Taking advantage of the higher placed bottom braze-ons for the rear rack on my 58cm Hunqapillar, I decided to install the medium sized Nitto Big Rear Rack instead of the large one that I have on the Atlantis. The main reason was that I noticed on photos that some of the rear racks appeared to fit closer to the seatpost and therefore, the "handle" on the top didn't interfere with larger saddlebags. I ordered one, installed it yesterday and couldn't be more satisfied.
The medium Sackville Saddlebag still doesn't fit as well as it does on its purposely designed for Nitto R-14, but it is less tilted than on the large rack. Still not to my liking, but bearable aesthetically. Functionally it works well. The medium rack doesn't interfere with the Acorn large saddlebag and works perfectly with the Carradice Longflap Camper. I also installed the 2.35 Schwalbe Big Apple Liteskin tires to test them out and am happy to report that the clearance is 5mm on each side. I only managed to test ride them around the neighborhood and was initially shocked at how incredibly more cushy they are after having ridden the bike with the 40mm Marathon Extremes. The Extremes I had pumped to 50F/80R and the BAs are pumped to 25F/40R. I'll have to test them out on the road and trails when I get back from a business trip to Chicago next weekend, so stay tuned for a report. I'll also have to play around with the tire pressure. The Excel calculator based on the BQs optimal tire pressure for my weight + the bike recommends 20F/33R, so I'm quite close. The initial feeling was a bit more sluggish than with the Extremes, but that may have to do more with their plushness than with any actual speed reduction. I was just riding back and forth on the street in front of my house. When leaning the bike over for tight turns with one leg down, the tire was "squirming" - making rubber noises. I don't know if squirming is the right term, but it seems that the contact patch is so large that the rubber just makes noises as you turn it since one side is being displaced more than the other. I was planning to use the 50mm BAs on the Hunqapillar unless I wanted to run knobbies (I got a pair of 29x2.25 Schwalbe Nobby Nics) but I may end up just leaving the 60mm BAs instead. Photos can be found here: *http://tinyurl.com/3v28e6l* * * René -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
