BFisher

Stumbled upon this site as I googled Selle Monte Grappa saddles: The Irish Rover

Never heard of them. I thought they may be of interest to some here. Plenty spendy for sure.

noobinsf 

This makes me happy. I visited Ireland with the wife and kids a couple of years ago, and I heart Ireland.

JaccoW

Rehosted some of the pictures.




Nice looking bike. Though I can imagine most people spending that amount of money would want to know what tubing is being used and how much it weighs.

Wildwood 

How hilly is Ireland?


The 'Restoration' capability would interest me more, if I were local.
Blast + powder seems reasonable.
Restoration

BFisher

It can be hilly, depending on location. I toured (not by bike) there a couple years ago. Much of Dublin city would be navigable on a bike like this. They have a few mountains over 3,000 feet.

thinktubes 

Whoa Nelly!

scarlson 

I spent a month touring in Ireland with family back in 2002. I remember rolling terrain most places. The Burren (stony district) and the Dingle peninsula were steep exceptions to this, but not as steep as Wales was. I think my dad and little brother probably had to walk their tandem. Teenage scarlson was rocking a 20t chainring on the Ron Cooper so could climb a vertical wall if necessary. The "unmade-roads" or bóithrín were the real hazard to our frail rims and skinny 700x32 tires. Remember that was about as wide as you could get in those days and they were usually smaller than listed size.

Biggest impressions of touring there were that the people were very friendly and the landscape was very green. Was too young to drink, so ate enough white cheddar to make me sick. I enjoyed it a lot. Éirinn go Brách!

The term "high Nelly" is used to describe a step-thru framed roadster that has a very long headtube, generally extending higher than the seat tube. This results in a very dignified position for the genteel Irishwoman rider. Here is my source.

canklecat

That combination of relatively short top tube and swept bars looks comfortable for short rides on flat terrain, but I'd wonder about the handling. The frame isn't as stretched out as a traditional path racer. It would need swept bars fairly widely spaced between the grips to avoid knocking the knees on slow speed maneuvers.

Last year, while recovering from a shoulder injury, I swapped my Univega Via Carisma from riser to albatross swept bars for a more comfortable position. That Univega has a longish top tube, relative to overall frame size, so there wasn't much problem with clearance for my knees other than on very slow speed turns where I was physically turning the handlebar rather than leaning. And I tried it for awhile with the albatross bars flipped, path racer style. Worked well although it wasn't comfortable at the time due to the shoulder injury. But I'm planning to try that again soon now that the injury has mostly healed.

Main problem I found with trying to make swept bars more efficient as well as comfortable was the odd feeling center of balance. On a bike with drop bars hard braking is easy to control because the momentum tends to lock our grip into the drops or brake hoods. But with swept bars the hands are closer to the body, so hard braking can feel like we're about to go over the bars. Takes a little practice and some emergency braking practice to get the feel. Another advantage to a longer top tube for a bike intended for swept bars and a sporty but comfortable ride.

That High Nelly looks like it misses the design mark in terms of ride quality and efficiency.

SurferRosa

Wow! Only $4100 for a bike that nice?? I think I'll buy two!

​​​​​​