Rivendell bicycles and speed

[Patrick Moore]

https://bikesnobnyc.com/2024/07/25/smoothing-the-bumps/

Scroll down.

Getting tired of testing various outdated racing bikes against each other for speed, BSNYC had the bright idea of testing his Homer against said 30 and 40-year-old racing bikes. Homer came in second!

Patrick Moore who avereraged "slow" during his late summer morning bike path-cum-neighborhood-meander-cum-shopping trip today.

Incidentally, I mean to start a new photos-from-bikes thread: Neighborhood Meanders. I got a couple of good ones today but I'll save them until I have a more complete collection of "bosque-adjacent Westside Albuquerque neighborhood" photos. On Tuesday I wonder if the concerned citizens of the other neighborhood I meandered around and about for 30 minutes called security; an all-black "immediate armed response" SUV crossed my path, and I'd not seen them during any of my very many other but shorter rides over the years through the same neighborhood. "ISP" -- "International Security Patrol." "Keeping riffraff out of Albuquerque's better neighborhoods since 1923."

--

Patrick Moore

Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Executive resumes, LinkedIn profiles, bios, letters, and other writing services

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When thou didst not, savage, know thine own meaning,

But wouldst gabble like a thing most brutish,

I endowed thy purposes with words that made them known.

[Hoch in ut]

I love jumping on the Appaloosa after riding my carbon road bike. The CF road bike is fast. But it’s go go go as soon as I take off. 

The Riv, I “meander” and enjoy the scenery and I’m more apt to stop at a bakery or for photos. Very enjoyable ride and change of pace (literally). 

When I am in ride mode, I do find I am only 10-20% slower. 

I’m good with that. 

[Patrick Moore]

Yes, it's odd how certain bikes "make" you ride harder. I find it easier to ride "relaxed" when I'm riding on dirt. But years of practice now let me ride my road bikes in a much more relaxed way than 15 years ago; on my last 2 road rides I detoured into neighborhood meanders, something I enjoyed greatly as a boy -- just exploring new neighborhoods. And, funny, my "for what it's worth" personal best was done 30 years ago when started a Saturday morning ride by telling myself I was going to ride slowly.

--
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-bun...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/215b65de-0b87-43f0-b358-d7320ae84c92n%40googlegroups.com.

[Ted Durant]

FWIW, I just rode 100km (moderately hilly, headwind kicked up coming home) in 3h 27m on Great Lakes Sam. If I'd been on my Rivendell Road or my Heron Road, my subjective guess is that I'd have been 3-5 minutes faster, but maybe not. That headwind coming home really sapped me. On the Riv Road the bars are lower and farther away, so my position is a bit more efficient. If I wanted, I could drop the Sam bars down a bit. The stem on Great Lakes Sam is 1cm longer than the ones on my other 2 Sams, so it's closer to my road bike position. I'm not convinced it's better.

In the recent Sam Hillborne thread I gave the weight of my latest Sam frame and fork, and the frame is among the heaviest I've weighed, but the fork is surprisingly lighter than some others. The Sam does not ride "heavy" in my experience. At 125 pounds and putting out 100-150 watts, I only feel swing in an especially noodly frame (Terraferma Corsa 650B, for example). But I do feel (and see) fork flex (or lack thereof) over bumps. We have a lot of roads where there's a notch in the pavement every 10 meters or so ... ka-thump .... ka-thump ..... ka-thump. I can't take more than a couple of minutes on those roads on 26mm tires at 70psi. On 32mm tires at 40psi, they're almost tolerable, but I still ride the edge of the road where the ka-thump is a bit less. On 48mm tires at 28psi, they are close to unnoticed, especially with the Sam's fork (as compared to the BreadWinner it replaced). Today's ride confirmed how I feel about the Sam - super comfortable and gives up next-to-nothing in speed.

Ted Durant

Milwaukee WI USA

[Patrick Moore]

That's impressive, and if someone can average over 18 mph in windy conditions for 62 1/2 miles that's proof enough that the bike is not holding him back.

Is your same a later model? How does the latest model differ from the first edition? Do riders of later Sams find the bike different from riders of original Sams? I ask because my original did not shine for me.

Linking to another thread, about Sam and weight, I rode my Matthews #1 ("road bike for dirt" -- position and components very like my road bikes but 50s (Oracle Ridges) at 19 psi for combined pavement and sandy dirt (firm thank God thanks to recent rain). I have to say that 31 1/2 lb does not feel slow of cumbersome.

BTW: 28 psi for 48s at 125 lb? My OR regular casings feel harsh over expansion cracks (8" to 12") at 20; 18 is smoother, works as well as any other pressure in sand, and corners just fine on pavement. I aim for "a bit under 20 psi." Me, 170-175.

--
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-bun...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/1e709965-356c-4f13-9355-fa71953c8781n%40googlegroups.com.

[Ted Durant]

On Jul 28, 2024, at 2:17 PM, Patrick Moore <bert...@gmail.com> wrote:

Is your same a later model? How does the latest model differ from the first edition? Do riders of later Sams find the bike different from riders of original Sams? I ask because my original did not shine for me.

My first two are the late 2022 batch, and my new one is the most recent, 2024 batch. They feel the same to me. I didn’t weigh the earlier frames.

BTW: 28 psi for 48s at 125 lb? My OR regular casings feel harsh over expansion cracks (8" to 12") at 20; 18 is smoother, works as well as any other pressure in sand, and corners just fine on pavement. I aim for "a bit under 20 psi." Me, 170-175.

Well, allowing for a pretty wide confidence interval for pump gauge accuracy, … I find at 20psi that the Switchback Hill EL tires feel way too squishy to me. A few kms of my ride today was on gravel and I would definitely drop the pressure if that was most of the ride. On pavement, though, I really don’t like the cornering feel at the pressures you ride, and I don’t like pinch flats.

Ted Durant

Milwaukee, WI USA