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Old 04-21-19, 11:32 PM
  #23  
joewein
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Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Tokyo, Japan
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Bikes: Elephant Bikes National Forest Explorer, Bike Friday Pocket Rocket

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Go with whichever is more comfortable and I have to assume that would the Rawland, based on its less aggressive handle bar drop relative to the saddle. I assume both are the right size for you. A bad fit will spoil everything about an otherwise great bike.

The effects of weight on speed on a bike are overrated. As a rule of thumb, each extra kg will slow you down by about a minute over a Century to 200 km distance with a reasonable amount of climbing (e.g. vertical elevation gain around 1 % of the horizontal distance).

So even if there was 10 kg of weight difference, it would add or save 10 minutes in a day relative to the other bike, which for most participants would not be enough to account for the difference between completing or DNF'ing a 200 km brevet.

My long distance bikes are set up with the bars level with the saddle, which allows me to make full use of the drops when I want to. If the bars were lower, using the drops would shift more weight on my arms and shoulders than I am able to handle on a long day in the saddle.
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