Meant to say west *TO* Hwy 71... Oklahoma's OK, but my most frequent destination on a bike west of 71 was Devil's Den State Park, Arkansas.
Andy Chetham Pittsburgh On Monday, May 3, 2021 at 8:54:56 AM UTC-4 ascpgh wrote: > What a win! You have nearly a lifetime of Rivendell riding joy by some > rider's experience at your disposal almost immediately. > > Style points on your pictures too. As a long ago Fayetteville resident > (Disckson > St., two blocks off 71on the hip of Mount Sequoyah) I had my own mental > images of riding to those places, paddling Frog Bayou and riding big > loops of gravel around and either side of White Rock mountain on my RB-1 or > XO-2. Pretty much covered all the roads south of Hwys 16 and 23, west of > Hwy 71 as far south as just below Shores Lake. We avoided Devil's Canyon to > the west, always returning to 71 through Winfrey Valley. 71 was always a > scary transit back to town with the traffic that now uses I-49. A good > place for drivers not interested in driving instead of inattentively > buzzing us on the shoulder. Often cut off at Pitkin, wove over to Blacck > Oak via Wallin Mountain, Lake WIlson and entered town by the old industrial > park. > > Congratulations on your unexpected Nashville double coup, particularly > that road custom with the direct mount Paul Racer medium centerpulls. I put > center mount Racers on my Rambouillet and bought clearance for both 32mm > tires and appropriate width Honjos to replace I used to cheat with narrower > fenders under the Shimano groupless "long" reach. calipers. Made my gravel > riding around here so sweet that I kept going with it because of the > Rivendell ride, despite still getting pinch flats from time to time if I > let the siren song of softer tire inflation lull me onto the rocks. > > Enjoy and thanks for a quick flashback. > > Andy Cheatham > Pittsburgh > > On Saturday, May 1, 2021 at 4:27:45 PM UTC-4 Robert Dowtin wrote: > >> I suppose this is a ride(s) report. A few weeks ago I was escorted across >> state lines to procure my first Rivendell road frame, my partner in this >> heist (a great deal) got himself a super rad hubbuhubbuh tandem. Upon >> arriving in Nashville we discovered that a first gen Quickbeam frame, that >> for some reason or another I believed had been previously sold and not >> available, was very much available. The owner being the rad guy that he is, >> let me ride his identical orange QB around the block to see if I >> immediately fell in love with what he described as his #1 favorite >> bike...of course I did. I bought it and the set of OG QB wheels along with >> the Road frame w/ Phil Wood wheels that we had traveled all that way to >> get. Elated, we rushed back home with our take and by Tuesday at lunchtime >> I had the Quickbeam fully built and before a storm rolled in I got around >> the block twice with a massive smile across my face. Just can not believe >> how great the potential is for fun on this bike...man. >> >> So, as I waited to get my hands on the last few remaining parts for the >> Road bike, I struck up conversations with a number of wonderful people on >> and off this list to include Will over at Rivendell about the history of >> this bike (the road, not the quickbeam, keep up, we'll be switching back >> and forth a lot...I'm sure) which it turns out was not a road standard but >> a road custom made by Joe Starck and painted by Joe Bell. This was all >> covered in Patrick's thread about the wonderfulness of his custom frame. >> >> >> So. The Quickbeam. After that storm, I rode that bike every single day >> between 5 and 30 miles a day all over NW Arkansas, running errands, just >> riding, holy shit with a massive grin and emotions bordering on euphoria. >> Never have I felt this good on any bike. I love this thing. I love it. >> Goddamnit this was and is an outstanding frame. OK so that's settled I >> don't ever care about riding anything else again ever. >> >> >> Last few parts came in for the Road. As I finished putting it together my >> excitement naturally grew, but I must say I was kinda nervous that the Road >> was going to steal something away from my new found love for the QB. Lets >> be honest my QB looks like someone kicked it down a few flights of stairs, >> and while it is cool it never was amongst Rivendell's prettiest line of >> frames. >> >> The Road, however... the lugs and the paint and the head badge and font >> makes this absolutely the prettiest bike I have ever touched, much less >> ridden, much much less owned. There may be objectively more attractive >> bikes out there, somewhere, maybe. >> >> >> Almost identical situation occurred as the week before only this time >> torrential rain instead of snow came with this storm. I waited it out >> having only done the ride around the block a few times with my kid on the >> brand new bike because I was short on time routine... This couple of 'round >> the blocks' was just enough to let me know that there was the potential for >> magic. >> >> Storm lasted for approx. 36hrs… >> >> Two days later I'm off on my first shake down ride, my favorite 20mi out >> and back to a local spring. Best tasting water around. Fill up and head >> back. Well, there was a 17mph headwind nearly the entire way there. And I >> just couldn't get my pedal stroke comfortably where I wanted it, nor can I >> even fully tell you what I mean by that. I did regularly think that it was >> bizarre that I felt so fast and so uncomfortable, even in the wind. And it >> was, as I later learned, strangely fast no matter how uncomfortable. >> >> The pictures of evergreen and mini waterfall are the aforementioned >> spring area. So then I simply turned around and rode an uncomfortable 10+ >> miles back home on a phenomenal bike with a great tailwind. I knew the >> uncomfortableness was do to my form, I just couldn’t figure out why it was >> so bad and I couldn’t seem to fix it…also my ass my have never hurt this >> bad from a c17 ever. >> >> I got home and all of the gps data from my phone said that it was the >> fastest I had ever done that out and back route. Not sure I believe this at >> all. I am blown away, I don’t feel like I was pushing myself hard, mostly >> due to just feeling awkward and uncomfortable. Other than how you would >> expect to feel in any normal headwind, although, I averaged over 1mph >> faster than normal. So I got out the tape and started measuring every. >> single. Thing. >> >> Apparently my saddle was 1.5cm too low and my bars were about 2 cm too >> low. Whatcha wanna bet that solved my comfort issues? >> >> Next day I did another 20mi out and back to a state park with a lake near >> our house. Last photos are of the overlook above the lake. Its one of my >> favorite routes with well over 2000’ of climbing. Once I fixed my contact >> points, and what a crazy simple fix it turned out to be... I was crazy fast >> and I was crazy comfortable. Again, this was the fastest I had ever ridden >> this route, which felt extra wild when I honestly didn’t feel as though I >> had overly exerted myself for the day. I did have a lot of shifting issues >> brought about by desire to use a 45 year old deraileur just because it was >> pretty. It’s back as wall art now and I have a massive ugly Deore mounted >> back there, which is fine because I can only see it when I’m not riding it >> and the frame makes up Shimano’s gross deformity. >> >> >> All this to say thanks. Thanks to everyone that has ever had a hand in >> the creation of these bicycles. Fantastic. I’m going now to go climb some >> hills on the QB now. Photos in link. Please don’t hesitate to tell me how I >> can get photos to these posts more efficiently, btw… >> >> ~Rob in NW Ar >> >> >> https://photos.app.goo.gl/DziWe6QkpcWdKwNWA >> > -- 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/165b2d07-ecf3-4505-b884-ff658ab726c2n%40googlegroups.com.
