Saturday, July 3, 2010

Adieu trusty RB-T

With Pat's bike back from Glen, my bike is next in the Elephant hopper. It's an Elephant version of Alex's Gifford.

The Elephant will replace my super rad blue RB-T. This has been a great bike -- it was the first bike that brought low-trail/front load onto a spirited/fast bike. I'm pretty sure that I've ridden this bike more miles than any other bike I've ever had.

Gratuitous tree house shot. Note the framed in roof.

I used it for camping, quick-light tours, and silly adventures; but really, it excelled as a daily driver: a great commuter that was fast, nimble, and could haul a reasonable load in a way that didn't degrade its handling.

The biggest difference between my inbound Elephant and my outbound RB-T is tire clearance. The Elephant will run 650B wheels. The daily drivers will be either the Hetres or the Paris-Moto's. For dirt road touring and exploring, I can take off the fenders and put the Quasi-Moto's on there.


Like I said: it's nearly a copy of Alex's Gifford. The biggest difference between the Elephant and Alex's bike will be gearing. Alex is running a Rohloff and I'll be running traditional derailleur gearing.

So that's that. Today, I stripped the parts off the RB-T that will go on the Elephant: saddle, post, front derailleur, brakes, rack, shifters, bars, stem, cranks, bottom bracket, etc.


The RB-T will go into the archive until I can bear to let it go.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, first Al and Tipper separate, and now John abandons RB-T.

What next? Peanut butter refuses to share the sandwich with jelly?

Jonathan Eberly said...

If that RB-T is a 56cm I know someone who would love it. ME!!!