LeMond Buenos Aires rescue
04-23-15, 10:39 AM
#51
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I don't know if it were ever a tradition exactly. I would guess that the Trek FX line is more than just a carbon road bike frame with flat bars. I would bet anything that the top tubes are longer and it wouldn't surprise me at all if there are other differences in the geometry.
I've gone the other way and took a flat bar cross-country bike and put drops on it. I suppose that was the same kind of bike abuse only in reverse. It is hard to do without using a stem that makes the set up rather odd looking. Drops move you more forward than flats do. The frames have to be different to accommodate that.
Taking a road bike and putting flats on it doesn't mean you're getting a fast hybrid. You will be more upright than you would be on a flat-bar road bike from the factory. What you're really getting is a lightweight comfort bike. Notice the wide saddles that were put on the bikes along with the flat bars.
I've gone the other way and took a flat bar cross-country bike and put drops on it. I suppose that was the same kind of bike abuse only in reverse. It is hard to do without using a stem that makes the set up rather odd looking. Drops move you more forward than flats do. The frames have to be different to accommodate that.
Taking a road bike and putting flats on it doesn't mean you're getting a fast hybrid. You will be more upright than you would be on a flat-bar road bike from the factory. What you're really getting is a lightweight comfort bike. Notice the wide saddles that were put on the bikes along with the flat bars.
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04-23-15, 11:17 AM
#52
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I don't have a strong objection to the flat bar road concept and to the extent that hybrids are that, I can live with it. I'm seeing it a lot with cyclocross bikes. I've even done this myself:
The weight distribution was a bit off on that build (you can probably still read the model number of the left brake lever in an X-ray of my ribs) but that may have just been a stem length problem. Still, I think you can see the difference between that bike and this:
It's aesthetic as much as anything. The fat saddle is a huge part of it.
But in either case:
< 
< 
Though I must admit that mistakes were made in the Nevada City rebuild.
The weight distribution was a bit off on that build (you can probably still read the model number of the left brake lever in an X-ray of my ribs) but that may have just been a stem length problem. Still, I think you can see the difference between that bike and this:
It's aesthetic as much as anything. The fat saddle is a huge part of it.
But in either case:
< < Though I must admit that mistakes were made in the Nevada City rebuild.
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04-23-15, 11:54 AM
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If it makes you feel better there used to be a 7.9FX model that was carbon fiber and Ultegra/105 and did have traditional hybrid geometry. It was discontinued.
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04-24-15, 08:19 AM
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What are the odds, but on the way home yesterday, I saw a guy in kit on a yellow Lemond with a comfort bike bar put on it. It was a later aluminum model. The bar was the type you'd see on a comfort or city bike, more rise than the average MTB or hybrid bar.
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04-24-15, 08:22 AM
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How is the ride on those early aluminum bikes? I know these days that aluminum road bikes can give a really nice ride, perhaps even better than 'entry level' carbon, but there was a time when aluminum developed a reputation as being overly harsh over rough surfaces.
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