >> Still not the end of the story... Since the maximum tire width of the low >> trail fork on the Atlantis is 40mm, I had intended to try a pair of Barlow >> Pass 38mm tires which again, I had purchased two years ago but never >> mounted. Yesterday's ride was on the Marathon Racers I had last tried to >> compare with the Marathon Duremes I had, as I was looking for a go-faster >> tire. Last night I decided to switch to the Barlow Pass tires to compare >> (even though the Racers are supposed to be 40mm tires, on my Dyad rims they >> are 38mm as well) and see for myself if the hype was true or not. Today I >> rode them and what a difference they made. Yesterday, harsh ride... today, >> soft supple ride that felt like magic. I don't care about the speed, nor >> attempted to assess it, but both the handling and the comfort were hugely >> superior with that change alone. >> >> So in summary, the Atlantis reconfigured with the Cambium saddle and GB >> Elysées bars in addition to the Barlow Pass tires have entirely changed its >> ride, fit and comfort qualities for me. Will it be a keeper now? I'll be >> riding it for a month or so exclusively to get to know it better and >> decide. And also to "feel" what having it as an only bike feels like. At >> least I'm starting to ride again. That is always good. >> >> Thanks for your patience, if you got this far! Here is a picture of the >> Atlantis as I rode it this morning - *http://tinyurl.com/puahc7h >> <http://tinyurl.com/puahc7h>*. Fenders will likely be installed in the >> next couple of weeks. >> >> René >> > -- > 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 [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- 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 [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. 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