Oh really that's too bad! Sounds like a cool bike maybe some (all?) cyclocross bikes use road bike spacing

Lots of wonderful questions, I'm definitely not an expert but will add this to my long list of video ideas... I find center pull brakes to be difficult to adjust and less powerful but I'm also less familiar with them. I think that side pull road calipers work very well and are very easy to adjust. Cantis have better clearance for big tires and they seem powerful but I'm not sure which is actually the most efficient from a physics point of view. They're definitely my favorite aesthetically though. Finally I personally think v brakes can be a little finicky with the spring and I just don't really like them for whatever reason but they work well too if they're well adjusted. It also all depends on what kind of pads and what kind of cable housing you use.

@@spinningtrue Oh, this reminds me of something I read regarding these bikes, or any others with front cantis, I suppose. Maybe you already know this, but someone posted to be sure not to remove the front reflector bracket. There's a small chance that the front brake cable could snap at the saddle, letting the loop cable droop, which could potentially snag on tire tread and yank the front wheel to a sudden halt.

@@hberg321 Great advice! Yes I have heard this, wouldn't want this to happen to me.

I'll get back to you in a few days!

@@spinningtrue Thanks! Have fun with the build.

@@hberg321 So I don't think that the steering is very twitchy at low speeds and I did look at the fork and yes I do think that it is quite curved... I tried to measure the offset and I think it's somewhere around 45-50mm. That doesn't sound very high to me but I looked at another old MTB I have and that offset is more like 35mm so maybe you do need a fork with more curve to it.

@@spinningtrue Ah, thank you so much for that information! I'll try to measure my current offset to see how it compares. I've been trying to read up on "trail" and head tube angle's effect on steering and there seems to be some black magic in there.

Hi - I'm revisiting this question because bike geometry has been sending me down a bit of a rabbit hole and wondered if you could try something the next time you are out on this bike. Do you find that you can ride a line on the pavement well at low (like, hill climbing, not much faster than walking) speed on the Raleigh and does it seem easier on any other bikes? That's what I've been investigating lately because I can not do it at all on my Technium, am not aware of having been able to do it on any bike before, and was quite surprised to find recently on a rental road bike that I could do it easily. I've also found that front tire inflation makes a huge difference. If it isn't pumped to rock-hard state I am noticeably more wobbly. The thing that has me doing all this investigation recently is that I've been doing laps around Central Park and find that I just weave back and forth more than other riders during a slow hill climb and have had passing riders suddenly call out or ring which implies I was swerving more than I realized. I don't like the idea of being a road menace. I've since been paying attention more and noticed that I'm making constant steering corrections during a slow hill climb, much more so than other riders (even those with upright, non-road geometry). With any amount of speed on the bike it's stable as a table. From what I've read online, a slack head tube angle plus high fork offset equals low trail giving more responsive steering. A low offset would give more trail which should be more stable but (and this part has really been driving me nuts) possibly more wheel flop. I think this is why tire pressure makes such a difference. A tire that isn't rock hard will compress a couple millimeters, steepening head tube angle/reducing trail and reducing stability (at least, that's my theory). I tried to measure the offset of the fork I have now and it also looks to be in the 50mm range so it could be that this is just the way it is. If that other mountain bike you measured has the same head tube angle as the Raleigh but with less offset it should be a high trail bike. It would be interesting if you found the handling to be significantly different.