Originally Posted by Grim

Anytime you can lower the Center of Gravity the better. Getting that weight off your shoulders and below your butt is a HUGE change in CG. Wait till summer when you are in the sun and no longer have that mess on your back retaining heat. The long wheel base makes for a smooth ride. I am goign to try some 700x32s next go around. I have 700x35 Conti Toptouring now and they are a reasonably fast tire compared to what I had on the 95. Going to give the Vittoria Randonneur Pros with the reflective sidewalls next. Most of the reviews have been positive.

Road bike is fun when you have nothing to carry and you want to go fast. A Touring bike is like a SUV. Not particularly fast but you get there in comfort with the relaxed riding position and can bring what ever you want. Its not about the speed its about the steady sustainable pace.

I did my First metric last year. I ran across a smoking deal on a 89 SR600 that I thought would be a stellar bike for the ride.. I wanted to love that bike..it was so pretty. Every time I took it for a long ride I came back feeling like I had been beat. My back was screaming due to a problem I have in my lower back. I went and drove a good portion of the route for the upcoming century. I right then knew there was NO WAY I was going to ride the SR600. Took my T700 with my MTX bag and fenders. Got heckled the first 20 miles by all the weekend "teams". Had the silver rain fly on the bag and kept getting asked "whats in the cooler"? and stuff like that. 22 miles into the event it starts to rain> I stopped and put on my rain cap hat coupled with my helmet visor kept my glasses dry and pressed on. It was plenty warm and the fender kept my shoes from filling with water. It rained all the way to the end. I slowly passed most of the weaker riders that got dropped on all those "teams". Getting tire spray they could not keep their pace lines and pull the slow riders . Most of them were the hecklers. LOL

My moving avg speed was 15.1mph and there was some pretty good rollers on the course. I was passing members of the team that couldnt handle them and were off the bikes pushing them up the hills because of their 50-42 cranks and 11-22 cassettes. LOL 36x28 is an awesome gear for rollers.

I did have new respect for the strong riders that could pull those hills with those gears though. It did wake me up to how most vintage bikes had a lot better gearing for the average rider. THey may be old but the people that designed them knew what they were doing (still trying to figure out the reason for the compacts my 98 came with LOL).


Sold the SR600 a few weeks later.
Keep us posted on how you like it in a few weeks.