Thanks for your insight, Christian, and very well said. I apologize if I've hijacked threads off-topic this time around and in the past with some Jones gushing, but I am, in fact, still a Rivendell owner!
However, my Sam Hillborne no longer serves the kind of riding I prefer to do, which tends to consist now of singletrack, rough gravel, dirt and indeed a decent amount of pavement. When I lived in a sprawling east coast city, the Hillborne served me well for 10,000+ miles of fun road riding (mostly commuting). Now that I find myself in more adventurous terrain in Eastern Washington & surrounding, I kept wanting to push the limits of what was possible for an All-Rounder, and finally arrived at it after a few long conversations with Jeff Jones. I had very seriously considered a Hunqapillar, but decided that the 29+ platform was just too damn enchanting to pass up, and I'm glad I went that way, especially given my underdeveloped technical proficiency as a new mountain biker (rolling over pretty much everything with aplomb is great!). The thing I love about the Jones is the versatility and how it never seems like a "compromise bike" (in the way a Hillborne with Rock N' Roads might be). I'm about to get a second wheelset to go along with my 3" tires, which will be running tubeless Super Motos. It is pretty amazing to me how the Jones transforms from super capable mountain bike to very damn fast All-Road bike with just a wheelset swap (rode tubed Motos when I first got the bike). I should point out that I've never been especially "go fast" in my riding, as indicated by my love for my Sam (which I know many on here find sluggish on the road). I'm more of a rambler who likes to go hard in waves, and never in a competitive sense (e.g. rando rides). I guess the point I was trying to make is that if you can afford two (or three) beautiful bikes, that's great! The NFE and a Jones obviously are best suited to different goals. But if you had to choose one bike to tackle the greatest diversity of exploration, I can just say that I've been amazed at the fun and confidence a Jeff Jones bicycle inspires in a bunch of settings. +1 on what Christian said about the "fit mystery" also. It really is very, very damn simple with Jeff. Call him up, discuss some basic proportions and what you want to do, and he'll set you up right. -- Mike -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
