Patrick, I took the initial pictures with the Bullmoose bars at their maximum height, but they didn't feel too good on my initial test rides; I felt too stretched out with a lot of pressure on my hands. I know what you mean about getting a good torso angle, but for me, 51 years old, 260 lbs, 5'11" and if I lean down too much, my left shoulder and neck start hurting. What I have found out is that when I'm riding slow, I want a much more upright position than when I'm riding at tempo where my body naturally leans forward more. Still, even when I'm feeling like I'm leaning forward quite a bit, I don't think I quite get to a 45 degree forward lean.
What I have found with the Riv bikes is that apparently the combination of higher handlebars with horizontal bars/grips significantly reduces or eliminates the discomfort I feel. I get some pressure on my hands but they don't hurt and as long as I have different position options which so far the Nitto Touring bars provide plenty of, I've been able to ride for 2 hours with no significant issues for the first time in years. On Sunday morning, when I went for my first paved trail test ride with my son, I had the bars a bit lower and found that while still feeling a bit stretched out when riding slowly, riding at tempo felt quite all right. Today, on my first ever commute with the Hunqa (I had to carry my stuff on a backpack as I haven't yet decided on its final configuration), the fit and the handlebars felt much better and quite comfortable. I've also ordered a set of the 150mm Bullmoose bars to see if those feel any better, but I'm now starting to have some doubts about it when on Saturday, I was quite sure. We'll see... Pictures here: *http://tinyurl.com/3gs54fu* I rode it with the 40mm Marathon Extremes to see how they felt. They feel great, but as expected due to the narrower width and higher pressure needed, they felt just a bit rougher on the gravel but not much more than the 50mm Supremes. However, they felt grippier as expected on the loose gravel sections. On pavement, they feel great and you don't feel the knobs at all. To the credit of the larger 50mm tires, the 40s felt faster when riding on pavement but speeds were pretty much comparable according to my computer. Tomorrow I'm going to ride with the 50mm Big Apples to compare. I have a set of 60mm BAs but I only rode them once on the Bombadil and didn't like how they felt at the time. I want to sell them, but if you'd like to see the actual clearance, I could install them and take some photos later in the week. There is one of the demo Hunqas at RBW that is set with them, and the clearances are in milimiters. Quite tight, but still doable. You'd have to deflate the tires every time you were installing or removing the wheels. The Hunqapillar in its current configuration doesn't shimmy at all. I went on my usual paved incline with no hands at 20 mph and there wasn't even a hint. It has a Tange headset so I cannot really say if the CK would have, but even on a section where there are some cracks on the road that throw the Atlantis on a shimmy tendency if I'm gripping the handlebars lightly, there was a hint of the same feeling on the Hunqa but instead of increasing, it queted down on its own right away, even with no hands on. I haven't decided if I'm going to use a rear rack or not. Ideally, I would just put the medium Saddlesack when I needed it, but without a supporting rack its bottom touches the 40mm tire when loaded. I just got a green Carradice Longflap Camper and will try it on without a rack to see how it fits. If there is good clearance from the tire, this might actually be the largest bag to use on the Hunqa and keep it rear rackless for a more fun mountain biker configuration. Then again, with its increased rigidity it might become the bike I choose to use with loaded panniers. We'll see... I'm going to try the 40mm Extremes on the Atlantis and see how its handling changes, if it does, with the narrower tires. I think this bike would be a great single speeder. While I don't think I'll ever get one, with the down tube shifters, at least on the road, I find myself shifting a bit less and sort of pretending I only have one gear... until my knees hurt and I have to shift! LOL!!! Overall, so far I have to say that the Hunqapillar is extremely nice to ride; responsive and stiff but not rigidly so, much stiffer than the Atlantis with this heavy rider on top. The handling with the Bullmoose bars is amazing. I'm quite impressed; I'm traveling to Chicago this weekend for a week, so it won't be until the following weekend when I get to fully try it off road on the mountain biking trails. I'll keep reporting... but I'd definitely think this bike has been a great choice. I was initially bothered by the diagonal tube and the color scheme, but no more. In person the color scheme looks great and more importantly, my wife, daughters and son love it. Esthetically, I really like it now and I think I like it much better than the full diagonal configuration of the Bombadil. The triangulation and additional firmness/rigidity it adds for heavy riders like me is amazing while preserving or even enhancing that magical Riv feeling. The 58cm is the perfect size for me. René -- 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-bunch@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.
