HubJub still has 58 and 60cm in stock!
HubJub still has 58 and 60cm in stock![/quote]
At 5’5", I don’t think either of those are going to work for me.
Remember when he blew them all out at something crazy like 50% off less than a year after launch? They must not have sold well. He should have marketed them better.
Yeah, I bought one then.
I don’t think marketing was the problem. Rawland was pretty much the definition of unreliable, there was awareness of the bikes and photos of the prototypes for a looooong time before you could actually buy one
Edit: talking about the ravn, not the nordavinden
I bet the long buildup with no payoff was great for Crust and all the midsize brands that put out a dirt road / mtb tourer bike in the intervening 18 months. “Oh well, I’ll get an Evasion/Search/Mojo instead”
[quote=kmcdon]
I’ve never big-ringed it up so many hills before I got this bike.[/quote]
Sweet. “Planing”, or “impedence matching”, or “getting in sync” whatever you call it is beautiful when it happens. I miss my old Trek 760, it felt the same way.
How much money does Tarck llc need to make a disc nordavinden
Braden already makes one.
No he doesn’t. I love the coffeegrinder, but it is not the same feel. Needs less oversized tubes.
Yeah, the H/G rides great but it sure doesn’t plane the way my Kogswell does.
I know I’ve asked before, but what the fuck is planing?
It’s when your bike is a noodle but in a good way.
Optimally noodley. Flex in the frame that lets you produce more power/go faster.
When you pedal your bike you flex the frame like a big spring. So some of your energy goes into this.
And just like a spring when the frame un-flexes back it puts energy back into you, and/or helps propel the bike forward.
“Planing” is when the characteristics of your pedal stroke and power match up nicely with the way your frame flexes.
So that when the bike springs back it is in time with you and helps add to the power sending the bike forward, not working against you.
Think of dribbling a basketball you can work with the bounce, or if your timing is bad you work against it, or at least sub-optimally.
Also if you dribble different types of balls some naturally work better than others with you, or you need to adjust.
The thing with “planing” is this: a stiffer frame is NOT automatically faster or better to ride for all riders. Not just comfort, but in terms of energy use.
Jan also made an interesting analogy recently using the concept of a pole-vaulter’s flexible pole.
If it was a rigid pole there would be no way that the vaulter could get off the ground, if it was too noodley they would also probably miss out on the energy return. Inside that spectrum there is a sweet spot related to the vaulter’s weight, speed & technique.
I hate it when Jan is right.
I think folks get in the weeds when trying to figure out why it’s happening, but it definitely happens. When a bike is fun to ride – and fun, in this context, means “you feel like you go faster when you spin the pedals faster” – I call it “planing.” My Nordavinden definitely planes. My old LHT? No way. Trying to ride that thing fast was in exercise in disappointment. My Xtracycle? Hell no. It feels slow no matter how hard you mash on that shit. My Tarckyon? It’s not as bad as the LHT but it definitely is missing something.
[quote=sparksflyhigh]I don’t think marketing was the problem. Rawland was pretty much the definition of unreliable, there was awareness of the bikes and photos of the prototypes for a looooong time before you could actually buy one
Edit: talking about the ravn, not the nordavinden[/quote]
yeah, having a “launch” party close to a year before launch was a dumbfuck move.
I feel like he didn’t differentiate the Nordavinden well enough. He didn’t do a great job of selling it on the merits (screaming-fast, practical road bike) probably because he lucked into designing a frame with them. He probably saw the cult status of the rSogn (which was differentiated by having 650b wheels and road-like geometry before it was trendy) and misdiagnosed that popularity, which led to his colossal errors on the Ravn. He tried to market the Nordavinden to a bunch of annoying nerds who don’t care about why the Nordavinden is special – being slightly reformed Rivnerds almost to a tee, they were always looking for a foppish fat tire turd and weren’t terribly interested in a threadless road bike. The people who DO care about that stuff are often pretty cool on low trail in general. When I wax poetical about how great the Nordaviden to non-tarck bike nerds, I can see the doubt in their eyes. It doesn’t LOOK like a fast bike, so it’s not.
Maybe the problem is that the market for a bike like the Nordavinden was tarck circa 2013?