This is going to be a fun thread. Please don't take a great volume of advice as condescending; I think that this thread will elicit a very large amount of love for road bikes as a distinct genus of bicycle.
I think you very particularly will benefit a great deal from the right road bike and that once you get things basically sorted you will find that you enjoy it immensely for the kind of riding you describe. There is a perfection of fit and feel and a real pleasure in riding a well set up traditional road bike -- I don't mean racing bike -- that you don't find with other combinations of frame, saddle, bar, and their relative positions. Really, this sort of setup on the right sort of frame is *more* comfortable, *more* natural, *more* pleasant for energetic riding than other setups; at least, I've always found it so, and there's a reason why the traditional road bike was developed so quickly after the chain-driven safety was invented and why it has remained largely the same for going on for 150 years. Note: I don't say that *everyone* who rides energetically should have a road bike, but everyone who does so and can try ought at least to give one a try. Again, there is an efficiency and comfort -- really, a "fit" like that of a custom suit or perfect tool -- offered by an intelligently spec'd and set up road bike that, you don't -- or at least, *I don't,* -- get with any other sort of bike. Me, based on my experience, I'd certainly start by keeping my eye out for a used Roadeo or Riv Road or LongLow or Ram or Heron. But for the final and perfect version, I'd not close my mind a priori to other makes. I am guessing, but I would not be surprised if, after your usual rapid learning cycle, this time with a road bike, you end up with a custom. My favorite bike of all time out of several scores is a custom Riv Road, but I've owned 2 other Riv Road customs plus a Ram (and the Sam) not to mention many other road bikes, and I've sold them all on to finally get what for me is belated perfection in the 2 Matthews customs -- tho' these used the Rivs as general design templates. I rode the gofast Riv fixie road bike to and from church today with the usual annoying NE winds while inbound N and E and the usual SW winds on return N and W. For the umpteen millionth time I remarked to myself at how pleasant it was to be able to drop "intuitively" into the hooks when turning into a wind, or to grab the long (Maes Parallel) ramps when pushing, butt-back and elbows bent, up an incline, or sitting up and holding the flats or the flat/ramp transition and spinning when the wind became a tailwind. I've certainly passed my speed demon days, but there remains a very distinct pleasure in riding energetically -- for me, particularly on hills and against winds -- on the perfectly set up road bike, and I have enough experience to know that I would not enjoy this nearly as much on anything else. *Bon chance!* On Sat, Apr 20, 2024 at 1:33 PM Bicycle Belle Ding Ding! < jonasandle...@gmail.com> wrote: > I’m starting to wonder about a roadbike. But it has to be a Rivendell > roadbike because I’m loyal and all that. Anyway, I don’t know that the > Roadini really offers enough of a change for me. I have no idea what is > going on with the Gallup. Then there’s the Roadeo - that one looks great > but there’s a 2 year wait, unless I can find one used. Which would be > ideal. > > Who rides their Rivbike in club rides and what do you ride? Who has a > Roadeo that never gets ridden and wants to sell it? I don’t even know what > size I’d be but I’m an 81 PBH. Must I ride drop bars? I never have before. > I know nothing about any of this. Clearly. > > Note: I still like my raspberry Platypus for club riding but it does take > a toll on me in wind. I recently got a shorter-height, longer-reach stem > which marginally helped, but our high spring winds are taking it out of me. > I did a club ride yesterday with my women’s group and my heart rate was in > the 170s the whole 26.3 miles. It was brutal. Everyone else agreed it was a > hard ride, but I felt like it was harder on me than them, and I’m the > youngest and probably the most fit. > > Leah > > -- > 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/fab5132f-e8ca-4a76-842d-9b994853e099n%40googlegroups.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/fab5132f-e8ca-4a76-842d-9b994853e099n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- Patrick Moore Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Executive resumes, LinkedIn profiles, bios, letters, and other writing services ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *When thou didst not, savage, k**now thine own meaning,* *But wouldst gabble like a** thing most brutish,* *I endowed thy purposes w**ith words that made them known.* -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. 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