The “touring bike” steering geometry also helps in a cross wind. A “more responsive” geometry will allow the wind to fight your steering control.

Carbon fibers can be laid differently and flex can be designed into a fork. A carbon fork could be designed to have nice absorption with minimal rake. Then the trail calculations have a lot of options. Happy riding, everybody!!

– I found a geometry chart of a very similar bike from 1997 on RetroBike.co.uk.
– Many people spec a flat handlebar on the Surly LHT, that’s not really an issue.
– The Surly LHT will fit a 2.2″ tyre.
– ‘Sourcing a frameset’ refers to finding a second hand 20 year old frame and fork.

Interesting, thanks for the response!

How did you find the geometry specs for the Giant Rincon? I’ve been looking online and haven’t seen them anywhere.

The Surly bike you reference looks like a road bike (curl-around handlebars, etc.). I’m looking for something with mountain bike handlebars and wider tires. (Mine looks like this: https://files.bikeindex.org/uploads/Pu/11088/large_1998_Giant_Rincon.JPG )

You mention “sourcing a frameset” — what does that mean? I’ve never heard that term.

Thanks again!

You’ll find that the touring bikes of today share very similar frame geometry to mountain bikes of the 1990s. With a 71 degree headtube angle, 45mm fork rake and similar tyre dimension and seat tube angle – a bike like the Surly Long Haul Trucker would have to be the most similar ‘new’ bike.

Otherwise, I’d suggest sourcing a frameset from almost any brand from the same era. There was very little difference between most models in 1997.

Since then I’ve tried to find a “better” bike, but I haven’t been able to find one with the same feel. I presume it’s the geometry of that frame. I can ride easily without hands on that bike, but most other bikes I can’t. I just checked the trail of my wife’s and kids’ bikes, and they seem about the same. Wikipedia states that mechanical trail dictates whether you can ride no-hands (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_and_motorcycle_geometry#Mechanical_trail), but that doesn’t seem to be true for me.

With my Giant, if I just stand there and lean the bike left and right the front wheel follows, pointing left and right. On the others, if I lean the bike the front wheel goes hard to that side and won’t move if I lean the bike the other way.

1997 Giant Rincons are surprisingly rare. What would you do if you were me, wanting to find a new bike with a similar feel to that one?

Crank-forward bikes aren’t designed to reduce toe overlap. Depending on the model, they may even make toe-overlap worse. Crank-forward bike are designed with comfort in mind, allowing you to sit more upright. The downside to this style of bike is that they’re less performance-oriented than a traditional bike, and therefore tend to be better for covering short distances.

I stopped at an actual bike store the other day and the salesman there talked about a crank forward bike. I sat on one and it seemed comfortable but time constraints made it difficult to test out. How is a crank forward different from a regular bike? Would it work better than modifying a head angle?

Hi Michelle. Toe overlap is pretty common on all bikes, especially in the small-mid sizes. You can avoid it somewhat with a slacker head angle, a longer fork rake and smaller wheels. Trek make their bikes with slacker angles and longer rake, and the wheel sizes are matched to the frame sizes. (ie. 27.5″ wheels on bikes under 15″). Definitely check them out.