I rode my Rambouillet across the country on the Adventure Cycling Trans-Am route, Western Express route. Not self-supported. After the trip I wanted a bike like the Rambouillet, not like a Long Haul Trucker. The latter, without load, is like driving around in an F-250 pickup with nothing in it and I was happy to suffer some austerity of wardrobe options and a lot of hand washing on the trip to get it.
I used a Carradice Nelson Longflap on the long credit card tour and actually talked the others out of a self-supported trip because everyone would need a new bike. They didn't understand how much stuff we'd have to carry along every day and how much water volume above that the deserts of Utah were going to dictate That ride is completely different schlep if self-supporting. The reasonable limit on my large (64cm) Ram was 20 pounds in the saddle bag (which is more than Grant wrote) and I could feel some poor handling at the top of that range since the load is up high. I still wonder how I carried enough in that 15 liters of space to account for all the weather and mechanical support. I did enjoy a shower, bed and AC in the locations along the route we stayed because even those little places campsites were outside of town and half the fun of the route was knowing that you rolling into town on a bike was often the high point of peoples' day. Eating in a diner with them for dinner and breakfast provided conversations that kept the group fresh and gave us insight such as we hoped to as we crossed the country. I have added a Velo Orange rando bag in the front to gain more capacity for a short trip in potentially questionable weather on the 2012 Riv Rally East. I have to say that while I managed the load it was not a graceful fitment. I can't say that low front bags would be bad but it's be a shape to dampen that fork's liveliness by bridging it with a rack and loading it up. The lack of braze-ons of that bike is intentional. I learned a lot about riding my Ram with loads within its design intention and then beyond. I have that shorter experience in overload and I have ridden it extensively on the GAP. While it might have been designed to ride all surfaces, that takes it to 85% of the design limit. Its riding weight (it, me and cargo) are too rear biased and require rear tire pressure to be high enough (max 32 under fenders) to avoid pinch flats/rim dings on longer rides. It just wore me out at times, either by the duration of jostling on a hard tire or the time spend changing tubes from flats when more comfortable. My years learning and riding my Rambouillet helped me solidify the likes and dislikes I brought together in a new bike. I still do not want to ride a self-supported touring bike empty, which would be 90%+ of its time so my preference was to move the 20-25# load to the front (with low trail) to balance the wheels' loads allowing more even tire pressure, fewer rim dings and comfortable ride. I chose 650b x 42 tubeless to lower that flatting frequency. So I have that new bike, a Coast rando, and it does all that I wanted on day one. I still have the Rambouillet and am about to ride it to work in a few minutes. I wouldn't change a thing about it after these years, proof of which is the Disc Trucker sitting next to it that has a layer of dust because even with its generator hub and lights I'd rather be riding the Ram with clip on battery lights for the commute instead of that empty F-250. Andy Cheatham Pittsburgh On Sunday, September 6, 2020 at 5:49:00 PM UTC-4, Mike Godwin wrote: > > Howdy, looking through the archives about using a Rambouillet as a touring > machine. I toured along the spine of the Cascades and Sierra on a > Specialized Sequoia, and along Highway 1 SF to LA. The Rambouillet seems a > bit more stout than the Sequoia. Most of the old touring related posts > here are from 2012 - 2014. Any new news about tours folks have done on > their Rambouillets? What pannier arrangements did you use? Self-supported, > road surface? > > Mike SLO 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 view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/d57cc601-c133-4bc4-ba83-dc4ad7a7db4do%40googlegroups.com.
