having a few spare minutes this week, I looked at the performance/weight ratios of my stable of 4 bikes. This will probably surprise no one, but there isn't much difference between them. The bike that feels fastest, and the one I ride when I want to "keep up" is actually third fastest, and so on. I weighed the bikes as they are currently built up. (I've had the Ram lighter before but have made some comfort based changes) Brass bells, leather saddles, racks, fenders, saddle bags (emptied out though, pedals, bottle cages. No tools or frame pumps. No carbon, no titanium anywhere. But real world weights. Relative speed is as compared to the fastest bike. Shame about how slow "fastest" is precludes my providing hard data points. There may be others who can relate.
Rambouillet - 23 1/2 lbs Fastest Nashbar Mark III - 24 lbs +0.01 mph Riv Road - 24 lbs +0.5 mph Saluki - 29 lbs +0.82 mph Less than 1 mph separates all of them. The Nashbar is probably the fastest if all the miles were on the same course. I practice hills on it because I really like its mustache bars for climbing. It was originally designed along the lines of a crit racer, iirc. It's not my favorite for anything over 30 miles, as the position is a bit aggressive. The Riv road is what I prefer on medium to long rides at speed, and the Saluki for loaded longer hauls, or very steep grades with the 26 low ring that its prior owner thoughtfully provided. So how come the fastest bike and the one with the most miles over the years is the Ram? Because it's just about as perfect a fit as I can imagine and handles really well. And its easy on the eyes as well. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.