It may not be weight, or it may be lower wheel weight, but I consistently -- over 10 years -- find myself climbing faster, particularly when I stand, on my 18 lb (pedals, cage, but no seat bag or bottle) gofast -- particularly noticeable because it is geared higher (75") than my other bikes. In particular I often find myself *not* bailing on one particular very steep 1/4 mile section, when I fully intend to, as I do on the other fixies and which is a struggle on the 34-to-40" outer ring low on the Fargo (38X32X29", 38X26X27.5" wheels respectively, even without a grocery load.
OTOH, the Herse I used to own, which was a tank, felt faster than either the similarly weighted Sam Hill and the slightly heavier Fargo (with Kojak wheelset) even when cruising in a 73" gear compared to a 67" to 69" gear -- this with decidedly non-optimum tires (IRC Tandem belted 30 mm -- these felt better than the doggy 35 mm Pasela Tourguards). The Sam felt much like the Fargo with Kojak wheelset: Not bad at all but certainly more sluggish on the flats as on the hills. I have no fixed idea why there should be such differences, but I guess that, beside weight and wheel weight, and tire quality, there is fit: the Herse fit as well or almost as well as my custom Rivs. FWIW again, the much lighter-tubed and narrower-tubed '73 Motobecane felt faster than the Sam or Fargo, but slower overall than the Herse or the Rivs. 67" gear -- shod with said IRCs. On Sun, Jan 13, 2013 at 11:45 AM, Scot Brooks <scothinck...@gmail.com>wrote: > In honor of Jan, I did my Ballard Trader Joe's grocery trip this morning > with decreased tire pressures (about 65psi) and front loaded maybe 10 > pounds of food in the basket. The Soma still climbed like mad rat. Budget > grocery randonneur :) > > -- > 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/-/ifgdHEHPPf0J. > 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. > > -- ------------------------- Patrick Moore, Albuquerque, NM, USA For professional resumes, contact Patrick Moore, ACRW http://resumespecialties.com/index.html ------------------------- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. 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.
