Daniel, Another 26" wheel fan here. My 53cm Atlantis has them and I concur with you on the confident handling, cornering and turning in qualities this bike has. Good to know a 26" wheeled Atlantis is still available.
Best, Rich in ATL On Tuesday, November 13, 2018 at 12:52:03 PM UTC-5, Daniel M wrote: > > And here I was thinking I was the only one holding a candle for > lightweight 26"-wheeled allroad bikes! I bought a pristine 1993 Bridgestone > MB-1 a few years ago, converted it to drop bars (a la the 1987 model), and > put on a pair of Rat Trap Pass ELs. It's my favorite road bike I've ever > had - the confidence, handling, and cornering grip on pavement are > astounding, and when flying down rough dirt roads and trails, I > occasionally say to myself "this thing is really good off-road too ... oh > wait, it's a mountain bike!" > > I then built a Rohloff - disk brake equivalent around a New Albion Drake > frame intended for 650b/27.5"/584 wheels with tire widths ranging from > 42-48mm. I instead built a 26"/584 wheelset and run standard Rat Trap Pass > tires (52mm) on that one. It's basically all I ride now - high, flared drop > bars, quiet, maintenance-free drivetrain with perfect shifting across all > 14 gears even while stopped, and a cloudlike ride over all surfaces, It's > definitely heavier then the MB-1, but I only notice that when lifting it, > not while riding it! > > There is nothing like either of these bikes available off the shelf, which > is a pity. Going down to a 26" rim and running the widest and tallest > ultra-lightweight tire available makes me wonder why anyone would want a > larger rim diameter. And my MB-1 is the largest size they came in (20.5"?) > and my Drake is a (virtual) 58cm, the second largest size, so the sizing > the wheel to the frame thing doesn't make sense to me when there are wider > (i.e. taller) tires available in 26" than in other sizes. In my experience > the height of the tire off the rim makes far, far, far more difference to > me than the diameter of the rim. I run 20x2.0" Big Apples on my Dahon > folding bike and ride that thing on all sorts of dirt roads and trails as > well. Think about that: it's only a 20" rim, but the tires are wider than > the widest lightweight 650b tire (48mm) currently available! > > That said, 26"(559) and 27.5"(584) are really close to each other; in > reality, 27.5" rims (650b/584) are much closer to 26" rims (559) than to > 29" rims (700c/622) If all things were equal, then I think the difference > between 26" and 27.5" rims would start to be a bit of hair-splitting. For > example, my adventure touring tank is a Surly Troll (also Rohloff-ed and > also XL - I like my frames big even though I'm only 5'9") running 26x3.0" > WTB Rangers. My friend's Marin Pine Mountain (really nice bike) has > 27.5x3.0" Schwalbes, and when the two bikes are next to each other, the > overall wheel size difference is minimal. So since there are plenty of > adventure frames intended for 27.5x3.0" tires and plenty of tires available > to match, I will survive if 26" adventure tires become unavailable. It will > mean new rims and a new frame, but we are still a long way from that point. > > But, for road tires, all things are NOT equal. The Rat Trap Passes are the > widest lightweight tires available, and only available in 26", and frankly > that combo fits a lot of road-oriented frames better than a 27.5/650b x > 52mm tire would, especially if you want to run fenders as well! So I will > keep a bike or two capable of running RTPs as long as they are availabe, > and at this point that means nothing from Riv. The two 26" wheeled 58cm > Atlantises that popped up for sale in the past few weeks are the closest > they've come in recent years, and those are drool-worthy. > > I wish Riv would make a utilitarian, TIG-ed, 26"-wheeled bike in the > lightest tubing they are willing, like a Roadini or AHH, but built like a > single person HubbuHubbuH. I would call it the HubbuH. It would have the > threadless 1+1/8" steerer and the Eccentric Bottom Bracket and ONE of the > disk-brake eyelets from the tandem, and no double top tubes! That way I > could set it up with derailers like my MB-1 or with my Rohloff like the > Drake. (The EBB is needed to tension the chain, and the single disc-brake > eyelet is used to for the anti-torque arm). This would be the perfect > all-rounder: room for up to 26"x60mm tires with fenders, and useable with > derailers, but also as a singlespeed/fixed gear or with a Shimano or > Rohloff internal hub. The best part is that HubbuH could be taken as > "hubber", as in the first Rivendell that plays nicely with IGHs. Since the > HubbuHubbuH uses two headbadges, this would only require one. It could be > built using parts they have already used in the past, and it would give > them a nicer alternative to the Breezer Uptown 8 that I otherwise recomend > to anyone who will listen. > > I think I have given this too much thought, and written words, for that > matter. > > Daniel M > Berkeley, CA -- 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.
