Dave asked for a ride comparison of the 58 Sam that I have listed for sale, and my new 61 Roadini.
In my original post in this thread, I mentioned this: "*I also rode my Sam today on the same route to compare *[with the Roadini]*. With stem length and height adjustments, along with seatpost and saddle adjustments, the geometry can be made to be virtually identical, which was my goal. However, the Roadini and its components are lighter - thus making the bike quicker to accelerate, and generally snappier. Once up to speed, there was no discernable difference in the effort required to maintain that speed, though I've got to think the slightly heavier Sam required a tad less effort.*" Bottom line is, the Sam's and Roadini's geometry and ride characteristics are close enough *for me* that, *from that perspective alone*, I could be happy with either *for the type of riding that I want to do with this type of bike*. But for me the decision to go with the Roadini over the Sam involved more. I got my Sam because of the 'country bike' build of it. I don't *need *a country bike. Could I get along with one? Sure. I thought I was going to go find fire roads and dirt paths to ride, as well as the paved greenway and neighborhood roads I'm used to riding. I also had convinced myself that I was going to go try randonneuring with it - thus all of the fender and rack hard points are a major plus, as is the slightly beefier tubing than a traditional 'road' bike. The Sam's tire clearance would allow me to run a wider tire than I was used to, with fenders, which made sense for all of the above uses. And I loved the burnt orange color (but I would've gladly gotten a Sam Blue one if there had been one available). Well, there are no fire roads nor dirt paths around here, and I don't want to drive an hour to ride the ones that exist there. At my current place in life, time is so precious that getting to the fun part needs to happen quickly. I'm not going a-randonneuring any time soon....and I don't commute, so I have no need for racks nor fenders, nor big fat packs or bags for this type of bike. I have an Atlantis with rear racks/panniers to go on grocery runs with, and will soon take it on some gravel rides... As I rode the Sam more, my endurance and speed increased. I started thinking about what I wanted in my next roadish bike. I could have kept the Sam, stripped it, shipped it off to be painted Wolfpack Red, gotten the components I really wanted for it, and rebuilt it. Maybe I shoulda done that, but I wasn't feelin' it. And I got new bike fever... Then the Roadini came out. Designed for the road with a lighter build spec.. I tried to ignore it. No, it doesn't have all the lugs the Sam does, but something about it just really appealed to me. More simple in purpose, a tad lighter, and I could start off from scratch with the knowledge I'd gained and with more honesty about what I wanted. This allure that I could start from scratch with a bike that I imagined from the ground up, to fit the way I enjoy riding, was more appealing as time went on. It would be more "my bike". And, I'd always wanted a Wolfpack Red bike, so why not just do it. So I ordered a blue 61 Roadini, exchanged some really nice emails with Corey on the build spec, as well as with Rick (at D&D) about the color, and the rest is history. That actually happened in April; but, there was some weird issue with the original Roadini water-based decals deteriorating with the application of paint and/or clear coat, and Riv had to start ordering different types of decals from another vendor, and they were delayed, then the decal vendor sent the wrong colors, etc etc ... such that I didn't get the bike until August. It has no racks, no fenders, a small handlebar bag to hold multi-tool, spare tube, tire lever, iphone, wallet, car keys. It has extralight tubes and tires, paul med racers, and some bottle cages. And the red paint makes it go faster. That's much more than you asked for! I hope this helps someone deciding between the two bikes. My unsolicited suggestions for anyone deciding on a bike are: 1. Be really honest about what you're gonna use the thing for 2. Take the time to save up for what you really want, whether it be frame, components, etc.. 3. Regarding #2, there's a caveat: Except for maybe Clem's and HHH's, Riv bikes/frames don't hang around forever. An option is to buy a good used one to tide you over until (hopefully) they're made available again in the style/color you want. For example, you can't get a 58 Sam's in burnt orange from Riv any more. Oh, wait, I have one you can buy! :) Tom -- 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 [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
