Hello friends, I'm looking to do a road bike build and I am having trouble deciding between keeping the Sam Hillborne frameset that I already own or go in an entirely different direction starting from scratch with a new Roadini frameset. I purchased the drop bar Sam as a complete in 2016. This was my first Riv and I completely embraced the Rivendell philosophy of "just ride". That drop bar Sam eventually morphed into an upright Albatross set up. I got away from the drop bars because I wanted to try upright riding to gain maximum comfort. This setup eventually became my S240 bike and I became much more interested in riding with a heavy touring load. As my interest in camping and touring grew I decided that I wanted a dedicated tourer so I picked up an Appaloosa frame and swapped most of the parts over from the Sam. The Sam frameset is currently sitting in my basement.
I have decided that my riding would be best served by having two different bike setups. I want to keep the Appaloosa for camping, touring, grocery getting, commuting and casual riding with the Mrs. I want a second bike to be a dedicated drop bar road bike that is unencumbered with racks and large bags. I am thinking about building the Sam back up as a traditional sporty road bike with a compact double crankset, the noodle bars that I already own along with JB 33.3333's and fenders. I want this bike to be my relatively fast bike that I ride when I am looking to go out and get a quick ride for pure recreation and fitness. I may even be ambitious enough to go do a group ride with my old riding buddies from back in my racer wannabe days. Lately, the Roadini has been the object of my desire. I am thinking that if I get back into riding on the road in a typical club rider fashion that I would be better served by having a more traditional road bike like the Roadini. My vision for a Roadini would be to build it up in a retro style with downtube shifters, Noodles, Sugino compact double and 28 to 33mm tires. I think my desire for the Roadini is mostly driven by new bike lust. I feel like I am constantly chasing that feeling you get when you buy a new bike. The reality is what I have found through the years and many bike purchases later is that "new bike day" euphoria typically fades fades and I ended up chasing that feeling again with something else. I know that you guys are not my therapist but can anybody share their thoughts on what decision to make? Should I keep the Sam and reinvent it as a sporty road bike or should I take the plunge and go for a new Roadini to satisfy my sporty road bike urge? -- 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.
