Well, I love how the low trail forks have improved the way both the Atlantis and the Hunapillar ride, especially when carrying a load on the front. I love how the handling/steering of the bikes feels so intuitive to me, whereas it seemed to me that with the original forks, I had to "think" more to steer them.
That being said, I'll add that if riding the bike unloaded, the subjectivity of which geometry handles better is totally up to the rider. I fell in love and was completely won over to the Riv bikes when I first rode my Hilsen, which still retains its original fork. Before the repaint, I place a Pass & Stow rack on the Hunqapillar with a Swift bag made specially to fit it. With its high load, I hated how the front wheel flopped terribly when the bike was stopped or on its dual kickstand, but also discovered that as soon as you started riding, the front load's effects completely disappeared. It was magical compared to riding it with the original fork and a similar front load (Platrack + PlatSack). Not that you couldn't ride it or get used to it, but they difference is felt more clearly and positively with a front load. After the repaint, I installed the Tubus Nova lowrider with a pair of Ostrich panniers and loaded them with the similar commute load I was using. The difference in how the low front load feels compared to the front high load is amazing. The steering is fantastic, as it was before, but with the low load the front wheel flop when stopped or on the kickstand has virtually disappeared. This combination makes riding the Hunqapillar with the low front load absolutely amazing. I have to try how the bike feels with a rear load only as well as combined with the front load. While I doubt that I'll ride it with just a rear load, I was getting shimmy with the original fork, especially with a rear load on my large SaddleSack. I haven't had any shimmy on either the Atlantis or the Hunqapillar so far with any of the loads I've used, which is very nice. On the Atlantis I would also get the shimmy with no loads. I haven't done any specific geometry measurements, but both bikes have low trail forks with the rake set at 70mm which gives roughly a 40mm trail. The difference is that I use 50mm tires on the Hunqapillar and 40mm tires on the Atlantis. For comparison, the stock Atlantis 61 has a rake of 45mm, the stock Hunqapillar 58 has a rake of 50mm and very telling (at least to me) the Betty Foy 58 has a rake of 55mm. The combination of the Betty's higher trail with the 650b tires make it the lowest trail stock Rivendell bike (among the ones I have) and I've often wondered if that isn't one of the qualities that make it so much fun to ride. Since I'm not planning (for now) to use front loads on the Betty, I don't really think I'll ever get a lower trail fork for it. It handles magically as it is now. Regarding the Hilsen, I'm still undecided as I like riding it with drop bars and a front Acorn Rando bag, but it's the one I ride the least right now. Another fellow from the list came down to Palo Alto with his 61 Atlantis and front load configuration as he wanted to get a first hand experience in the differences between the stock and low trail Atlantis with his load. We met and he rode both bicycles and although his had Albatross bars and mine had the GB Randonneur bars, he went home as undecided as he had come. I have no idea if he'll be ordering a low trail fork for his Atlantis or not, my point is that preferences are going to be totally subjective. René On Mon, Apr 1, 2013 at 8:40 AM, Johan Larsson <seven.nau...@gmail.com>wrote: > So what are your experiences with this fork, how did the bike ride before > compared to now? Have you measured the geometry with the new fork? > > Johan, > Sweden > > -- > 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 rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en-US. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > > -- 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 rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en-US. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
