All Rivs that I have ridden have feel extremely nimble to shifts in weight for steering. If you like bikes that are really sensitive to steering input, then there is a huge variation in this sensitivity across Rivs. The Roadeo is steers beautifully--not twitchy in the least. The steering carves turns, almost like skiing carves turns downhill. My wife's Betty Foy, on the other hand, is very insensitive to steering input (but again, very sensitive to weight shifts). If I had coaster brakes (and single speed or downtube shifters) on the Betty, then I am confident that I could spin my front wheel in circles and stay upright without a problem. On the other spectrum, I had a Marinoni road bike, and as you turn the handlebar, the bike literally falls over, so it is very sensitive to steering and the vigilance required made it tiring for long rides.
What does this have to do with chainstay length? Well, whether you like longer chainstays or not may depend in part, on your turning technique. The more you rely on steering as opposed to weight shifts, the more likely you are to dislike the longer chainstays, because the bike will more stably track in the direction the bike is moving with longer stays and you need that weight shift to alter direction. With that said, however, the longer stays feel just as nimble (to weight shifts and turning) as the shorter ones and much more stable, so I can't be happier than I am about it (with my style of turning). People thought that longer stays would inhibit the ability to navigate on mountain dirt switchbacks, but the legend says that Keven, who originally advocated for these longer stays, could bomb down switchbacks faster than anyone else could, and he could do it much more easily with the longer stays... 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 view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/CAGB59xxq%3DekFr%2B9odfTx0Sr4uxtX4ip3JXC52cE0P3E%3Dpt64SQ%40mail.gmail.com.
