Hi John, I'm surely not a "typical" Riv rider in that I grew up and am still most comfortable/relaxed with a forward leaning position. The more upright I go the more unstable I feel on the bike, exactly the opposite of what's being touted. Don't believe anything/everything you read, *even this*, everything you need to know you already know within yourself. I wouldn't make a very good teacher as that'd be about all I'd say to the "students"..... that and "why ask me that which you already know and are ?" Why ?.... so that in asking and answering we can laugh/revel in the hilarity of playing *question and answer *! Self Revelation ...
As the story goes .... On my Franklin custom road bike, after using Dirt Drop bars on it originally, I tried some 56cm steel Albatross bars which worked for me only because being a custom, it had a comparitively very long top tube..... and I used Tektro bar end brake levers. It became obvious to me no matter where I put mtb levers the lever mount was always in the way of my hands. The Alba has *all that room* without any brake levers ...... so enter the bar end levers ! I use regular bar tape up and just over the curve, where I have the thumbshifters. For bar usability like that, the Alba are to me much more usable than the Billie, which I do have a pair but doubt I'll ever use them as none of the so called positive attributes in print apply to me. It's quite narrow at the curve and it's width at the ends only comes from a slightly wider outsweep angle. It must be noted that my Alba is the no longer made 56cm. whose curve radius is a little larger in hand than the 55 versions. I bought some 55's thinking they'd be exactly the same, with the narrowness coming from the center portion, but no, it wasn't. The Albastache is much more like the 56 Alba in that it has that nicely shaped radius for your hands. I have a pair I was hesitant to use as I didn't like how road brake levers felt in the positions touted in all the how-to's. What are they thinking, it's awful ! That's where you just can't live by what you read as depicting reality. Creativity needs and has no "instruction" ! Bar end brake levers be a screaming for that bar ! For shifters I'll either get some 23.8 thumbshifter mounts and place them just inside the curve, like my Alba, or possibly mount my Suntours on the stem vertically, or simply use DT shifters. The Albastache doesn't have much back reach so positioning it is more like doing a drop bar. Paul brakes I've never really been tempted by as the design simply doesn't work for me in any way. Give me what works, what's practicaI....like "traditional" cantilevers, full rubber, road sized, post-style centered pads that totally clear the stays. In todays retail, that'd be the DiaComple DC988. Why Riv doesn't offer it, you got me. It's everything in a cantilever they claim doesn't exist anymore. It never went away ;-) It even comes in anodised colors if you prefer from Porkchop BMX..... I love that store as they also have many small DiaCompe parts as well as applicalbe road parts. They have stickers too, fun stickers, all kinds of stickers ..... and stickers are just plain fun. BTW, With a Nitto Lamp Holder 2, you could mount any bar bag .The bar sits 70mm forward of the clamp and it's 200mm wide. https://benscycle.vtexassets.com/arquivos/ids/5687997/Nitto-Lamp-Holder-2-70---260mm-bens-large-nitto-lamp-holder-2-70-4724.jpg The only difference between serious and relaxed riding is that one takes itself seriuosly .... the other does not. The bike of itself does not matter, it's only a "prop" to act out the play.......... -- 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/2ef984b2-ff9e-4694-8327-b328ce2c1bd8n%40googlegroups.com.
