While it's possible to swap back and forth between Albatross bars and drop bars, and there are some setup tricks that could facilitate this, I would not be eager to do it regularly.
As Mathias demonstrated you'd need a much longer stem on the Albatross bike (30-40mm longer) to have similar positions, which can make cabling that works for both tricky. Using downtube shifters would completely eliminate the need to touch the shifters and cabling. I have a bike that has the front shifter on the downtube and the rear shifter on a thumbie mount clamped to the stem - a setup that also would require no change to swap stem and bar. Hinged thumbies clamped to the bar could be setup with cable lengths that would work with both bar/stem combos. Bar end shifters would be the most work, requiring the cable to be pulled for each swap. Brakes are trickier, but cable disconnects designed for travel bikes could be one way to speed up the required cable swap. I'd be more inclined to setup two bikes and differentiate them a bit in use (e.g. put racks and a basket on the Albatross bike), which is how I "justify" my overlapping bikes. Sam and Appaloosa would be a good pairing, though I'd be tempted to go with a Homer for a bit more separation. -Dave On Wednesday, May 1, 2024 at 7:11:58 AM UTC-4 Tim Bantham wrote: > You could build the Sam with Albatross bars and it would serve your needs > perfectly as a graveler and bike path cruiser. You could also do that 100 > mile ride with Albatross bars if you wanted. That said I do understand the > desire for drops. I have those on my Sam. I've also had Billie bars and > Albatross as well. All were great but different. Swapping bars is not that > difficult but there is an expense. You'll need a different stem, levers, > grips. While doable to swap it wouldn't be practical to swap back in forth. > > If you wanted to add a second bike either a Appaloosa or an Atlantis with > upright bars would be a great choice. These bikes are different enough from > the Sam to justify the additional bike in your stable. > > > On Wednesday, May 1, 2024 at 2:23:08 AM UTC-4 Michael wrote: > >> Looking for a single bike for casual rides on bike >> paths/paved/gravel/dirt roads with the occasional 100 mile ride thrown in. >> Will suggest the Sam Hillborne, which I'm leaning towards. I assumed I >> would build it with drops for the long rides but I recently fell in love >> with albatross bars for upright lazy bike path rides. >> Is there a way to quickly/easily swap handlebars or are two bikes >> inevitable? >> Would a Sam with drops and an appaloosa or atlantis w/ albatross be a >> good combo or is that too much overlap? >> >> -- 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/c334fc84-4253-4935-8b60-4402329d4f51n%40googlegroups.com.
