My 1995 Rivendell Road is still the best bike I've ever owned and my favorite to ride. Its been repainted and has a new wheelset, but it goes on comfortable mile after mile with quick but not quirky handling and great feel.
On Tuesday, April 20, 2021 at 10:17:46 PM UTC-5 Patrick Moore wrote: > Much of my riding is extended errand riding, for which the new Matthews > road bike is my choice; much is also bosque riding, for which the new > Monocog is ideal, what with drought making the sand build up; and the other > Matthews "road bike for dirt" just feels fast and fun; it's also an errand > bike because it has lights for nighttime returns. > > So the 1999 Joe Starck custom gofast fixed gear has largely been ignored > this year; there was a 3-month hiatus, between 1/13 when I got rear ended > by a klutz cyclist and had to have the rear wheel rebuilt, until 4/13 when > I started to feel sorry for it and took it for a ride; a 3d ride this year, > today, in place of the Matthews road bike even though I was running > errands.* > > But I have to say that over the 22 years I've owned this bike (delivered > April 1999), repeatedly and consistently it just "feels like home" in > respect of fit, feel, and above all, the energetic response to pedaling > input. It was just the same today; it just felt easier to pedal despite > having a gear higher than the cruising gear of any of my other bikes (76"; > the others are 72", 73", and Monocog, 65"). The 175 gram 28 mm Elk Pass > tires certainly help, but the experience was the same with 650C 23 mm Conti > Grands Prix and ditto for a couple of generations of Michelin Pro Races > (the EPs do feel even faster). > > As much as I love my newer bikes, if someone held a gun to my head and > said, "Choose One," I'd choose the 1999 Joe (modified ~2018 by Chauncey > Matthews with 2nd bottle cage braze ons and longer dropouts, and a new Ford > Blue powdercoat). I've owned 5 Rivendells including 3 customs, but this one > just stands out head and shoulders. > > Minor updates since that 2018 shot: lighter blue tape, nicer, Ruthworks xl > seat bag, finally got around to overpainting the primer on the dropouts > (took off the fender braze ons Chauncey mistakenly forgot to remove). > > > *Rode the final 1.5 miles home with a makeshift shoulder bag created from > 5 of so plastic shopping bags. > > -- > > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > Patrick Moore > Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/a4de7854-f612-4be1-9b5d-dcdcab65c0ddn%40googlegroups.com.
