Rene, Thanks for your write up. Very interesting. I have some thoughts about the low-trail issue, FWIW.
I definitely noticed a difference in handling between the low trail bike (a Toei I had for a while) and a Riv, which I assume may be attributable to the difference in trail. The hard part is describing the difference in feel, and I thought I'd do my part to muddy the waters even more. You say, "where before I had to "drive" the bike, especially around turns, now all I have to do is think of where I want to go and the bike just responds effortlessly." That's funny, because I would have described it the opposite way. In my experience, the low trail bike will go exactly where you point the handlebar and will respond to small changes in your input. A positive way to describe this would be it's "responsive to steering input." A negative description would be, it requires you to always be controlling the bike. The high trail bike is more stable, in that once you set a course in a turn, it will keep to its natural arc. Positively, it's "on rails," and negatively, it resists or fights your input. I think the term "automatic" can be applied to both, and mean different thing, and that may be where some confusion arises. Low trail is automatic in that it tracks more closely your steering input--it does what you're perhaps subconsciously doing to the bike. High trail is automatic in that it (esp in turns) has its own arc that it will default to once you initiate the turn and it resists efforts to alter that course. Does this make sense? Anyways, as most will agree, it's not a life-changing experience, and plenty of people (myself included) have toured on high-trail bikes with a front bag and survived. But it's a significant enough difference, and I'm glad you embarked on your adventures. Greg -- 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/-/BVf-frFiaLcJ. 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.
