Greg J, you've described it perfectly. This is exactly my experience with my low trail (Rawland) and my high trail Rivs. I like them all alot, both with and without heavy front loads. I've never had a rear load on my low trail bike so I can't compare that. They are decidedly different but equally great and confidence inspiring to me.
On Tuesday, June 5, 2012 5:40:08 PM UTC-7, Greg J wrote: > > 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/-/X3HjTElYFkYJ. 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.
