Originally Posted by
hokiefyd
I tried the Specialized Roll at lunchtime today and it's not the bike I'm seeking. It was fun and definitely different, but I felt positioned too far back on the bike (in no doubt due to the very shallow seat tube angle - 67 degrees). A cruiser bike for sure, but I didn't feel like I could get "up on" the bike to crank.
I also tried a Specialized Crosstrail while I was there, with the brain fork, but I didn't care for that either. With no apparent way to tune it, it was super stiff, and I couldn't perceive any actual damping action from it. The stanchions were also a bit wiggly (which is one of the reasons I want a rigid fork to begin with), so I passed on that.
The local Giant dealer indeed does not have any ARXes in stock, so I plan to make a drive tomorrow.
The ARX looks like a nice "no BS" bike. A lot of the riding feeling is in the tires too and how much pressure they have.
Large tires (2" for a hybrid) are very rare, which is how I ended up with the Toughroad. I rode the toughroad back to back to a Giant Escape (32 mm tires or so) and the Escape was much more twitchy and less compliant (admittedly a year ago I was new to serious riding and they have different geometries).
tire size is another industry fraud where everyone was told skinnier tires are better and now we come to the realization that wider tires don't have more rolling resistance but provide more comfort and now everyone with an old frame realizes that their old bikes don't clear wider tires and needs to buy a new bike....