Here is a photo of my bike dressed up to do a planned 6 day long trip to Laos in a couple of weeks.
Nitto mini front with a small wald, nitto big rear rack that will carry some ortlieb classic rollers (to be loaned to me). There are 4 bottle cages total - 2 mounted on the bars with Minoura clamps - a total capacity of almost 2.9 L of fluids. <http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8500/8292709975_ae40a9df9a_c.jpg> Also a fit review (and a gear review) that I hope will be helpful to anybody considering this bike. Lots of my opinions have changed even since my most recent review 4 months ago, but I have also been riding a lot more, currently averaging about 350 km / week - 60% good road, 30% potholey rough road, 10% technical trail. My body: Age 32, weigh 145 lbs, 175 cm tall, 88 cm PBH. Quite flexible, i touch my toes OK. Frame: 56 cm, Waterford built (cantilever ready) Hillborne. Some of you know I cracked 2 head tube joints about a year ago. These were fixed by a builder in Bangkok who brazed in 2 rods of silver for about 25 bucks. The paint job cost about 80. The paint was not good; the colour matched OK but the paint bubbled and cracked later. The joints have held up well though. <http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8354/8292825299_758f512b11_c.jpg> A few weeks ago I was in a century ride with a group of 23mm roadies and a car cut us off. The rider behind me hit me and bent slightly one of my seat stays. Brakes were thrown out of alignment but the bike was good to keep riding. Nearly 3 years into owning my first steel bike and still very glad to be riding this material. Stem and handlebars: 11 cm Nitto Tallux, 46cm Noodles I could be comfortable on a 10cm stem too, but this works great at the moment and I would not change anything. At first I balked at having to order a Tallux because all the Technomic Deluxes were out of stock, but I ordered a Tallux anyway, and I now ride it at its maximum height. The noodles with the tallux are a pretty mean combination - I have them set up like Grant/Riv say and I ride them almost permanently in the drops, and it feels like they make me ride with more power, and definitely more comfortably over a long distanc. Standard hand positions are in the bottom half of the hook. When riding trail in the attack position, I hold them higher up in the hooks where my index finger can reach the brakes. I get on the elbows sometimes for long climbs, and ride on the hoods when I'm cruising or taking a break. If you are familiar with how dirt drop bars work, I guess this is a pretty similar set up with a more hybrid application. I like this setup very much. Drivetrain: Sugino XD2 (stock gearing, 46/36/24 ), Silver shifters, 13 - 28t IRD 7spd freewheel No issues here, the whole thing works great and I've become very fond of the silver shifters (although this really did take a while). The gearing is sufficient too, and the triple is always appreciated. I tend to attack up the mountain in the 36 / 28 for as long as I can manage and then pop it into the 24 ring when I'm out of steam. 24/28 will still go up anything except the worst mountain bike climb when I am already shattered. Hasn't happened yet. 46/13 is enough for flat road sprints up to 54 kph and is actually pretty good for cruising at 35+ kph too, and if I am heading downhill so fast that I can't pedal anymore, I should really just work on a better tuck. I use TIME ATAC XS pedals and mtb trail shoes. They're still a lot quicker for me than using platforms, especially grinding up big mountains which I do a lot of. Wheels: Rich built Phil Rivy dish less rear, schmidt SON front, velocity synergy rims. Great wheel set! No complaint. Wheels are still smooth as butter. The dynohub has been an fantastic addition and I would recommend it highly. Its never weighed me down, but the lighting is incredible (I use a IQ Cyo headlight and a Toplight Line Plus taillight). One thing though, never mount your lights upside down. I did this with the Toplight to clear the cables from the rear tire and it is dead. I had the Phil Rivy originally equipped with the Shimanopore freewheel which broke within several months of riding. (it would slip a notch with every engagement). I've been using the IRD freewheel for a while now, and it has been problem free. Tires: 45mm Marathon Extremes I bought the bike with these tires and they were ok but I always felt slow on them. Later I tried some Jack Brown Greens and thought they were much faster…but when I started training for bike packing rides, riding a lot more I put the Marathons back on again and I prefer these now. I don't notice any sluggishness from the weight at all, but that's only riding upwards of 300 km / week. With these tires I am still hanging on to group rides at 35 - 40 kph, so no slower than riding Jack Browns, but more comfortable at 30front/35rear PSI. Those pressures work perfectly on the road, but are sketchy on the trail. However, I keep getting pinch flats on the trail whenever I reduce the pressure any lower, so I just ride these pressures no matter what I am riding now. Saddle: Brooks Team Pro on a Nitto crystal fellow. Nitto stuff is so nice… and the Team Pro is fabulous too. I have a seasoned-to-near-death B17 and a Team Pro with only a few thousand km on it. The Team Pro disappears under me if wearing lycra / chamois, but the B17 is more comfortable if wearing cotton and underpants. I tend to wear lycra more often. Thoughts on riding a "heavy" bike: Some time back I made a commitment to myself to train to ride multi day off road epics like the GDMBR, CT and lots of the unnamed stuff here in Asia. With that focus set, I sold my 23mm Trek road bike and set about training on a rig that I would make heavier over time to aid my training. The results have surprised me. We all know how much faster a lighter bike feels on a climb, but what I've learnt is that if I condition myself to climb on a heavier bike, that feeling gets better, and there isn't much of a speed penalty. The only numbers I have for this are on my regular climb up the local mountain called Doi Suthep. This is a 700 m climb with an almost steady 6% gradient. On my 8kg go-fast road bike over the last year, I would climb this mountain 2-3 times per week at between 42 - 47 minutes. On the Hillborne last week, I climbed it in 47, this is with dynohub, front rack, lights etc - all the things you don't normally put on a racer. Slightly slower but not much. The effort feels different, especially when you are still warming up, but after 30 minutes there's hardly a difference. Would I buy a Hillborne again? When I bought the Hillborne I was on the fence between Atlantis and this bike. If I were to do it again, I would spring for the Atlantis. That added tire clearance is the main thing. 45mm on the type of trail we have here in Thailand (rocky, technical) just isn't enough, and I pinch flat my tires on trail roughly once out of every 3 rides. The other thing is that when I broke my frame last year, I wrote to John and he said that they would let me buy the shop model as a replacement for 500 bucks. I would also have to send my frame back, and pay for shipping of the replacement frame to me. I was pretty sure the frame was defective; it had cracked when I didn't crash, I just rode through an embankment. But these things happen. However, the solution would've worked out to heckuva lot of money, so thank goodness I could get the frame repaired in Thailand, even if not to the same standards. I might be wrong, but I have a feeling Riv has more financial room with warranties with a more expensive frame like the Atlantis (even though my Waterford Hillborne commanded a significant premium). This Hillborne is still helluva bike. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rbw-owners-bunch/-/opCYhQzOIioJ. 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.
