Leah,
Did I miss the part where you got a professional fitting somewhere local to you and then ordered a Custom Riv Road just for you? Heck, you could build a step thru custom Riv Road if you wanted! I bet that will be a beautiful bike. Yours, Riv Sister Liz On Apr 21, 2024, at 14:29, Chris Halasz <chal...@gmail.com> wrote:
I see many here of the relatively long torso to short inseam chromosomal group recommending square frames (top tube similar to seat tube) geometries. I wonder if that will work for Leah.
This never worked for my 5' 5" wife. The only non-custom dropped bar bike she ever fit decently on was the smallest of the Bleriots (49cm?) with 650b wheels to limit toe clip overlap (TCO), and that only worked with a maximally extended 50mm Technomic stem.
We at one point purchased a Gunnar 50cm frame with nice short top tube. Upon receiving the frame, I realized it had something like a 75 degree seat tube, which would not work with my wife's long femurs, no matter the then available setback seat posts.
So I recommend the *smallest* (i.e. shortest) sloping top tubed frame that will elevate the bars as much as possible, and discount threadless ahead-type forks and stems, allowing for plenty of elevation of the bars, and recommend no larger that 650b wheels and not-too-chunky (38mm max) tires to limit TCO.
(I also don't recommend a cyclocross frame unless you really like standing over exposed top tube cables that are wiped clean by your shorts.)
Unless, Leah, you have a long torso compared to your inseam, then you may ignore!
And we all are anxious to see what you end up with. Personally? I'd love to hear how you drop the whole pack on a custom-painted Roaduno.
Cheers
Chris SB, CA On Sunday, April 21, 2024 at 2:20:57 PM UTC-7 Patrick Moore wrote:
As someone else said, skip the scruples and just try drop bars. They're comfortable, which is (I assert) the reason why they've been used for well over 100 years.
Riders don't use drops because their bars are positioned far too low; the hoods position on modern bikes is like the hooks position on "traditional" road bikes.
I've not used Albastaches but I've used many, many, Moustache bars and nope, not like drops. You might end up hating drops, but please try a few.
Patrick "38 cm Maes Parallel road, 42 cm Maes Parallel dirt" Moore
I promise not to be offended by a great wave of advice coming my way here - I have asked for it and you all have kindly delivered.
Ok, ok….I really will consider drop bars. But I do wonder…everyone says they offer so many hand positions; but I only see people with their hands on the hoods. Are riders really utilizing different hand positions?
Also, I saw a pic of an albastache with brake levers in the middle of the bar. Would this mimic the freedom of hand position changes a drop bar offers?
I practiced tonight on my ride by grabbing the front of my Billie bars. It felt nice to be stretched out like that, but with no access to brakes or shifters from there I didn’t like to stay long. Unnerving.
Sent from my iPhone 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!
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-bun...@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.
--
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, know thine own meaning, But wouldst gabble like a thing most brutish, I endowed thy purposes with words that made them known.
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group.
To unsubscribe from this topic, visit https://groups.google.com/d/topic/rbw-owners-bunch/uXZ6OSH6T-s/unsubscribe.
To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to rbw-owners-bun...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/CALuTfgt2zr1c-C1mVdfZT7Pmw8beof8ym%2BaKo2ECu1HyNFVFtg%40mail.gmail.com.
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-bun...@googlegroups.com.
--
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, know thine own meaning, But wouldst gabble like a thing most brutish, I endowed thy purposes with words that made them known.
--
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/0f1cf9da-a841-49c6-96e7-7f86776ba1efn%40googlegroups.com.
--
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/C778D84C-DCD2-4349-804A-2DF039B93B0C%40gmail.com.
|
