I've been riding my Franklin Reynolds 531ST custom from from '99 a whole lot lately..... man I like that bike. I had the 62 c-c frame made with a 62cm TT and 46cm chainstays. I originally used the Dirt Drop bars from Nitto but now use an Albatross 56cm steel. 36/46 Origin8 crank and Sachs 7sp. 13-32 freewheel.
speaking of big tires and all ... well riddle me this Batman how this bike literally just floats over patch paved and cruddy washed out gravel roads with not so fancy 33mm Forte Metro ST tires that were about $15 .... and my Bombadil regardless of the tires I've used even at very low pressure is jarring as heck ? Exact same wheels builds on both. It's also easier for me to maintain my line and speed with the road bike up steep washed out backwoods gravel roads also, corrections are wholly intuitive and effortless. Watching the fork flex like crazy over bumpy roads is also fun ! I could only "guess" it has a whole lot to do with the tubing and it's design I suppose. Regardless, it's great and even though I've not yet received my Suzie it has me rethinking the whole thing. I "hope" the Susie is a whole lot more vertically resilient than the Bomba. But those Hilly frames are a once in a lifetime "try" for me though. If not, I'll have another road kinda bike made. Does Reynolds even make 531 anymore ? Also, a wider tire is just wider, not necessarily better or worse. I love narrow tires as I grew up riding them so it's quite intuitive for me. I rode many a pairs of Specialized Touring Turbo 27x 1/8 or 1/4. Those are what I knew as "road tires" even before I got into road racing tires which were even narrower. There is such a distinct feel, a precision that gets lost in wider tires from all the bikes I've ridden. I've tried some wider tires on my road bike and it just felt odd. It seems pretty obvious to me that a frame that is quite compliant doesn't need overly wide tires to ride "soft" and cushy. Then there's the simplicity of double crank and the ease of which to throw on various parts. I also had cantilevers put on the frame and use Suntour XC Pro's, and they are outstanding, I've never had such a effective brake. It's also darn light to me, even with the heavy duty Phil/Mavic wheels that are on it. Hooray for road-tire bikes ! -- 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 view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/14fa1d54-51e7-4b50-b6cb-9f91bbccef7bo%40googlegroups.com.
