I’ll give you my two cents. I ride a previous generation 62cm 2TT Appaloosa set up with Billie bars and a 64cm Black Mountain Cycles monstercross bike with drop bars. I ride pavement, gravel and dirt roads which can be steep and rutted, but mostly in good shape. I really like the Appaloosa as an all arounder and could see it being set up with drop bars-it is smooth and comfortable and very stable. I do not think it would feel like a road bike in any set up because of the long chain stays, and it is a heavy bike (although it rides lighter than it feels). Both bikes are set up with 700x47 tires and by comparison my Black Mountain Cycles feels much quicker in handling, yet still stable enough to handle any rough gravel road. I think you might find the Appaloosa too much bike, and to me seems more like a mixed terrain touring bike. As far as Rivendells, I would think a Sam Hillborne would be a better drop bar choice for your needs with shorter chai stays, slightly quicker handling and the ability to run a good sized tire. I would like a Hillborne to complement my Appaloosa, but my BMC works so well that I can’t really justify it. Maybe someone will give you some thoughts on a Roadini for your purposes. Randy in Wisconsin
On Sunday, June 18, 2023 at 9:36:33 AM UTC-5 reynoldslugs wrote: > Hi all, can’t remember the last time I posted. Long-time Rivendell > rider, since 1998 or so; my current stable includes Atlantis, Legolas, > Custom, Rambouillet, Heron Road, maybe one or two others (I gave my > Quickbeam to a friend when my knees got to creaky for fixed gear riding). > > My current curiosity/notion/interest is whether I should add an Appaloosa > to the flock. If any of you ride one as a mostly-road, perhaps drop-bar > bike, I would be grateful for your impressions, feedback. > > I do a fair amount of road + steep gravel rides - - if you are familiar > with Sonoma County, that means Coleman Valley + Willow Creek, and Sonoma > Mountain Road + Bald Mountain. I’m interested in a bike that does well on > pavement and rides well on steep, rutted, dirt and gravel roads. > > Grateful for any opinions and feedback, thanks. > > Max Beach > Santa Rosa CA > -- 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/40198139-cd51-4634-be2b-8de800fbaad0n%40googlegroups.com.
