My wife Erika's Clementine frame arrived from the first batch of frame only pre-orders in late Oct-early Nov 2015... almost exactly coinciding with us realizing she was pregnant. :) Funny how the 9 months of pregnancy and now 8 months of having an infant can just timewarp your life a bit (in a good way of course). Anyway the point of this is to say that while the Clementine has been in the family for over a year it hasn't exactly gotten put through it's paces. It's main purpose is as a classy townie and now it'll be the main owner of the Yepp Mini front baby seat. But you can't count out this swoopy-orange frame for some offroad fun! Stripped of its fenders, bags and smaller tires and wearing the up till last week Bombadil's wheel/tire-set we took advantage of my Mom being in town to watch our daughter for the afternoon and hit the trail at Wakefield.
Joining the party as of Sat morning is my new-to-me pearly blue Jones Plus, the 24" frame. Neat thing for my 5'5" wife and 6' me is that we can effectively trade bikes between the 52cm/650B Clementine and the 24"Jones... I'm not saying either is the frame size we'd go out and buy for ourselves as a daily rider but I was very pleased at how just saddle height adjustment was required for us to swap during our ride today. Both of us were pumped to try a fat/plus bike (our first), Erika wanted to get some time on her Clem and I was interested to compare the ride on both. Bottom line is we had a really nice ride, weather was brisk but very bright and pretty and the wooded area's were a really unusual mix of low stage green spreading amongst a wintery treescape. Very unusual weather patterns we're having here in the Mid-Atlantic this season. It was a pretty short ride and the focus was on staying together and having fun so I won't give exhaustive notes, just a couple impressions. Clementine - I started out from the parking lot on the Clem and had a great ride on the bike. The 650Bx2.25" Nobby Nic's performed as well on the Clem as they did on my recently departed Bombadil. Erika's sprung B67S is way springier than my B67... WAY. Anyone else encounter this on the ladies B67 or flyer saddles? On my Flyer and B67 the springs are very stiff. Anyway once I got used to how much flex there was in the saddle I got the hang of the bike. It definitely felt longer than the Bomba and the Jones for that matter but I never had an issue maneuvering it on a trail. I found it very easy to stand or shift weight between the big Alba style bars and the saddle for climbing and descending. Erika did really well on the Clementine once we switched although it is a rough transition both directions going from canti's-hydro disc brakes and the ride/fit/geo is way different. Her comment was that climbing on the Clementine right off of the Jones felt like getting 'out of' a bike and then 'sitting on top of' a bike... I didn't make the transition back to the Clementine and I'll comment about the Jones in a moment. After the ride her perspective was that so long as there weren't significant obstacles she preferred the Clementine but with any features or obstacles felt more confidant on the Jones. Jones + - I definitely get the 'riding in the bike' feel as advertised with this bike. I was very concerned the 29x3" tires would make me feel like sitting on top of a horse... couldn't be further from the truth. The Clementine did actually feel taller than the Plus. Those 3" tires... wow, you don't need a road, you don't need a trail, just point, pedal and smile... I'm not sure how you compare it to any trail bike w/ smaller tires. I'll be interested to try some other folks 3" bikes over time and see if, as I suspect, this is common w/ other plus bikes. The bike is incredibly stable. In my back yard there are several cinderblock low walls, I climbed the two 12" ones and rode off the 24" messing around with the bike this morning and even with sloppy technique and little to no momentum the bike just takes care of you. None of the riding I did at Wakefield today involved anything I couldn't or didn't do with my Bombadil (or the Clementine) and I wouldn't say the Jones made it better just smoother/mushier and probably easier especially climbing. That's about it, really enjoyed the time on both bikes and it was Erika's second ever singletrack experience so I'm hoping to keep building on the experiences for her. Really hate that I'm heading out of town this week and can't ride till next weekend. I did take the Saluki out to pick up chinese food tonight and can happily report that as much as I enjoyed it the Jones hasn't 'ruined me' for other bikes! The Saluki felt nimble and quick and her dyno lights and basket made the trip a joy. Couple pictures including Erika on both bikes; <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-lIby9D83AXE/WLzNIT-fyVI/AAAAAAAAWmw/7oP0OcSG_cwSXxMPY5m9wWmskP-DlaeGACLcB/s1600/IMG_20170305_144531574-2.jpg> <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-NJO51A1p65E/WLzNOmaaslI/AAAAAAAAWm0/-I2olcqbIlQvNzQ-DDoeIWWJdaUtlOyZACLcB/s1600/IMG_20170305_134336267-2.jpg> <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-9Kz34xldLyA/WLzNTbUsYLI/AAAAAAAAWm4/pg-dNt7RQmore6_Zm4GFZD1qi0pdOWKDQCLcB/s1600/IMG_20170305_134344442-2.jpg> <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-BL4pGgRHSQk/WLzNX6YFOFI/AAAAAAAAWm8/oxUjkzLYGcc0j9ct7fqke_2OFlY3JbhgQCLcB/s1600/IMG_20170305_135511818-2.jpg> <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-s6ifwFRIVZk/WLzNcM9H36I/AAAAAAAAWnA/lqWw3rfPEsY7-Zss3VputcaWFXZyQytCQCLcB/s1600/IMG_20170305_143941345-2.jpg> -- 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]. 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