Similarly for me, but not with a Riv. My Woodrup has a tendency for the front end to wander when climbing at low speed. Adding my moderate front load with as close to a constructeur arrangement as possible for that bike has made the front somewhat more stable than it was.
The Woodrup has less trail than your Rivs, I'm pretty sure. On Fri, Jun 18, 2010 at 10:35 PM, doug peterson <dougpn...@cox.net> wrote: > Patrick: > > Sorry to hear you're disappointed with the handling as loaded. > However, I know from experience that my Atlantis handles poorly for my > riding style with 25-30 lbs of rear load on a Nitto big rear rack. My > solution has been to distribute the load front & rear. Yes, it > requires 4 bags & another rack but with low riders in front the bike > is rock solid. My camping load is a total of around 40 lbs in the > bags (Acorn Boxy Rando not included in totals). Most neutral, least > sensitive handling is with 25 lbs in front and 15 lbs rear. IMHO, the > optimal placement for loads is impacted more by the rider than the > bike. Others have been pleased with rear only loads & of course the > conventional wisdom is that "Rivs are rear loaders". Do some > experiments to see what works for you; you may be pleasantly > surprised. > > dougP > > On Jun 18, 3:56 pm, PATRICK MOORE <bertin...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Disappointment. I've owned 3 Riv customs, designed for fast road riding, > and > > all, particularly the second two, have been magnificent in fit, feel and > > handling, even with rear loads. So I was hugely disappointed to take my > SH > > out for a quick 20 mile shakedown ride with 35 lb or so in the rear (An > > Ostrich in the front, but lightly loaded). Too much front end vagueness: > > fast downhill sweeper was uneasy-making, and, coming back up sitting at > 5-6 > > mph, the front end wandered all over the place. > > > > I have the bars about even with the plane between rump and nose of > saddle; > > don't want them higher. > > > > Riv build, so Jack Browns; stiff Tubus Logo rack. The panniers were not > > optimal, having been borrowed from my (better handling under rear load, > > actually) '73 Motobecane flexy 531 racing bike and sitting a bit further > > back than they need to be. > > > > But what can I do to reduce the front end flop? New fork? New bike? > > > > -- > > Patrick Moore > > Albuquerque, NM > > For professional resumes, contact > > Patrick Moore, ACRW at resumespecialt...@gmail.com > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<rbw-owners-bunch%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com> > . > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en. > > -- Ken Freeman Ann Arbor, MI USA -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
