Hi Taylor - I'm a little late to the party, but here are my answers:
1) Yes. I have tried to make all my Rivs behave like a "modern" drop bar bike. With success. Granted, to me "modern" means an '80s steel bike. 2) My bars are always slammed. That means no stem peeking out of the steerer. Just poking forward to the bars. Mark Abele (head mechanic at Riv) has told me I am the last of my kind still buying/riding Rivs. I have multiple Rivs (Custom and Hubbuhubbuh) with threadless stems. Those bars are slammed as well. I have tried riding upright. Upright just does not work for me. I have ridden several thousand miles upright (mostly captaining the Cunningham tandem). I just cannot get maximum power out of my legs while riding upright. 3) Yes. the seat tube angle does make drops (and any other bars) more complicated for me. I have had to experiment with shorter stems. On the Custom and Hubbuhubbuh I started out with 10cm threadless stems. Eventually got down to 8cm where I have stayed. Although curiously, my Quickbeam - running my largest frame at 62cm - has an 11cm Nitto quill stem (also slammed). Go figure. 4) I also ride Albastache (on both my Custom and Hubbuhubbuh) and Moustache (currently on my Ram). Given that I have five Rivs and several other bikes, I cannot say that they are my main bikes or even main Rivs. But I do love the Albastache and Moustache. I would agree with Grant that the Noodle is their most comfy bar. Because of the position on the hoods, the long ramps and the gentle sweep-back of the straight section after the curve (between the stem and the first curve). The reason I love the Albastache and Moustache bars is because I almost never use the hooks on drop bars. I find that if I need minimum aerodynamic drag going downhill, in the wind or in a pace line, I can get deeper into my crouch. Grabbing the hooks or the lowest part of drop bars does not necessarily get me minimum drag. I can easily do that via my abs and back. And the Albastache and Moustache offer more hand positions than the Noodle if you limit yourself to the top of the Noodle. Hope this helps. Regards, Corwin On Friday, November 14, 2025 at 9:21:22 AM UTC-8 [email protected] wrote: > Hi all, > > > I wanted to share my setup discoveries/challenges with my 2024 58cm Homer > Hilsen—partly because I think I learned about Riv geometry philosophy, and > partly because I’d love to hear how others here figured out their setups. > Maybe some of this will resonate. > > > ⸻ > > > *Why I Bought the Homer* > > > I’ve always wanted a Riv that leaned toward the lively, road-ish side > rather than the heavy-touring side. Something comfortable, spirited, > fast-enough, and “classic road bike but friendlier.” The Homer seemed like > the one. I went with the Homer over a Roadini for extra tire clearance and > for stack/reach numbers- a 58cm Homer looked like a better fit. I thought I > was right in between a 57cm and 61cm Roadini. > > > ⸻ > > > *How It Arrived (Used)* > > > I bought my Homer used through the Riv Facebook Buy/Sell group. It came > with: > > • Albastache bars > > • Silver bar-end shifters > > • A short quill stem > > • A setback seatpost > > • A Brooks B17 > > > Honestly, I assumed this was just a temporary setup. My plan was: enjoy it > for a bit, then swap to drop bars and make it my comfortable all-day > drop-bar Riv. > > > ⸻ > > > *Surprise: The Albastache Felt… Great* > > > To my surprise, the Albastache setup felt immediately comfortable. > Multiple hand positions, easy out-of-saddle climbing, stable handling, an > aero-ish on the hoods position—just a great overall feel. I didn’t expect > it. I wasn’t super confident descending with the Albastache, but it was a > new type of bar for me. > > > But I still had this idea in my head that the Homer “should” be my > drop-bar bike. So I kept going. > > > ⸻ > > > *My Proportions Complicate Things* > > > I have *long legs and a short torso*, which has always made drop-bar > setups tricky. I usually need: > > • higher bars > > • shorter reach > > • more upright torso angle > > > But I also want the bike to *look* proportionally right. (I imagine many > of you understand that tension.) > > > ⸻ > > > *Attempt 1: The Nitto Noodle (Because Riv Says It’s the Comfiest Drop Bar)* > > > My first thought was: *If Riv says the Noodle is the most comfortable > drop bar in the world, I should start there.* > > > And immediately felt: > > • the reach was long > > • the drop was deep > > • the bar put me farther and lower than I expected > > • the whole bike suddenly felt stretched and aggressive > > > I hadn’t ridden a classic-shape long-reach bar in years, and coming from > Albastache, or the compact drops of my gravel bike, it was a shock. > > > Even with a 50mm stem, it felt like too much bar for my body. > > > ⸻ > > > *Attempt 2: Modern Compact Drops + 31.8 Quill* > > > Next I figured: > > *Maybe a more modern compact drop bar will fix things—shorter reach, > shallower drop, smaller radius.* > > > So I bought an 80mm Vélo-Orange 31.8 quill stem and installed compact > drops (Ritchey Butanos in silver, but I could have used Salsa Cowchippers, > Cowbells, or Ritchey Venturemax > > > This helped some things. But new issues showed up. The reach still felt > long even though the stack and reach numbers of the Homer are taller and > shorter than my Black Mountain Cycles Monster Cross Disc. I swapped to a > zero-offset seatpost- still felt long. I slammed the saddle all the way > forward. The bike did not feel great this way and it looked like a kludge. > Even the handling felt off. > > > The fit was becoming a battle. > > > ⸻ > > > *The Real Problem: I Was Fighting the Geometry* > > > What I realized (slowly) was that I was trying to set this bike up as if > it had a much *steeper seat tube angle* and more “modern road” geometry. > > > But the Homer’s seat tube angle is a shallow *71.5°*. My MCD is 72.5. > > • this pushes the saddle back > > • effective reach gets longer > > > I was trying to override all of that with: > > • zero-offset post > > • shoving the saddle forward > > • short stem > > • compact drops > > > It seemed none of those adjustments were harmonizing with what the frame > wants to be. > > > And the handling told me immediately every time I pushed in the wrong > direction. > > > ⸻ > > > *The Epiphany* > > > Once I let the saddle sit *where the geometry puts it*, > > and raised the bars enough to restore balance, over an inch higher where I > had them, > > the bike started feeling like a Riv again—stable, calm, quick-but-relaxed. > > > Which made me realize: > > > *Stack and reach don’t tell the whole story on Rivs.* > > *Seat tube angle and saddle height can completely reshape the effective > cockpit.* > > > This was a big lesson for me. > > > ⸻ > > > *Where I Am Now* > > > After looping through Albastache → Noodles → compact drops → experiments > with stems, bar heights, and saddle positions… > > > …I’m honestly thinking the Albastache setup might be the best fit for me > and the Homer. > > > It works with the geometry instead of against it. > > The handling feels right. > > The posture feels natural. > > And aesthetically it suits the frame better than raised compact drops. > > > I may still experiment but I can feel myself gravitating back to where the > bike began. > > > ⸻ > > > *What I’d Love to Hear From You* > > 1. Have you ever tried to make a Riv behave like a modern drop-bar bike? > > How did that go? > > 2. For those who run Noodles or other classic drop bars on Rivs: > > where do you put your bars (height, rotation, stem length) to make it > work? How can such a long and deep bar be considered the comfiest? > > 3. Has anyone else discovered that slack STA made drops complicated? > > 4. And who here rides Albastache or moustache bars as their main cockpit > on a Homer or other Riv? What do you love about it? > > > I’d really appreciate hearing your stories, successes, failures, and the > setups that ultimately worked for you. > > > Thanks for reading — and thanks in advance for sharing your experience. > > > —Taylor > -- 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]. 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