Re: (1) - The Evening Constitutional is a fantastic idea and one that I'm going to steal/adopt as soon as we can leave our son in the house alone. As far as comfort is concerned, I wouldn't sweat it - he's the one who has to be comfortable on his bike. If I had to venture a guess I'd point at the handlebars, but it really doesn't seem like a big deal.
Re: (2) - My wife's Clementine has a box from http://www.gothamcargo.com/ on it. It mounted easily, and it has a lot of color and character, but I'm not very impressed with the quality of construction. Operationally fine so far, but I just keep waiting for it to break. Maybe it won't, and it just feels light because it's light. But if I were doing it today and didn't care about shiny colors, I'd probably shop for a vintage soda bottle crate on Ebay. They're inexpensive, very sturdy, and have loads of character. Shellac it, mount it on a porteur type rack, and collect admiring glances. Re: (3) - I am not a fan of the Riv stock Clem/Clementine build. At all. Bought my wife a beautiful Clementine and we have since replaced perhaps half of the total parts because of issues with cockpit (lack of) comfort and ghost shifting. The stock bars were not angle-adjustable and were too wide for her shoulders, and the stock shifters, cassette, and chain did not play nicely together even after adjusting and re-adjusting shift cable tension. We've replaced the chain and cassette and shifters with Shimano parts (lowest-price 11-32 cassette and chain, 8-speed Ultegra shifters in VO thumb adapters), and it's working a lot better now. Cheers, and happy riding on your nearly-matching bikes! /Jeremy On Sunday, June 5, 2016 at 2:20:18 PM UTC-7, LeahFoy wrote: > > This post is a collection of questions and thoughts. I'm trying to > consolidate into just the one post, so sorry if it seems disjointed - I > thought maybe one post would be preferable to three. > > 1. First question: Why does my 6 ft husband's 52 cm Clem seem too small > and confined to me, who is 5'6"? > > You may remember my zany husband who got a Clem around Christmastime. It > was a memorable experience, let me tell you. He isn't Rivy at all, so this > was quite the leap for him, and he settled on "matching" his bike to mine > more than any other inspiration. We've been having a wonderful time with > our bikes, not many lengthy rides, but rather, we do this great thing he > calls "Our Evening Constitutional." Every night after dinner, we put on our > matching Keens, our matching RayBans, and we take our Rivendell bikes and > cruise around the neighborhood and through the park at our leisure. Our > kids are big enough to stay home, and we feel like we are really getting > away with something. We chat, we laugh, we congratulate ourselves on our > fantastic bikes and reflect on 12 years of marriage. This is the kind of > date I recommend. > > But I digress. > > One night we decided to switch bikes. I'd made some minor adjustments to > his saddle and bars for him and wanted to test them. Secondly, I wanted to > gaze upon my lovely Betty Foy while he rode it. (You never get to > appreciate how great your own bike looks when you're on it!) I was really > expecting his bike to be large and unwieldy but I was shocked to discover > it felt cramped! I felt like the bars were squirrely, and that my butt > should be way farther back. I wanted to be more stretched out. Now, I have > albatross bars and he has whatever the Clems came with, but how can it make > that much difference? > > I told him I didn't like his "sit up and beg" positioning. He retorted, > "It is not. It's the 'seated command' position." Then I rolled my eyes. > > I tried grabbing his bars so I was more stretched out. No improvement. His > sprung Brooks is pushed all the way back on its rails. Is this how the Clem > is supposed to feel? Am I just too used to the Betty Foy? I really thought > loooonnnnggg chainstays would make a huge difference, but there I was - > cramped. I knew if I came to you, you all would tell me why. > > I felt so disappointed because I was hoping his bike would be as good/even > better than mine. The way I see it, my bike is perfect. I feel like the > bike is part of ME. I get on it and there's nothing I could do to make it > more comfortable. I don't even think about comfort. I fret a little about > the dings in the paint and wish I had the Big Back Rack to match my Big > Front Rack, and I wish that I had the gray medium Saddleback instead of the > tan - all stupid cosmetic stuff. But I couldn't be happy on his bike, and > that seems odd to me. Rivendells are comfortable and useful. It's their > trademark; what am I missing? My husband is not a bike person, so he's just > happy cruising around and looking alike. He thinks his bike feels fine, but > he calls mine "more plush." He'll happily roll along in his "seated > command" position regardless of what we say here, but I'm hoping you'll > have some rationale. > > 2. It's his birthday next week. Do you remember his obsession with getting > a bamboo crate for the front of his Clem? Well, he ordered one from the > company Bamboobee on Amazon. They said it would be here anywhere in a 4 > week timeframe. That timeframe came and went and after a lot of > back-and-forth, I was just refunded my money. I want to get him a rack and > different crate for his birthday. I have no idea what front rack the Clem > takes. Who can say, and does anyone have one for sale on the list? He has > the mousetrap rack on the back. > > Also, does anyone have a recommendation for a crate? He loved that the > Bamboobee looked modern and had a built in cup holder. He envisions himself > riding his Clem with this contraption and a handlebar speaker on the beach. > He lives in the desert. > > 3. His gears ghost shift. And there's lots of chatter in his gears. Is it > possible the REI mechanic didn't install the gearing correctly? Do they > need adjustment after a while? > > Lastly, I've included a couple photos. Thanks so much for reading and > lending me your expertise. > Grateful! > Leah > > https://flic.kr/p/GVbyb9 > https://flic.kr/p/DNo3w6 > > -- 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 https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
