When I got heavy into randonneuring I was using my Rambouillet for trainning and competing. By the end of a 7,000 mile year the bike was hurting. I decided to get another bike to take off some of the trainning preassure and to use with the local club rides. It wasn't that the Rambouillet was not fast enough but rather I saw too many stupid accidents and didn't want to risk the Rambouillet. I was doing this on the cheap and bought a tig welded Soma Smoothie ES. This is pretty close to the Rambouillet as it will take 28mm tires with fenders. I built it up into more of a club racer using STI shifters and assorted parts laying around my shop. It is basically a 105 level trainning bike although it does have a Tubus fly rack on it since I most of my trainning rides involve commuting to work.
I am happy with the Soma Smoothie ES. They have a Smoothie but it is more of a racing geometry and won't take fenders. They also has a lugged veresion of the ES for about $300 more. All the frames you mentioned are nice if the budget allows. But for a very rideable steel frame at a good price I am happy with my Smootie ES. Larry Powers "just when you think that you've been gyped the bearded lady comes and does a double back flip" - John Hiatt > Date: Sat, 18 Apr 2009 07:03:46 -0700 > Subject: [RBW] Re: looking for a fast bike, where should I go. > From: [email protected] > To: [email protected] > > > Yes the Ram is fastish, but I have it set up for touring with 36 spoke > wheels and a wide cassette. I recently rode a friends Bianchi C2C and > enjoyed it, apart from having my hands so low. It felt a lot different > from the bikes I have and I saw an excuse for a project. So I thought > I'd do something for the economy by buying a frame with steeper angles > and shorter chainstays and build it up with a compact cassette and > some shinny Dura-Ace stuff on it. I want it to be a fairly traditional > bike so I'm sticking with steel, maybe I have a few hours on ebay in > front of me. > > On Apr 18, 7:20 am, Steve Palincsar <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Fri, 2009-04-17 at 22:19 -0700, usuk2007 wrote: > > > I love my Ram and I take my Atlantis out on tracjs regularly, but I'm > > > now in the market for some speed too. So I'm looking for a nice fast > > > bike with room for some long reach brakes. Where should I go? Mercian, > > > Independant fabrications............? > > > > The Rambouillet is not fast? > > _________________________________________________________________ Rediscover Hotmail®: Get quick friend updates right in your inbox. http://windowslive.com/RediscoverHotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_Rediscover_Updates2_042009 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
