Aside from the hundreds / thousands of bikes that must all be handling terrible and the people riding them are just to dumb to realize it (as low trail propaganda would suggest) or maybe it's not that big of a deal.
I know the above is harsh. And not all of the harsh is from this thread and more from all the reading and time wasted reading about trail has made me harsh. Much as with other things I've found and verified that it is a long laundry list of things not just trail. I've also ridden everything from my plastic 16lb race bike to the Bombadil and one thing I laugh at is how someone says the weight of a small bag effects handling. My brooks handlebar bag on the handlebar of my carbon bike with a couple of pounds in it didn't effect anything and other than the straps being in the way of hand positions you wouldn't know it was there... then again others say they can tell when a water bottle is missing by the handling of the bike. (glad I have no feelings ahhh feel) Lets not forget that the low trail doesn't handle rear loading well .. or just as bad as the high trail handles front loads if you believe everything you read. So my opinion from experience and reading is that it's a tradeoff dependent upon how you want to carry the load and what you want to do with the bike. For 5ish pounds (a bag, tube, tire levers, gloves) it for most people won't make any difference on any bike. Most people will never even notice. For more weight regardless of the trail the load will feel better and more stable on a front rack than on the bars. If you are going to always have 20 plus pounds on the front of the bike maybe low trail is for you... Most of the time even with my camera and rain suit, tubes etc I carry less than 15 pounds. I've ridden this bike no handed loaded per the picture and on downhills in excess of 40 mph without any issues at all. http://www.flickr.com/photos/tksleeper/6172193515/in/set-72157627604208847 This bike road fine from Boulder to St Louis loaded.. Couldn't ride it free handed as the load wasn't equal but I'm sure low trail would have fixed that. http://www.flickr.com/photos/tksleeper/6172717388/in/set-72157627604208847/ So high trail or low, if you ride a quality bicycle you won't have to worry about a good ride as it will just be there. It will be a preference thing not a better than thing. The trail argument is as boring as the helmet one and seems to bring out the worst in all of us. :) Well with the exception of me.. I'm always at my worst. :) Kelly -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rbw-owners-bunch/-/0gQJMbNMYmMJ. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@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.
