My thought, based on the info provided and the photos, is that the 52cm is probably borderline for your husband. Which means, as set up, paradoxically, it could feel cramped to you because his handlebars are jacked to the max, which means they come back toward the saddle that much more, which they do more than just about any other bars anyway because they are Boscos.
I found I had to lower my Boscos (I have a stock 52cm Clementine, I am 5'10" and shrinking). I also believe that the super upright position these bars encourage, even after lowering, tends to bring you toward the front of the saddle. With the lower rise and more forward bend, making the Albas, relatively speaking, more "aggressive", as the top half of your body leans forward, the rear tends to slide back. Without that ever so slightly more forward lean, your butt does not slide back when riding the Bosco position. These are kind of micro things, but coming from one to the other can be very noticeable. In any case, I gave myself one hundred days to grow accustomed to the Boscos before making any decision. One hundred days being the amount of time my old tai chi teacher said it took to develop a habit--at least a good habit. I have more to say about it, but to summarize, I am glad I gave it time, as I really like these bars, particularly for the state of mind they help foster while riding. However, I still occasionally experience that feeling you had, of being too far forward, of wanting to be further back on the saddle. Which, as you say is weird on a Riv with a relaxed seat tube (I don't think chainstay length comes into play with this sensation) and as I said above I think comes about mostly because the zero lean position keeps your butt from sliding back. This may be why those Dutch city bikes have 69 degree seat tubes. My current saddle is a Brooks Flyer (B17 with springs). I just ordered a VO fat saddle with springs (Model 8?) so that I can get a bit more rail, and a bit more width to see if that alleviates the sensation. Sadly, perhaps, I did not have the same patience when it came to the stock shifters. I tried everything I know to get those things to work properly, but they ghost shifted with regularity (a problem I documented in another thread here on RBW.) I have been using various shifting systems for almost 50 years and never had a problem like this. I know there are others with a similar experience, and I suspect it is that a certain percentage of these things have some kind of defect. I swapped them out for a big honking set of Suntour stem shifters I had in the parts bin. Despite the fact that the Bullmoose design blocks out half the movement, they still shift across all except the lowest gear, which I don't really need. I bought a second pair on eBay that install in a way that does not conflict with the BB bars, but they are not as big and Clemy, and the bike mechanic in me is constantly battling inertia, so the big honkers are still on there. In terms of racks, I like the Surly six-pack, but it might be overkill for you. It also takes a bit of bending to get it right. Unlike some others, and despite my lack of success with the stock shifters, I generally like the "factory" build just fine. I think the Bullmoose Boscos were conceived as almost a constructeur feature, a part that, for me, is integral to the bike (particularly the Clementine). I fully understand this does not mean that the bike won't work in other configurations, or that others might prefer those configurations. I even leave open the possibility that some day I might change the bars. Anyway, my suggestion is switch bikes for 100 days. <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-G0ae7KQSXxs/V1T-_12E8OI/AAAAAAAAG3g/fdtskXeAu8Mjp6VnEe48tp7QoW0oz-kFACLcB/s1600/DSC01754.JPG> -- 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.
