Originally Posted by
thumpism
I don't want a grail bike so much as a grail trait: a touring bike that will not shimmy on descents when loaded with either panniers or a B.O.B. trailer. You'd be surprised at how many do. The 620 might do it; I don't know yet. Maybe I need a Cannondale tourer (canti or caliper brake) or something else with a 33" standover height; 34" is getting to be too tall for me.
All I really need in the fleet is that touring bike and my 3-speed.
IMO, you need one of these.
And while it was not really loaded, I did have smaller rear panniers that had some gear, tools, jacket, etc.
It was rock solid and got more so on a long fairly steep packed gravel downhill at L'eroica in 2017.
I was flat out in high gear about halfway down, the faster I went, the more stable it felt, even I was amazed having already drank an awful lot of the Kool-Aid already.
This one was the same at Crater Lake the first time I went, came flying down a big hill, around a slight bend to find Cat tracks diagonally cut out of the asphalt that moved me about 10 ft closer to the 100's of feet dropoff in an instant as I held on and the bike remained the rest of the way under control and continued our rocket down the hill without anything else other than my thinking all the Kool-Aid was well deserved.
Jim really did know exactly what he was doing.
