Following up on Leah's questions in a new thread (and in a new order). On Sunday, May 5, 2024 at 5:33:07 PM UTC-6 Bicycle Belle Ding Ding! wrote:
Valerie, I would love to hear every single thing you say about this bike. Do you have sweepy bars? Drop bars? Have you ridden it on a club ride? Do you find it to be quick and lively? What was the reason you bought your Charlie? *What was the reason you bought your Charlie? * In general, I like to buy used/demo bikes to try them out and see how they perform in the applicable subset of the variety of rides I like to do - whether paved or dirt/gravel, steep hills or rolling flats, and whether short rides, all day, or multi-day, loaded or supported, alone or with people. Although many have overlapping capabilities, I tend to set them up for specific types of rides, rather than being all-rounders. With a new bike, I like to figure out if it fills an empty niche or if it excels relative to an existing bike in a category, which would then likely be sold or repurposed. It is a fun game. When the Gallop demo was for sale, I had just discovered what an unbelievable blast the Gus is on bumpy dirt rides (so fun! so liberating!) and was curious about the effect of the swoopy top tube and longer wheel-base on a road-oriented bike. Also, it is purple. *Do you have sweepy bars? Drop bars? * The bike came with albastache bars which I always try to like, but I never do. Hard to explain, but the bars felt too skinny to my hands for such a rounded, plush bike. I think drop bars would work well with the right stem height and reach. I have 4 drop-bar bikes so I didn't want to move it in that direction. I had on-hand a bosco-moose bar so I swapped over to that one. I love it. I have such a great view while riding and supreme comfort climbing and descending. *Do you find it to be quick and lively?* It is lively! I don't know about quick. I haven't ridden it with garmin/strava going so I can't compare my speeds to other bikes. It is very fun to ride. It is the kind of bike that inspires me to pedal a bit faster because I feel the energy go right into your motion. It puts a big smile on my face. I have it set up with a triple so I have a huge range of gears, which helps in my very hilly neighborhood. It likes to climb. I don't know if I am going fast (likely not) but it is not hard. It is far more responsive and nimble than my Clem H, which I sold. That was a tank. This is like a rowing scull, easy to bring up to speed and to plane in rhythm with the bike. It sails down hills. It feels like it disappears under me. It is weird because it is not the lightest bike I have. I think having wide tires helps because they mitigate all the road texture. I switched from the Soma Shikoro tires that came with it to Schwalbe G-One Speed TLE in size 50. The Soma's were fine but the Schwalbe's feel more plush. Like I'm riding a Rolls Royce. Well, what I imagine a Rolls would be like. *Have you ridden it on a club ride? * I no longer do club rides. I don't know if this is the bike I would choose for riding with my go-fast friends and family. I am more of an all-day pace rider so when I am riding with faster people and trying not to hold them up, I tend to choose my Roadeo. It fits in better with the roadie riders in my area. The Roadeo is also the bike I choose when challenging myself on steep, paved climbing, like Vail pass, because it is lighter. I think it would be really fun to take the Gallop up Vail pass if I were going by myself but I don't know that I'd be keeping up with anyone. I have to ride the Gallop more to assess my speed on it. I get the impression that the Roadini is more comparable to the Roadeo than my Gallop would be. It also sounds like the production Gallop may have slightly different ride characteristics from the version I have. And while I love my Roadeo for what it enables me to do, I think I smile more on the Gallop. Hope that helps! Happy to answer any other questions. -- 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 [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/f5df1a91-0810-486d-b393-47843c72cee9n%40googlegroups.com.
