I have to differ about NORBA-era mountain bike conversions compared to earlier, much slacker designs. I've converted 5 NORBA-era rigid mtbs to all rounder use, with "tourist" and with drop bars -- the latter using upjutter stems -- the 10 cm Nitto Dirt Drop worked very well; and I've converted at least 1 slacker, pre-NORBA design. The NORBAs rode nicely -- sedately but very pleasantly; a wee bit slower to turn in than my Ram -- this with sufficiently fat tires; they're horrible with skinny tires; while the slacker one rode like a wheelbarrow.
With upjutter stems I was able to get a comfortable drop bar position with weight comfortably distributed despite the too-long top tubes, where I could ride comfortably on the hoods and in the hooks with my torso and not my shoulders-arms-hands taking the weight -- essentially, a relaxed road bike position. Different people, different preferences of course, but I do think that how you set up a NORBA-type frame makes a huge difference in how it fits, feels, and handles. On Tue, Jan 23, 2024 at 10:41 AM iamkeith <keithhar...@gmail.com> wrote: > Nice bike, Dave. I kind of interpreted it the same way as you. The > caveat being that not all old mtbs are created equal, and it probably works > better the older they are. By '88 / '89 or so, the frame angles had gotten > so steep, owing to NORBA fashion, that they required a good portion of the > rider's weight to be distributed to the handlebars. At least that's what > Ive concluded when trying to turn them into more upright riders. They just > feel twitchy without weight on the front. -- 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/CALuTfgvYir0oUxQ9A32XZyMqoZUcerUMRerJG3rKL26i73TE9g%40mail.gmail.com.
