Long meandering post on trail.. after rim brakes vs disc brakes and wheel size, trail is probably the next most contested subject in bikenerdom. SeanLuke provi

Long meandering post on trail.. after rim brakes vs disc brakes and wheel size, trail is probably the next most contested subject in bikenerdom. SeanLuke provides a good example with the caster. I also recommend reading Dave Molton’s blog (who’s built frames longer than most people here have been writing bloated JS SPAs) for more: Trail, fork rake, and a little bit of history - https://davesbikeblog.blogspot.com/2007/05/trail-fork-rake-and-little-bit-of.html https://davesbikeblog.blogspot.com/2007/05/trail-fork-rake-a... Now porteur bikes and typical randonneuring bikes often have lower trail. People are often focused on the trail numbers, but the simple reason is to position the front load (handlebar bag or stack of newspapers) on or right behind the front axle. Framebuilders do this by increasing the rake (fork offset) to stretch out the front axle, which results in decreased trail. The reason is that you want the weight at the fulcrum to reduce any "inertia" when steering--so the bike remains easy to steer with the additional weight. If you’re not intending on riding your bike with a front load most of the time, then you probably do not want a low trail bike as they are more sensitive to rider input on the handlebars when there is no weight. Also, randonneuring is just an activity, so you can ride any bike with any geometry you want. But in America, especially on the West Coast, there is a bit of bike-cosplay in the randonnerding scene, so folks like to ride bikes built in the old French Constructeur style. Lastly, SeanLuke is probably not familiar with mountain bikes, but modern geometry for XC and enduro bikes is towards slacker headtube angles (resulting in higher trail) for stability when descending. For anyone interested in geometry, I highly recommend browsing Bike Insight's category section: https://bikeinsights.com/categories https://bikeinsights.com/categories