| My husband just now: Are you getting ANOTHER bike?
Me: Well…not necessarily. I have to weigh out all the pros and cons, you see.
Him: I know how this ends. It ends with the Annual Bike Purchase of the Last Bike I’ll Ever Need.
Sent from my iPhone On Apr 22, 2024, at 9:26 PM, Leah Peterson <jonasandle...@gmail.com> wrote:
Tony, I swooned. Actually swooned. Gorgeous, gorgeous.
I rode the Mon Night Ride on my Racing Platy tonight. I was so apprehensive at the start because the winds were 13 mph with 21 mph gusts and it was open road. I should not be doing this, I thought. Where is my road bike?
But it was the best ride. Did we have wind? Yes. But somehow it was great and energizing and we just killed it. I had done an intense upper body lifting session this morning and still it was great and not draining!
Can I prove that to you? No. My Apple Watch died on the ride. 🤬
There were men I don’t know on the ride tonight, so of course I got comments. One of them said, “I hope you never get a road bike.”
But I just might. Leah
Sent from my iPhone On Apr 22, 2024, at 8:41 PM, Tony Lockhart <alockhart...@gmail.com> wrote:
@Leah--Get one of these....3x8 drivetrain, Nitto and Silver everywhere. Add a few bags and spend your weekends putting down mileage....guaranteed to give you a million smiles and zero worries. <Screenshot 2024-04-22 at 5.38.16 PM.png> On Monday, April 22, 2024 at 5:17:47 PM UTC-7 mathiass...@gmail.com wrote:
Leah, Don't overthink this. It's hard to build an actual "bad" bike, and the big names don't do it.
and go buy the ~51-52 cm red Centurion in the first picture.
For $40, you'll have something to play with and see how the setup might work for you. If it's rideable, it's hard to see how this is not a good idea, and if Centurion built lousy bikes, I haven't heard of it.
cheers -mathias
On Monday, April 22, 2024 at 7:35:58 PM UTC-4 George Schick wrote:
When you "cut to the chase" many of us old farts on this blog started riding bikes in a serious way back in the early 70's. And the go-to manual for bikers back then was Eugene Sloane's "The Complete Book of Bicycling." In that excellent instruction manual, as it were, he went to a great extent to appeal to the use of "drop bars" (or simply road bars by most folks back then) for road riders. Of course, many different developments in cycling have taken place since then, especially the introduction of the so-called "hybrid bikes" with flat bars and the "mountain bikes," both of which introduced different types of handlebars, tire types, and saddles. It's a bit of a lament that the regular "road bike" of the previous decades where "drop bars," saddle types, gearing, tires, etc. of the previous period more or less disappeared in the advent of those unique biking configurations. Almost every time I venture out on a bike path around these parts I mostly see people riding bikes configured with a "hybrid" set up...unless, of course they're riding e-bikes, which are becoming way too commonplace nowadays. I would encourage anyone who has an inclination to pick up and begin riding regular road bikes to do so.
On Monday, April 22, 2024 at 1:16:35 PM UTC-5 Bicycle Belle Ding Ding! wrote:
All of these replies are interesting. And when I read one I think, “Yes, that’s right” and then read another which conflicts and change my mind. This is going to be a journey. I can’t even believe how much there is to know.
I’m later getting here than the rest of you, I think. It was 2012 when I first realized there were better bikes than the Walmart Schwinn I was pulling my preschoolers around with. I got a Betty Foy with the biggest racks and baskets money could buy and away we went. So happy! Still knowing nothing!
Now those boys are in high school, and I live in a vibrant bike community and suddenly it’s a whole new world for me. Every riding season I end up learning and being stretched. I’m doing new kinds of rides, meeting lots of people, volunteering on bike committees, and venturing a lot further from home. 5 years ago I would never have believed I’d ride a metric century or enjoy club riding. This is all wonderful, but I’m hamstrung by my lack of experience. I always thought drop bars would have to be uncomfortable. It wasn’t until this thread that I even considered trying them. Are they a rite of passage? “Oh, you’ll never use them forever but just scratch the itch now so you can say you have.” Or are they the gold standard “They’ve been used for 100 years for good reason.” I worry I’m too late to start using them after all this time on albatross and Billies. I have to look up what “on the ramps” means. I don’t know what the “right” geometry is for a road bike belonging to a devoted Rivendell rider would be. I dread being uncomfortable. I fear screwing up with the new drop bars and crashing in a peloton. I have no idea what shifters I’d put on drop bars. I thought albastache might be a good compromise but heard they aren’t wrist-neutral and then that they are. So.Much.To.Know. But everything I do now scares me, so let’s go.
Keep your replies coming! I read every one, even if I don’t respond, I am definitely thinking about them and chatting with other RivSisters who have similar questions.
Thanks for taking the time! Leah
Hi Leah -
I would generally agree with what Ted said. Riding position and fit are very important. But I don't think that's the only criteria I would use. I have ten bikes. Five are Rivs. I have a Custom, Quickbeam, Roadeo, Ram and Hubbuhubbuh. I find that geometry is important in my riding. Some bikes can be more "twitchy" and/or less stable because of their geometry. Things like trail, head and seat tube angles and bottom bracket drop can affect the handling and stability of a bike. I don't get hung up on numbers, and judge the handling and stability based on how a bike rides.
All of my Rivs are rock-solid stable and handle exceptionally well. I know that the low center of gravity, trail and angles contribute to this. Stability and handling are very important to me because I ride lots of hills. Going uphill depends on gears, fitness and leg strength. The stability and handling come into play going downhill. Rivs provide a level of confidence I don't get on other bikes. You can be sure the bike will go where you point it.
About Albastache and Mustache bars - I have five bikes (some of them Rivs) with Mustache and Albastache bars. I find I can get every bit as low on Mustache and Albastache bars as on drop bars. The rest of my bikes have drop bars. The main thing I like about drop bars is riding the hoods. On drops, I find there are primarily three hand positions: 1) on the hoods, 2) on the ramps (slightly farther back than on the hoods) and 3) on the flats on either side of the stem. I rarely get into the drops. With the Albastache and Mustache, I find I have more riding positions.
Have fun on your road bike, whatever you get.
Regards,
Corwin
On Sunday, April 21, 2024 at 2:07:47 PM UTC-7 Bicycle Belle Ding Ding! wrote:
I promise not to be offended by a great wave of advice coming my way here - I have asked for it and you all have kindly delivered.
Ok, ok….I really will consider drop bars. But I do wonder…everyone says they offer so many hand positions; but I only see people with their hands on the hoods. Are riders really utilizing different hand positions?
Also, I saw a pic of an albastache with brake levers in the middle of the bar. Would this mimic the freedom of hand position changes a drop bar offers?
I practiced tonight on my ride by grabbing the front of my Billie bars. It felt nice to be stretched out like that, but with no access to brakes or shifters from there I didn’t like to stay long. Unnerving.
This is going to be a fun thread. Please don't take a great volume of advice as condescending; I think that this thread will elicit a very large amount of love for road bikes as a distinct genus of bicycle.
I think you very particularly will benefit a great deal from the right road bike and that once you get things basically sorted you will find that you enjoy it immensely for the kind of riding you describe. There is a perfection of fit and feel and a real pleasure in riding a well set up traditional road bike -- I don't mean racing bike -- that you don't find with other combinations of frame, saddle, bar, and their relative positions. Really, this sort of setup on the right sort of frame is more comfortable, more natural, more pleasant for energetic riding than other setups; at least, I've always found it so, and there's a reason why the traditional road bike was developed so quickly after the chain-driven safety was invented and why it has remained largely the same for going on for 150 years.
Note: I don't say that everyone who rides energetically should have a road bike, but everyone who does so and can try ought at least to give one a try. Again, there is an efficiency and comfort -- really, a "fit" like that of a custom suit or perfect tool -- offered by an intelligently spec'd and set up road bike that, you don't -- or at least, I don't, -- get with any other sort of bike.
Me, based on my experience, I'd certainly start by keeping my eye out for a used Roadeo or Riv Road or LongLow or Ram or Heron. But for the final and perfect version, I'd not close my mind a priori to other makes. I am guessing, but I would not be surprised if, after your usual rapid learning cycle, this time with a road bike, you end up with a custom. My favorite bike of all time out of several scores is a custom Riv Road, but I've owned 2 other Riv Road customs plus a Ram (and the Sam) not to mention many other road bikes, and I've sold them all on to finally get what for me is belated perfection in the 2 Matthews customs -- tho' these used the Rivs as general design templates.
I rode the gofast Riv fixie road bike to and from church today with the usual annoying NE winds while inbound N and E and the usual SW winds on return N and W. For the umpteen millionth time I remarked to myself at how pleasant it was to be able to drop "intuitively" into the hooks when turning into a wind, or to grab the long (Maes Parallel) ramps when pushing, butt-back and elbows bent, up an incline, or sitting up and holding the flats or the flat/ramp transition and spinning when the wind became a tailwind.
I've certainly passed my speed demon days, but there remains a very distinct pleasure in riding energetically -- for me, particularly on hills and against winds -- on the perfectly set up road bike, and I have enough experience to know that I would not enjoy this nearly as much on anything else.
Bon chance!
I’m starting to wonder about a roadbike. But it has to be a Rivendell roadbike because I’m loyal and all that. Anyway, I don’t know that the Roadini really offers enough of a change for me. I have no idea what is going on with the Gallup. Then there’s the Roadeo - that one looks great but there’s a 2 year wait, unless I can find one used. Which would be ideal.
Who rides their Rivbike in club rides and what do you ride? Who has a Roadeo that never gets ridden and wants to sell it? I don’t even know what size I’d be but I’m an 81 PBH. Must I ride drop bars? I never have before. I know nothing about any of this. Clearly.
Note: I still like my raspberry Platypus for club riding but it does take a toll on me in wind. I recently got a shorter-height, longer-reach stem which marginally helped, but our high spring winds are taking it out of me. I did a club ride yesterday with my women’s group and my heart rate was in the 170s the whole 26.3 miles. It was brutal. Everyone else agreed it was a hard ride, but I felt like it was harder on me than them, and I’m the youngest and probably the most fit.
Leah
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