Hi, Philip. Welcome.
I have a Joe A. in a 51 and an AHH in a 54.5 (barely fits me, but it does fit). 83 pbh. I'm female, older, and slower rider than most. I love them both. I feel "faster" and more spirited on my AHH, than on my Joe A. (it's relative because when I track on Strava, I go the same 11mph - yeah, I know I'm not a speed demon.) Our streets here are terrible here and if I were only going to be riding on these bad streets, on mountain trails and on gravel, I'd stick with my Joe A. It feels good underneath me, but I'm not sure if it's because I have wider tires (47mm) or the frame or both. I actually suspect both. I ride around without having to worry about each pothole I hit. For me, though, I mainly ride MUPs and for smoother, more spirited riding, I prefer my AHH with 42mm tires, no fenders. I've taken my AHH on the same horrible roads (and boardwalks) as I do on my Joe A. and it does very well, although I prefer my Joe A on those and I do think it's because I can put wider tires on it with fenders. AHH cannot take as wide a tire with or without fenders. So, would you prefer a Cadillac ride with spirit of the Joe A with wider tires, or a slightly more sporty car, ride with the AHH, and wide, but not as wide tires? I think you can do more really bad (and good) roads on the Joe A, and I love my Joe A, but I feel more spirited on the AHH. (don't get me wrong, the Joe A is NOT a dead feeling bike; it's wonderful.) I think the Sam H. is somewhere between the two, at least that's my impression. BTW, I'm not a real "bikely" person, more of a layperson who likes getting out of the house for an hour or two to enjoy the ride. Nothing technical, no S240s, no off-road riding so you have to take that into consideration with my observations. Let me tell you one thing more: Initially, I was going to buy a Sam H., spoke to this Grant guy at Riv HQ (quite a fella as I came to find out :) ) and he suggested the Joe A. I went to the dealer, he also had the Joe A there. One ride around the parking lot on it and I was thrilled to pay him more for that Joe A than all the money I'd ever spend on all my bikes combined in my lifetime. I bought the AHH years later to have a bike at a second location and have been thrilled with it, also. If you come to Philadelphia and are about my height, you're welcome to try both, although I expect you won't want to travel that far to ride bikes. Also, I joined the RBW board about 4 years ago, and bought my Joe A about 3 1/2 years ago, in April 2017. The great folks on this board were instrumental with helping me navigate Riv. The Joe A has made me so happy! Do a search for my name in that time frame and you'll be able to read a bunch. Problem is, it's a hard choice. The good news is they are both great bikes. I think I also wrote something up about a year ago with a "review" of my AHH. Roberta On Thursday, December 10, 2020 at 2:52:31 AM UTC-5 philipr...@gmail.com wrote: > New to this group, I actually currently own & ride a Grant Peterson bike > already (Bridgestone MB-1) plus a CIOCC road bike but am interested in > something more dual purpose. The area the bike will be used primarily is > the West Coast of Scotland = narrow, rutted B & C-roads, fast A-Roads & > graded dirt tracks with lots of rain & wind thrown in for good measure. I > like to ride as "spirited" as my late-50s legs will allow, am most > comfortable on the hoods & I may eventually do some minimalist bikepacking > overnights. > > From looking at the Rivendell range it would seem that the Sam Hillborne > or Homer Hilsen would be a good fit, however the Riv folks also recommended > the Appaloosa. > > I'd love to hear some opinions on this from the folks that own them & > thanks in advance for any advice you can give. > > [image: Screen Shot 2020-12-03 at 8.03.40 AM.png] > -- 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/f6b03be3-1220-4d36-85f6-8b7e9397eef5n%40googlegroups.com.
