corwin1968

I have a lot of thoughts on GP and RBW and wanted to respond to so many of these posts, so I'll limit myself to a few observations and statements:

1) I noticed that the Gus Boots Willsen came about AFTER one of RBW's employees brought his Jones Plus LWB into the RBW riding world. The Gus is a huge departure from other Rivs and in some ways, similar to the Jones. I will always wonder if Grant "borrowed" from the Jones when he designed the Gus. The "Hillibike" label got attached, retroactively, to more conventional, already existing RBW bikes.

2) I was shocked when Grant admitted that he strongly prefers V-brakes to all other brakes. I figured he would be a canti-guy to his core.

3) Grant influenced my move to fatter tires and back to steel (from aluminum) but the biggest reason I follow him and RBW is because their riding philosophy fit mine and they were (are?) the only company offering what I want in a bike.

4) Jan Heine has credited Grant with influencing him toward fatter tires.

5) The whole long chainstay thing seems to be gaining momentum, as Grant predicted. Jones' latest LWB frameset for e-biking has 50cm chainstays! That's approaching Riv territory.

6) I'm very curious to try the longer chainstays. I have a Hunqapillar with 46cm stays and I'm experiencing a little bit of toe overlap. The same size Atlantis has a really raked out front end, plus an extra 10mm in ett length AND it has long chainstays. They will be back in stock in early 2022 and I may have to bite the bullet and order one.




I believe this is a 55 cm Atlantis, which is the size I would buy

LeeG

Found this thread on a search. It’s been fun to appreciate long chainstay/wheel base bikes. Way back I visited Roger Durham of Bullseye bike parts when he lived in a house in Hollywood with fabrication down in the basement. He had a custom aluminum bike made up with 19” or so chainstays and upright bars. He said the wb was around 45”. Fast forward 40 yrs and I’m in Maine getting a bike at LLBean to ride around and I get a Felt Cafe 7 that has 19” chainstays and lax angles. It felt surprisingly responsive, although not nimble, for it’s length. It has an aluminum frame and fork. A couple years ago I got a Rivendell Clem Smith H with 650b x 62 mm tires and really like it although my fitness has fallen off significantly. Seems to me these dimensions are ideally suited for hydroformed aluminum over steel.

Wildwood 

…is priceless. Given thread title Hillibikes.


camping in the hilli