Rene, Your bike is absolutely gorgeous, and it's good to hear that she rides like a dream too. Can you share your 'build kit' details with the group, if you haven't already?
Santosh Iyer > On Sep 4, 2016, at 6:12 PM, René Sterental <orthie...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Hi all, > > After patiently waiting for a month for the paint to cure/harden, I finally > completed the build on Friday night, so I could take the bike on its maiden > ride on Saturday morning with my friends. The only thing that was still > pending, which I did today, was to tape, twine and shellac the kickstand. > > I have to say the on its first ride, the bike beat my expectations. Yes, I > had gone over how I wanted it to fit and Steve Rex had taken all his > measurements and come up with a custom geometry that I then tweaked to get > the low trail amount I wanted, and I had requested all the custom touches, > both functional and aesthetic. > > I had gotten all the parts after careful consideration, as well as decided to > try a B17 Select again based on the reviews from members of this group that > stated it was quite superior to the regular ones due to its special leather. > > I had even decided to try to go with traditional non-aero brake levers for > the personality and looks, and got some original NOS Dia-Compe brakes to try. > If I didn't like them, I'd go back to the aero levers but this was my chance > to try them. Even got the Dia-Compe cages from RBW that I thought were more > elegant than the King cages I have on the other bikes. > > I'm sure you want to see photos first, so here is the link to the first > photo: https://flic.kr/p/LFW4RL - scroll to the right for more. > > The quality of the ride was fantastic. I believe I ended up in a slightly > more aggressive position, but even more comfortable than on the Atlantis. I > love the brake levers and their braking with the Compass Centerpull brakes. > Even though I can tell they are less powerful from the hoods than the aero > levers, the braking feel is totally fine and I like the power and modulation > of those brakes. > > I got the special washers that Jan just released to give the brake pads > automatic permanent toe-in, but even so, with new brake pads and new polished > rims, the brakes squealed quite a bit at first. While I didn't expect the > intensity of the sound, what was even more astounding was the quality of the > sound. They sounded like the fog horn on a ship, not at all the high pitch > squeal I've gotten from other brakes in the past. The sound progressively > diminished during the ride, and towards the end I remembered to throw some > water on the pads which everyone says quiets them and that worked. The sound > is not completely gone yet, but almost. I'm going on 30 mile ride tomorrow in > the Coyote Creek Trail and I'm sure that with a few more water splashes > they'll be totally quiet and I'll miss sounding like a ship through the fog. > > I went with the 40mm wide Compass Rando bars which combined with the 35mm > trail was perfect. I have the 42mm wide on the Atlantis (40mm trail) but I > think I'll try the 40mm bars on it as well. My hands were much more > comfortable, and I don't know yet what the exact difference is, but I'll try > to assess it. > > I was planning on going with the brown tall Acorn Rando bag, and had gotten > the matching Rando and medium saddle bag, but last week I "felt" I had to > consider the Berthoud Rando bag as well, as it seemed it would match the bike > much better. Theo at Compass has always been so nice to me, that I ordered > the bag from them (Jan has also customized them) and it was love at fit > sight! (Pun intended). I was really impressed by the Berthoud bag, and > needless to say, it seems it was meant for my custom. So I had to decide what > to do with the Acorn bags and after a family demo and show, the overall > consensus was that I needed to put the brown one on the Atlantis as it was > better than the green one. My son and I had a harder time deciding, but for > my wife it was a no-brainier and anything that gets her "involved" in my > bikes is good! > > I've offered the bags to a friend who just got a Soma Randonneur, but if he > doesn't want them, I'll post them from sale here. Needless to say, they in > like-new condition with imperceptible wear. I've had them for a while, but > just put them on the Atlantis a couple of months ago. > > So needless to say, I'm incredibly excited and satisfied with the outcome. As > I ride it more and continue to lose weight and get fitter, I'm sure there > will be minor tweaks here and there, but for the first time, I truly have > everything I've wanted in a single bike. What will that mean moving forward > for the rest of my stable? We'll see... No matter what, I'm sure I'll always > have at least one Rivendell bike next to it. > > René > -- > 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. -- 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.
