I had the same curiosity and so ordered both. I found them both to be wonderful dream bikes, but in very different ways (apologies to Joe :-)
The Clem says, "Let's go play! Let's ride off the curb, onto the dirt trail, then across town and explore on our way to pick up groceries. Then, maybe if you're nice, we can grab a beer at Paul's on the way home!" The Joe whispers, "First, let's do a 60 miler for a warm up. Then, we'll go to your mother's in Mississippi by way of Cleveland. Next, we'll head to the Big Apple by way of California. Those dirt & gravel roads, limestone trails, potholed highways? No Problem, I gotcha covered. I find the Clem to be fun, practical, & steady. I'm a kid on my banana seated Sting Ray again. The Appaloosa is exquisite. It's simply the most amazing, calm, inspiring capable bike I've ever ridden (yes, even including my other Rivs) but I don't feel quite as tempted to ride off the curbs and into the brush with it as my Clem, though I'm sure it would oblige me. The bike you get for the cost is an unbelievable deal in my opinion & I do a double take whenever I see a used one for sale. The ONLY fault I can find with the Joe is that a taller size isn't offered. Someday, Grant, pretty-pretty pleeeeze?? Okay, so there you have my two cents worth. Hope you're tempted to get one! Al On Tuesday, November 15, 2016 at 3:57:42 PM UTC-5, Joe Bernard wrote: > > My experience is with a 46 Clem which I sold, and my current 51 Appaloosa. > Honestly, I think you would have to really want to find differences in ride > to find them: They both are commuter/touring/light-trail oriented designs > with long stays, similar tubing diameters and canti/v-brake mounts. > > The big difference I see is literally what I see..joining method. The > Appaloosa is fully lugged, doesn't have the swoopy seatstays required by > Clem's seat lug, and has a very cool fork crown reminiscent of old 3-speed > Raleighs. > > I think if you like one bike you'll like the other, but there's definitely > a lot of overlap in ride and capabilities, so make sure you're interested > in duplicating abilities. The Appaloosa will have a shorter toptube > relative to similar size Clem, so this may be a quality you're looking for. > > Joe Bernard > Vallejo, CA. > > -- 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.
