If the fundamental purpose of riding is to have fun, which it is for me, then I'd say that one should modify your Rivs in any way that make them more fun, and of course that is different for each rider. IMO, there's no shame in proselytizing for one's personal technology or equipment preferences, but to make these dogmatic is just silly.
Me: clipless pedals (tho' I like 1 bike with clips and straps -- but no non-retention! Tried it and disliked it), close ratio gears, narrow handlebars (I'm not small), lowish bars (tho at near-67 "low" is not as low as it was 15 years ago), drop bars with little or no flare for road riding or light dirt, disc brakes for dirt, and hub gears. There is no absolute or universal justification for these choices, it's just what I like. Open to conversion on: super-long wheelbases and some of the narrower Rivendell sweepback bars: I've not tried any since the Priest and original Moustache bars. One very big difference for one of my ideal bikes to what Riv offers is fattish tires, not fatbike width but "plus" width in 700C size, for our sand. Sorry, 50s are just skinny and hard when it comes to bosque sand, and 70-pluses at 13 psi are wonderful. On Thursday, February 10, 2022 at 8:49:11 PM UTC-5 Jay Lonner wrote: > > My wife and I are spending a week in northern AZ, which included a day of > mountain biking in Sedona. We rented fancy dual-suspension, carbon fiber > wonderbikes which are about as anti-Riv as you can get — and it was a > fantastic experience! I’ve never ridden such a beast before, and was amazed > at the terrain it could handle in the hands of a newcomer to this style of > riding. It’s the most fun I’ve had on a bike in years. > > I had a Gus in my shopping cart when they were last on sale, but ultimately > didn’t go through with the purchase because I want to be free to experiment > with builds that depart from the Riv way of doing things, such as IGHs and > disc brakes. And now I’m doubly glad I held off, because I am giving serious > consideration to buying a fully modern mountain bike. > > In retrospect I think I gave too much credence to the idea of underbiking. > There’s no way I could have handled this sort of terrain on a Riv-style bike > — I would have been walking it the entire time. And while that may be the > lowest common gear, as a former commenter here liked to say, it wouldn’t have > been nearly as fun. > > So I guess this is part confession and part query — who else mixes and > matches their Rivendells with the sort of modern ironmongery that would give > Grant & Co. conniptions? -- 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/CALuTfgvyvFKNWq8%2B3UKsH%2BYkxpU5GJS01CaaBfXYO-1Z8vF7uA%40mail.gmail.com.
