I found the Albatross bars on my Atlantis not really ideal for long distance for a few reasons:
- When riding at a casual pace, they are supremely comfortable. Very 'chill' one could say. I had them setup about 1cm above my saddle height. I had two good hand position options, and one more forward but less comfortable option. - The very upright position placed all my weight on the saddle, in a very specific way. When I use drops, even when they are higher up, I find that leaning forward (not bending down, leaning forward. It's different!) gives me a few different ways to position my body on the saddle, which allows me to ride comfortably for over 200km at a time. With the abla's I had difficulty doing that and as a result would get a sore butt after a while. - The WIND! Not sure where you live, but where I am from everything is quite exposed. Riding with the alba's turns your body into a wall basically. There is no hiding from the wind, no drops to drop into to minimize the drag. Regardless if you don't care about going quickly, it's a real drag to fight the wind tooth and nail all day while you're in a very upright position (see what I did there..?) - bar interference - when riding trails, I found the fact that the bars sweep back so far, they would hit my legs when trying to make tight turns. For that reason they are never an option when trail riding anything other than smooth flowy stuff. I had a few times when I couldn't make a corner because the bars were in the way. Now, don't get me wrong, I LOVE these bars! They are my go-to winter bar because they work very well with mitts. They are very stable on snow as well. For booting around town, they'd be the best bar ever. For rides around 100km where you don't give a hoot about how long it takes you, fantastic bar! But if I was on an extended tour where I wanted to hit a particular distance each day, and there was some exposure to the wind, I would be hesitant to use 'em. Just my two cents! <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ypMSLA0ZeUA/VYQj0zmjcmI/AAAAAAAALMc/v5gwbpwbDX8/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-19%2Bat%2B9.14.02%2BAM.png> On Friday, June 19, 2015 at 8:27:34 AM UTC-5, Steven Sweedler wrote: > > Matthew, any pics of your bike loaded up, epecially the rear low rider. > Thanks, Steve > > On Friday, June 19, 2015, Matthew J <matth...@gmail.com <javascript:>> > wrote: > >> My tour bike has Albatross bars. Set up with top of the stem slightly >> above the saddle and the bars angled slightly down. This bike uses fore >> and aft low rider racks. Other than my corpse and a small saddle bag to >> store my wallet, snack, and a map, no non-bike weight above the top of the >> rim. >> >> Longest tour I've done with this set up is 10 days, average 70 miles per >> day. Experienced no wrist pain or muscle strain. My right shoulder >> sometimes got a little sore, but this also happens on longer rides on my >> drops equipped road bike. >> >> On Thursday, June 18, 2015 at 11:41:00 PM UTC-5, Daniel D. wrote: >>> >>> Day Dreaming about how I would build up a sam. Thinking about why I >>> want the sam realized it would be for fun long rides. If I'm running >>> errands I'd use my cheaper bikes. Loaded touring I have a bike for that. >>> Are drop bars a safer bet for long distance riding? Don't have much >>> experience with upright bars. Seems like the upright bars limit the >>> options for hand position. >>> >> -- >> 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. >> > > > -- > Steven Sweedler > Plymouth, New Hampshire > -- 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.
