One of our own, Rob Perks, was so taken by the low trail concept he quit talking about it & started building low trail frames & forks:
http://oceanaircycles.com/ For perspective, Rob was an early adopter of the Roadeo and loves the bike. I've chased him up Saddleback in OC & Sulphur Mtn in Ventura, so the Roadeo is pretty good country bike. My 40 mm trail Atlantis fork pre-dates Rob's project but if the idea is intriguing he's a guy you should talk to for a fork only or a complete frame. I have no business connection but we have both ridden the So Cal Riv Group rides. dougP On Jun 6, 12:20 pm, William <[email protected]> wrote: > Greg J, you've described it perfectly. This is exactly my experience with > my low trail (Rawland) and my high trail Rivs. I like them all alot, both > with and without heavy front loads. I've never had a rear load on my low > trail bike so I can't compare that. They are decidedly different but > equally great and confidence inspiring to me. > > > > On Tuesday, June 5, 2012 5:40:08 PM UTC-7, Greg J wrote: > > > Rene, > > > Thanks for your write up. Very interesting. I have some thoughts about > > the low-trail issue, FWIW. > > > I definitely noticed a difference in handling between the low trail bike > > (a Toei I had for a while) and a Riv, which I assume may be attributable to > > the difference in trail. The hard part is describing the difference in > > feel, and I thought I'd do my part to muddy the waters even more. You say, > > "where before I had to "drive" the bike, especially around turns, now all I > > have to do is think of where I want to go and the bike just responds > > effortlessly." That's funny, because I would have described it the > > opposite way. In my experience, the low trail bike will go exactly where > > you point the handlebar and will respond to small changes in your input. A > > positive way to describe this would be it's "responsive to steering > > input." A negative description would be, it requires you to always be > > controlling the bike. The high trail bike is more stable, in that once you > > set a course in a turn, it will keep to its natural arc. Positively, it's > > "on rails," and negatively, it resists or fights your input. I think the > > term "automatic" can be applied to both, and mean different thing, and that > > may be where some confusion arises. Low trail is automatic in that it > > tracks more closely your steering input--it does what you're perhaps > > subconsciously doing to the bike. High trail is automatic in that it (esp > > in turns) has its own arc that it will default to once you initiate the > > turn and it resists efforts to alter that course. Does this make sense? > > > Anyways, as most will agree, it's not a life-changing experience, and > > plenty of people (myself included) have toured on high-trail bikes with a > > front bag and survived. But it's a significant enough difference, and I'm > > glad you embarked on your adventures. > > > Greg- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
