@Cyclotourist: Yes, for all practical purposes I have the perfect trio of Rivendell bikes. There is, however, room for improvement, both personal and practical on my bike quiver. Yes, I can only justify it emotionally, but were it not for our emotions, we wouldn't have the relationship we have with our bikes, be them Rivendells or not.
With that in mind, here is what's actually going on now... - The Homer is a fantastic bike, no questions there, BUT, the toe overlap has always annoyed me terribly and I can't get it to handle as I want with a front load, which is how I like to ride to keep my camera/lenses at hand. The other issue of riding it comfortably I seem to have finally nailed it, albeit a bit late as you'll see. - I love the feel of the 650b wheels with wide low pressure tires such as the Hetres. As such, the Betty (with no front loads) rides and handles even better than the Homer in some non-quantifiable difficult to articulate rationally manner. - I love the handling of a low trail bike, especially with a front load, as exemplified by my experimental conversions of both my Atlantis and Hunqapillar, where I think the conversion made the bike ride even better than before and took away all the shimmy I experienced. At first I was set on converting the Homer and Betty as well, but then decided not to; the Betty was perfect as it was and not intended to be my long(ish) distance bike and back then, I had decided to reward me with a 650b low trail bike that essentially combined the Homer/Betty/Low Trail on a single bike. As a reward for my 50% progress on my weight loss and lifestyle changes, I placed an order for a custom 650b low trail frame with Steve Rex, a builder in Sacramento that Kevin actually referred me to when I needed to have the downtube boss replaced on my Atlantis after a bolt broke inside when I was building it up. Over the years, I kept it in the back of my mind and late last year decided to proceed with the plan, which was another reason I had to find a new home for the Hunqa, aside from the fit/comfort issues. By this time, I had also found my pain-free fit on the Atlantis, so I had Steve do a fitting for the custom frame and also showed him the Atlantis for additional reference. I could tell that I wasn't really going to be comfortable in the standard low trail randonneur geometry that is now being made available more broadly, and that unless I went custom, it wasn't worth it. Steve's proposed geometry seems to be what I'm looking for: - 35mm low trail that is not extreme and can be ridden with or without a front load and should address any toe overlap issues - Seat tube angle of 71.5 to place the saddle where I want it without requiring a super offset seat post - Longer chain stays @ 460mm so I'm not sitting over the rear wheel and the bike handles better for me - Reach adjusted primarily for what is now a comfortable cockpit for me that I can fit with either rearward bars like the Elysee on the Atlantis or the Randonneur and adjust the stem reach accordingly. - Integrated beautiful racks (Steve won best bike a few years ago at NAHBS with a beautiful racked bike) - Beautiful polished lugs, internal cable routing, integrated fork with connectors for the SON SL hub, internal cabling for the rear fender mounted dynamo twilight, integrated chain hanger and other little details. - Compass Centerpull brakes If this bike turns out to be what I expect it to be, it will be the bike that could certainly replace the Homer and potentially the Betty, although I have the feeling that I'll always keep the Betty as I try to be less car dependent around town. And did I say I just love how it rides? There is the additional topic of my son and my aspirations for him, which was touched very well in another recent topic. He likes riding with me, but he's not passionate about cycling and I've made the mistake of trying to ignite his passion by getting him better bikes. He just turned 17 and since last summer, he pretty much fits on my Rivs without needing to make any adjustments, so it was very tempting to say I'd keep the Hunqapillar for him, only it didn't make sense nor I had the room, especially once the Rex project materialized. I am still thinking that I might try to leave the Homer for him to ride, but does it make sense to have it sitting there until who know when? I still have to decide if to sell his highly spec parts upgraded Santa Cruz Tallboy as he just doesn't want to come mountain biking. We had a long conversation last summer where he agreed that he loved just going for a local 1 hour (give or take) bike ride with me just to spend time with me, but he wasn't interested in doing long rides or spending a good part of the day driving to do a ride somewhere. I was set on selling his Tallboy last summer, but we decided that once a month or so, he'd mountain bike with me in Arrastradero Preserve in Palo Alto. 6+ months later he still hasn't, but he's come on a couple or paved rides around Palo Alto/Los Altos and loved them. The "curious" thing about those rides, is that he's on his $400 school bike and he just loves it. In a year and a half he'll be off to college, any nice bike he rides will not go with him, and if he ever picks up the passion for cycling, I still have plenty of nice bikes for him to borrow if he doesn't get his own. So I'm almost set on selling the Tallboy (which is taking a precious bike slot in my man-cave) but might still keep the Homer and give him a taste of it for our local pavement rides. So, in addition to my 3 Riv bikes, I have the Rex coming, and still have my Bike Friday for traveling and my Tallboy LTc for mountain biking. My downsizing is more of a streamlining effort at this time, although the fate of the Homer will be what affects the total number of bikes at this time. For the sake of the argument, I have the same issue and internal debates when it comes to my passion for photography, where I also have cameras and lenses I seldom use and should downsize. I have switched to prime lenses primarily and usually only take one or two, very seldom add a long zoom, and have DSLR, range finder and compact systems that I alternate using. Ahhh, and 35mm + medium format film... :-) Patricia Arquette said it very well playing the role of the mother in Boyhood: We spend half our lives collecting stuff and the other half getting rid of them... So this is my story and I'm sticking to it. I'll always be a Rivendell rider even if I have other non-Rivendell lugged steel bikes, as RBW introduced me to this different way of riding that is perfectly suited for me and my pursuits. And I love this list with its discussions, opinions, technical and philosophical, and find inspiration from the people who post here for multiple aspects of my life. Thank you all for that, René On Sun, Feb 21, 2016 at 12:04 PM, René Sterental <orthie...@gmail.com> wrote: > I think you're referring to the Compass Cycle Promenade that I had on the > Betty a while back, which does look like a mini Bosco. The width at the > ends is 415mm. > https://www.compasscycle.com/shop/components/handlebars/promenade/ > > > On Sun, Feb 21, 2016 at 9:11 AM, Lungimsam <john11.2...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> That GB bar looks like a mini bosco. Whats the width? >> >> -- >> 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 https://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 rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
