I am very fortunate to have gotten a discount orange Cheviot frame that I had built up recently. It replaced my Surly Pacer (my wife will definitely not tolerate any more bikes!, but am very fortunate that she tolerated a replacement bike!). The bike is setup with an Albastache bar, thin gripster pedals, and a kickstand. Having a non-drop bar, non-clipless pedals and kickstand are all firsts since I was a kid.
I love the bike, and it has my interpretation of trademark Riv handling in that it is extremely responsive to shifts in weight changes. Also common to all Rivs, they bring a smile to my face when I go out for a ride. This is in all seriousness. I didn't ride the Pacer much anymore because it was too this or too that compared to my Rivs. Now I am so lucky have another Riv to bring on that smile. Just in case you are wondering about the drop bar to Albastache adjustment, the brakes are lined up in the front of the bars at the curves, and if the wind is strong, I can lean down and rest my arms along the bars and tuck down very comfortably. However, my position is very comfortable with multiple bar positions and enjoy the added comfort of the upright bar end position. I am surprised at how well the thin gripster pedals work. When I am going uphill, I can definitely pull back on the pedal and get climbing contribution there because they grip the sole of the shoe really well. Having the functionality of a kickstand is great and forgotten after all these years of "road" riding. I'm having a friendly discussion with Grant whether a randonneuring bike should have a kickstand plate or not, but for my Cheviot, a kickstand is definitely the right thing to have. Toshi -- 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.
