https://www.renehersecycles.com/trail-does-not-make-a-bike-stable/ - I think this has a pretty good explanation of wheel flop.
Having ridden a low trail bike (Romanceur) I found it felt twitcher and more sensitive to handlebar movement at all speeds. I think I really "steered with the hips" a bit more here. Also - lower trail seems to carry weight up higher a bit better so you see more weight up top on baskets or bar bags, especially at slow speeds. High trail bikes have more flop - which from my understanding is the bike front end lowers slightly. This gives a lot more handlebar feedback. Lots of mountain bikes are higher trail. You can carry higher front loads on them as well - but you may notice on slower / sharper turns it feeling literally "floppy". At speed it'd likely be stable. Some porteur bikes have a bit more mid trail for carrying more substancial weight mixing stability and lower flop. Honestly, having ridden a lot of different bikes with different trail I can say you will almost always get used to what you're spending time riding. The only time i've noticed it to be intolerable was building up a bike for my girlfriend who is very short. It was an 80's Miele with 700c wheels. Seat tube was 48cm but the top tube was 52 and very very raked out. I've since switched it with a terry 24/700 and it's a real difference in positive ride quality. This has all lead me to think to focus on trail and flop is a bit overblown within reason. We all have personal preferences but it feels like a marketing ploy these days. Trail and flop is really specific and niche aspect of the bike that really should be determined by a good builder or designer (Riv etc) based on wheelsize, tire size, ride quality, utility, and preference. Obviously Rivendell does this with their bikes - i've seen attempts to "low trail" a hunq or atlantis - but the reality is these bikes are really well designed and functional as is. With my current custom being built by a montreal builder - I was very insistent on low trail like my Romanceur. However after several consultations he suggested going slightly more mid trail as it would fit the build and purpose of the bike better. I trust the builder to understand the geometry. I had a new Clem Smith Jr with more wheel flop and it carried front weight *less well* in a heavy front basket vs a slightly less high trail Clementine. Both were floppy with a overfilled basket vs the Romanceur. On Tuesday, January 2, 2024 at 12:40:06 PM UTC-8 George Schick wrote: > I'm struggling to understand what this business of "wheel flop" is all > about that I've been seeing from critics on various blogs lately. I looked > it up on the Web and read some descriptions of it. But based on these > comments, do any or all Riv bikes have this characteristic in handling > based on "front end loading, etc" maybe, not sure? -- 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/737dab38-ead0-48b5-afae-22c30d4ef640n%40googlegroups.com.
