Ignoring weight changes of a fully loaded touring magnitude...the biggest difference to bicycle speed I've noticed is due to tire choice.
When I purchased my All-Rounder many years ago it felt like a bit of a dog and was about 1.0 - 1.5 mph slower than my Road Standard. A tire change (Ritchey Tom Slick 26x1.4 to Pasela 26x1 1/4) negated the speed difference. I've since gotten over the speed thing. I have had, at a time, all my Rivendells set up with the same reach, bar height etc...made for an easy comparison. Angus On Aug 2, 7:54 pm, Bruce <[email protected]> wrote: > having a few spare minutes this week, I looked at the performance/weight > ratios > of my stable of 4 bikes. This will probably surprise no one, but there isn't > much difference between them. The bike that feels fastest, and the one I ride > when I want to "keep up" is actually third fastest, and so on. I weighed the > bikes as they are currently built up. (I've had the Ram lighter before but > have > made some comfort based changes) Brass bells, leather saddles, racks, fenders, > saddle bags (emptied out though, pedals, bottle cages. No tools or frame > pumps. > No carbon, no titanium anywhere. But real world weights. Relative speed is as > compared to the fastest bike. Shame about how slow "fastest" is precludes my > providing hard data points. There may be others who can relate. > > Rambouillet - 23 1/2 lbs Fastest > Nashbar Mark III - 24 lbs +0.01 mph > Riv Road - 24 lbs +0.5 mph > Saluki - 29 lbs +0.82 mph > > Less than 1 mph separates all of them. The Nashbar is probably the fastest if > all the miles were on the same course. I practice hills on it because I really > like its mustache bars for climbing. It was originally designed along the > lines > of a crit racer, iirc. It's not my favorite for anything over 30 miles, as the > position is a bit aggressive. The Riv road is what I prefer on medium to long > rides at speed, and the Saluki for loaded longer hauls, or very steep grades > with the 26 low ring that its prior owner thoughtfully provided. So how come > the > fastest bike and the one with the most miles over the years is the > Ram? Because it's just about as perfect a fit as I can imagine and handles > really well. And its easy on the eyes as well. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
