Mike! Great work. I felt the exact same way about the route from Carson to Portland. You've characterized it perfectly. Funny that you saw another Bomba!
I don't have to tell you that my Bomba (64cm) was absolutely rock solid on every road/path type we encountered, even with my size and weight. I ran Marathon 46's with the majority of the weight on the fork hanging form an Old Man Mountain Extreme Lowrider. I was 270lbs, and my load, with close to 200 ounces of water (3 full water bottles and a big camelbak) was between 60 and 80 pounds I'd guess. No wobble, no backtalk, no funny business, even when I'd mash it for the city limit signs or accelerate on climbs. Descending was a beautiful thing. If I had to do it again, the only think I would have changed were my shoes and pedals. I clipped in for for that trip. I missed the ease and comfort of street shoes on platform pedals. I will be returning to that area again. The most spectacular riding of my life. Patrick Louisville, Ky. On Sep 16, 9:53 am, Mike <[email protected]> wrote: > I'm not sure why the front end was so wobbly. I don't think I had too > much weight on it. I had the front loaded a little different each day > in order to deal with the wobble and nothing seemed to help. The first > day I had just my tent and poles, the second my tent and Vans, the > third my tent and Tevas. I was thinking maybe there wasn't enough > weight up front. With no weight on the rear and only the front loaded > the bike was fine. As for the rear, I loaded it up the way I have for > each time in the past so I'm not sure what was up. Fortunately the > bike was stable at high speed (45mph). > > I brought two pair of shoes because I wanted to do a bit of comparison > as to what worked best. The Tevas were fine but the Vans were better. > > I can't wait to return back to GPNF next year for more bike camping. > Pedaling out there from Portland is a combination of monotony (Marine > Dr bike path) followed by a really sweet stretch on the Old Columbia > Hwy, followed by complete hell riding on the Hwy should to where a > bike path resumes and takes you to Bridge of the Gods which is neat > followed by more hell as you ride the shoulder of Hwy 14 to Carson. > Still, I'll do it just to get out there. For this trip we parked in > Stevenson which was really nice. > > There are tons and tons of back roads to be explored out there and > ever changing terrain. I'd like to do a tour out there next year and > stay on gravel roads as much as possible. I imagine by next year I'll > have a heavier duty bike for out there that can handle a little bigger > load. I kept thinking that a 26" wheeled bike with Schwalbe Marathon > 26x2.0s (or 1.75s) would be nice which makes me think LHT (60cm, 26" > wheel size) but we'll see. At times I felt like I was asking a bit > much of the Hilsen. There were a few times when the Silver brakes were > a bit out of their element and would have felt more comfortable with > some cantis or V-brakes. > > I'm really glad that I gave this kind of cycling a try (bike camping, > s24Os), it is by far my favorite, even more so than randonneuring or a > day of singletrack. > > --mike -- 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.
