On Fri, Sep 26, 2025 at 12:34 PM Garth <[email protected]> wrote: > Where is the sense of beauty in these things, not just frames, but in > parts ? I don't want to ride "tech", I want to ride an artfully crafted and > graceful lined bicycle. >
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and comes with a price. For instance, you may find Ritchey's integrated headset solution ugly. But it saves weight, is reliable, and needs no maintenance or adjustment. If you're a big person (160 pounds or more), maybe the weight savings doesn't mean much, but after my wife rode the Ritchey and then retried the Roadini which had sparked her desire to get a road bike of her own, she discovered that what she thought was a nice light road bike was actually quite porky and not as comfortable as the Ritchey. Weight savings matter, and sure, the Maxway welds on the Ritchey don't look as nice as lugs, but the savings of over a pound and a half shouldn't be sneezed at when you weigh 115 pounds and intend to climb 57000' in 3 weeks in the alps. And before you ask, yes, I spent $$$ getting carbon fiber brake levers and extralight tires and wheels and even lighter cassettes that don't shift as well as the Shimano they replaced but save half a pound ( https://blog.piaw.net/2025/09/review-gabaruk-11-50-11s-cassette.html). Getting that bike under 8kg definitely paid off! -- 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 visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/CAPh0EZ7Xvy5bJtgs6ygERp9LPicR5XuSS8EiNKuKXPWgGiW6tA%40mail.gmail.com.
