Not all Rivendell bikes are the same, but they tend to have a narrow range of trail, depending on how extreme you get with tire sizes. Weight on the front will change the feel of any bike, some more, some less.
Some recent experimental results on my bikes. On my Bleriot prototype (theoretically 71 deg head angle, 50mm rake), I have had around 25 pounds of stuff split between the saddle bag and the handlebar bag, and it handled horribly. The last of the 600km was as bad as the first, so I had plenty of time to "get used to it." With a 15 pound commuting load, mostly in the saddlebag, some on the handlebar, the bike wants to develop a bit of shimmy under moderate pedaling effort. The same setup on a Heron Road 650B conversion wants to shimmy even worse. I recently put all 15 pounds on the front, securely fastened to a rack, and there's no shimmy developing. So, I tried firmly attaching the saddlebag to the rear rack, and there's a bit of a shimmy coming back. Interestingly, with all the weight on the front, I find it easier to ride no-hands than with the weight split front and rear. The problem on the Bleriot is the wheel flop. It's okay as long as you're moving at faster than a jogging pace, but at slow speed, it's VERY difficult to handle with 10-15 pounds on the front. The 71 degree head angle is a key culprit there. If your Rivendell has a more typical 73 degree head angle, you may find that weight on the handlebars doesn't affect it as much. As someone else said, you just have to try experiment with various combinations and see what works for you. Another interesting, somewhat related data point. I put Albatross bars on my Quickbeam, and that is about the most dramatic change in handling I've ever observed on a bike. Unfortunately, it's not a good change - way too twitchy. So, I'm thinking about putting a bunch of weight on the front to see what happens. By this time next year I expect to have some experience with a very low trail, very light weight bicycle carrying the load up front. -- 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-bunch@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.
