It's all the above, in balance with the rider's strength, flexibility, baggage, and the road/trail! The original response by Matthew J rings true. I ride a green Quickbeam, and an early 1970's Gitane. The Rivendell has strong English roots, and the Gitane is, well, French, but is a road bike that has a lot in common with Rivendell, with lighter tubes (Reynolds 531db) and less well designed clearances.
The Rivendell's tubes are oversize and stiff, which gives me confidence with heavy loads (my weight too) and bumpy roads. It sails along. However, the lighter, narrower tubes of the Gitane, and I am sure modern frames along those lines, really do dance with your legs, and that's a good thing. Otherwise, I can't dance. My dream bike these days is a front loader, like the boulder, with a rack system that takes a big Handlebar bag and removable low riders for front panniers, and maybe a light rear rack for the sleeping bag. And puffy tires. https://janheine.wordpress.com/2014/05/13/setting-our-own-trends/ Boulder Bikes is inspired by Bicycle Quarterly's research. They camp lighter and don't ride around quite so many thorns as Rivendell, and that influences your tire choices. But supple tires are the bee's knees. A big concept in bike philosophy is the divide between bike as a kit of parts to modify modify modify, or bike as integrated and optimized machine. Rivbike is in the kit side, and Boulder Bikes might be a bit more toward the integrated and optimized side, but maybe a few thousand dollars below the level of a constructeur like Mr. Weigle. On Wed, May 27, 2015 at 5:00 PM, Michael Hechmer <mhech...@gmail.com> wrote: > Are you sure it's the frame and not the wheels & tires? True frames have > different ride characteristics but so do wheels & tires. > > Michael > > > On Wednesday, May 27, 2015 at 3:43:51 PM UTC-4, Lungimsam wrote: >> >> So, what are the similarities/diffs between your Boulders and Rivbikes? >> >> Is there a characteristic ride quality of each that stands out? >> > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- Bill Gibson Tempe, Arizona, USA -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
