Thanks for posting this... I've long been a Jeff Jones fan, and I think he's definitely heading in the right direction. I was recently at the Fruita Fat Tire Festival (in Western CO), and I ran into 2 guys from Surly (Bob and Matt, great guys). They were each riding leftover prototypes of the Krampus (29er with Knard tires), and were kind enough to let me take one out for a spin. While the weekend event seemed to be drowning in a sea of carbon and full-suspension bikes, THIS honestly was the highlight of the weekend.. a fully-rigid steel 29er with FAT TIRES!! I rode 2 demo bikes (with ridiculous price tags); a Giant carbon hardtail race 29er (ridiculously light, but squirrelly), and a Santa Cruz Tallboy carbon, full suspension.. each had a 10-speed cassette. I have long admired Santa Cruz; I still think they're one of the best MTB manufacturers. I rode the Tallboy for 2 days, and honestly, I couldn't wait to get off it. I hated the mushy feel and the lack of connection to the trail. When I arrived back in NJ, I gratefully hugged my steel Niner.
Overall I have to say I was deeply disappointed by the array of bikes I saw from the big manufacturers at the Festival... I don;t know, I must be losing touch. BB On Monday, May 6, 2013 5:35:32 PM UTC-4, Liesl wrote: > > I would really underscore Keven's comments via Jim Thill. And I've seen > Keven ride his on trails in the hills behind Riv (non-East bay types can > read that as foothills). I saw him climb and descend. It's all true. > > I never thought Riv could make a little enough Appaloosa for me, but they > had one I could stand over and off I went. As most of you know, it was a > total epiphany and is going to be the Riv Chica Warrior Warhorse. Then I > was talked to one of the exhibit maintenance guys here at the museum who > rides like crazy all year around. As in bought a REFRIDGERATOR and hauled > it home on his bike trailer. Anyway, he's been following the custom-caper > with rapt attention and got very excited when he saw the long chainstays. > The first words out of his mouth were "comfort." Some other > bike-pal-bike-mechanics also got excited at seeing the pictures: "that > bike'll do anything you want it to do, go anywhere you need it to go." > -- 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.
