"> > 2. Be happy how well my bike handles with a largish handlebar bag > > What bike do you have, and what size? "
The bike I have set up specifically for brevet riding is a 58cm 650B wheeled A. Homer Hilsen. I did the ride in to the office today (60km from El Cerrito to South Hayward) along Grizzly Peak --> Skyline --> Redwood. I have a Mark's Rack, a Berthoud decaleur and a Loyal Designs Handlebar bag. The bike handles like there's nothing on there. I steer with my hips just like an unloaded bar. The only time I notice the presence of the bag is when I'm parking the bike, it wants to flop over. Low speed climbing (under 10mph) I guess I can feel the front end want to wander a bit, but no more than anything else. Previous "touring" bikes I've owned I'd never even attempt to ride no-handed when I had a handlebar bag on, but my Hilsen is solid as a rock no-handed. Today I had a light and rechargeable battery pack in there, wallet, keys, phone, a few bars, two extra pairs of gloves, hat, all loose. Probably 6 or 7 pounds of junk and the bike handled spectacularly well. On Jan 3, 11:23 am, Anne Paulson <anne.paul...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Mon, Jan 3, 2011 at 11:10 AM, William <tapebu...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Anne > > > Thanks for the write up. I'm ramping up for my first 200k brevet on > > the 22nd. Several key points for me: > > > 1. It's possible, even if it's cold windy and rainy > > Absolutely! Wear wool, of course, but you knew that. I like the idea > of bringing along an extra pair of socks, even though I didn't end up > wearing mine. > > You'll be fine. Good luck, and have fun. > > > 2. Be happy how well my bike handles with a largish handlebar bag > > What bike do you have, and what size? I haven't actually tried a > handlebar bag on my Roadeo, but I suspect that part of my dislike of > the a bag is because I'm female, with considerably less upper body > strength than men. Of course I can still steer the bike if it has a > handlebar bag-- I used to captain a tandem, which also requires more > muscling of the bike. But I notice the difference between a light > front end and a heavier front end. For example, one of my Atlantises > has a Nitto front rack, and the other doesn't. Even with no pannier on > the rack, I notice an enormous difference in handling. Others, perhaps > people who are stronger, wouldn't find a difference. > > I forgot to mention in my writeup that a friend of mine was also > riding the brevet. She's a newer rider, very very strong, but she has > been influenced by the racey weight weenie carbon fiber crowd which is > far too prevalent in my area, so she rides one of those racey bikes. > She had put a handlebar bag on her bike, and she had to abandon > because she was unable to control the bike in the headwind. Now, those > racey bikes tend to have twitchy handling and are unsuited to...well, > unsuited to a lot of things, including wearing handlebar bags. But I > suspect that a man with her comparable level of fitness might have > been able to wrestle his bike into submission. (She thinks she needs > to find another way to carry stuff on her bike for randonees. I think > she needs to find a different bike. ;) ) > -- > -- Anne Paulson > > My hovercraft is full of eels -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
