I was in a similar situation: I have a Joe and was looking for "something else" to complement it. I ended up getting a Roadini instead of the Sam since I thought there was too much overlap between the Sam and the Joe. (To be fair, I haven't ridden the Sam.) I peeked at the Roadeo but don't ride often enough to justify the cost difference. As others have said, setup is everything so I purpose built each for the job: Joe is an upright tourer/townie (racks, fenders, dynamo lights) and Leo is a drop bar meanderer. I live in the city so all my riding is asphalt, with road quality and traffic being the biggest variables.
As expected, efficiency is the most notable difference with the two (duh). I say "efficiency" since as an old fart I don't go much faster on the Roadini, but I can definitely go further and hills are much easier to tackle. Both are fun to ride in their own Rivendell way, and the Roadini "just for fun" is a nice change of pace from put-putting around on the Joe. The ride position makes a difference to me as well as I prefer the Joe when playing in traffic while I would rather ride the Roadini on dedicated paths or on not-so-busy streets. Note that I did find the skinny tires (Paselas) on the Roadini a little jarring, at least compared to the 50mm Marathons on the Joe, so I bit the bullet and got Compass 32mm tire. That helped out a lot. I'm still messing with other setup things on the Roadini, but I'm definitely happy with it as an alternative to the Joe which I can just grab and ride. --Ed C. On Monday, December 18, 2017 at 4:09:49 PM UTC-8, Bob Lovejoy wrote: > > I figured I would ask on the off chance (or maybe not so off?) that > someone has ridden all three bikes and can describe their take on the > differences they detected. I know from design that the Roadini should be > faster than the Sam and the Sam faster than the Joe. I know from a touring > and rough stuff perspective it would be the Joe then the Sam then the > Roadini. > > That said, I am curious if anyone has had the chance to ride all three and > what impressed them regarding differences as well as similarities. > > My caveat, as I now say often, is I have no business asking! Still, I > would be curious... I have a Joe that I love but having the Joe built for > rough stuff and something else built for faster and smoother riding does > sound like a great thing. I am attracted to the Sam but fear there is just > too much overlap with the Joe I already have. > > Anyway, figured I would ask... Thanks in advance for any help or > descriptions. > > Bob L. > Galesburg, IL > -- 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.