Today Ryan’s grips arrived and as fate would have it, only one of the grips fit. Also, the brown just didn’t look as good as the black on the Clem and honestly, I am done fighting it. This bike WANTS to have black, and though I’m eternally a fan of rich, warm, honey tones I’m done arguing with it. This bike is MALE. I was going to call it a Clementine but it’s a Clem. It’s some heroic thing whisking me away to places in its capable, comfortable way. It’s agreeable but it doesn’t want to be bossed. So, it’s getting a black saddle with copper rivets and we’ll see how it takes to THAT.
I got to do my first commute with the new stem and fenders today. How can I use words for this? The ride is...velvety. Yes, that’s the word. Smooth and lovely and quiet. Velvety and also...directed. It’s easy to imagine with those rippled, wavy fenders that the Clem is a ship set sail; it’s course is marked and it won’t be deterred. This Clem has places to take you; you want to keep pedaling; slowing and waiting up for the boys was unnatural. “Let’s go, I can get you there.” When you get your rhythm on this bike you never want to use your brakes again. My Clem is not a tame thing; it has its own opinions and it’s a bit of an enigma. I’m still learning to trust it. I go slower down the hills and don’t turn corners are tightly as I normally do. That will come in time. Folks were asking about climbing hills on these new Rivs. I don’t have any trouble standing and mashing up the hill home, and I only hang onto the grips. I feel like I sit up higher on this bike. I feel like its wheels are bigger - they aren’t. Shifting is nearly flawless but I did manage to mess that up severely in a one-sided pretend race uphill with a roadie yesterday. (That’s another story.) I ended up with chain suck bad enough that I did the walk of shame for a long time before I managed to wrestle that chain free. But, if you don’t count that, the bike is flawless! I wish you all a blue-green-shot-through-with-glimmer-like-sunlight-on-seawater Clem. Maybe yours would let you have the honey and copper saddle you prefer. Mine is too strong-willed for that. Leah -- 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 view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/bdcae04f-82ea-4992-92f5-a0357dd66241%40googlegroups.com.
