Interesting. I came across a thread the other day (or perhaps it was a Resurrectio) in which J. Heine was saying chainstay length does not matter much, at least in the parameters it normally varies by (he used wheelbase total). He states that in general, any change that creates an effect must be at least a 5% change. The RB1 --at least the 1989 version reviewed in Bicycling--came with what the reviewer called a "longish" chainstay of 16.25", which is just over 41cm. I'm assuming the geometry du jour may have called for 39-40cm. The Rodeo comes in 43 or 43.6. So, at 2cm, give or take, not a lot of difference there, and Jan would say no affect on handling characteristics. He does allow that outside of this range--lets say 41-45--it may have an affect.
Certainly the most recent Rivendells are well into this 5% change territory. I doubt there is much difference between 41.25 and 43, but I'm also skeptical that 3-4cm doesn't make a difference. Partially because he bases the 5% on overall wheelbase, not on chainstay length. (That's like using the combination of saddle fore-aft position and stem length combined to make a 5% change). Here is the passage, it was over on 650B: *The idea that longer wheelbases change a bike's handling has been around for a long time, and at first sight, it makes sense. However, as always, we need to ask how much of a difference it really does make.* *How long do the chainstays need to be to get a difference in handling? Most bikes have a wheelbase of about 1000 - 1050 mm. To get a noticeable effect, you usually need to make a change of at least 5%. So that would mean 50 mm (5 cm) longer wheelbase. Yet the chainstay differences between similar bikes are usually in the range of 15-25 mm.* *From my own experience: Peter Weigle and I once rode one of his bikes and and an Alex Singer, back to back. Both had identical geometries, tires, loads, etc., except the Weigle had 20 mm longer chainstays (450 mm instead of 430 mm). Peter and I rode the bikes before talking about it to avoid influencing each other, and we each decided independently that they handled identical, much to our surprise. (We also "knew" that longer stays make a bike more stable.)* *These were front-loading randonneur bikes, it is perhaps possible that a heavy rear load is affected by chainstay length, because the distance between load center and rear axle changes by more than 5%.* On Monday, March 6, 2017 at 9:10:16 PM UTC-5, Don Compton wrote: > > Beautiful bike. Great traditional RB-1 paint scheme and colors. > In your pic, I noticed that the chainstays are much shorter on an RB-1 > than on a Roadeo. > > > -- 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.
