Hi Brian - you say you're sold, not sure on which bike. I'll weigh in for the Appa (never having ridden a Susie, though). I use it as my true all-rounder here in Southern California. It's my commute bike for 7 miles up the hill on pavement to run all kinds of errands, including carrying groceries. It's great of my weekend excursions, which often involve a mix of pavement and fire roads, anywhere from 20 to 75 miles. It's been wonderful to do more off-road things, like a three-day bike camping tour on Catalina Island all over gravel roads. I've done some trail riding too and plan to do more now that I've added Schwalbe Marathon Mondial tires that do better on rougher stuff than the road-ish tires the bike came with. All that said--I still take out my hardtail fat-tire mountain bike when I want to do more challenging trail riding, especially crossing creeks or tighter single-track--but that doesn't happen very often as I'm not an all out mountain biker anymore (never really was doing the extreme stuff.)
On Thursday, February 8, 2024 at 8:42:50 AM UTC-8 BrianT wrote: > Thanks... Good points all around. My city days are about 10 miles round > trip, so Hoch's reasoning resonates. I'm much more likely to hit the single > track than attempt longer road rides. And frankly the hills and horrifying > pavement quality near me warrant big commuter tires anyway ;) > > I think I'm sold. Now just watch my internet go out tomorrow at 11:57... > > On Wednesday, February 7, 2024 at 6:42:55 PM UTC-8 Bill Lindsay wrote: > >> They are different bikes, so the only smart move is one of each. >> >> BL in EC >> >> On Wednesday, February 7, 2024 at 1:23:50 PM UTC-8 BrianT wrote: >> >>> Hey Everyone. I'm seriously torn between a lugged Susie and an Appaloosa >>> later this year. Help me commit! >>> >>> I commute and run errands (no question that's most of my mileage), but >>> fun rides are always in seek of trails with pavement as needed: day rides >>> plus occasional camping. I think each bike is overkill in a different way. >>> The Appaloosa is capable of longer distances and heavier loads, which would >>> be pretty rare for me. The bigger tires on the Susie would open up more >>> technical singletrack, which would be similarly rare. >>> >>> What to do? I like the idea of the Appaloosa's more traditional look, >>> but I like the Susie's higher handlebars and increased crotch clearance. >>> I'm likely to want fenders, so I may end up not using the Susie's tire >>> clearance to full advantage (sidebar: what's the biggest tire that will >>> really fit under a B65? B69? Anyone know of another decent-looking jumbo >>> fender?). >>> >>> All opinions welcome, with special thanks to anyone who's ridden or >>> owned both. >>> >> -- 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/7a7dc9f6-a8ed-45da-b320-99783dfb30fan%40googlegroups.com.
