Yeah, the Clem to some qualifies as a "beater bike", albeit a still relatively expensive one. The term is meant to convey something of a lesser investment/value/importance that one feels more liberated to be creative with. If you bought a new custom Riv, or a say a shiny new car .... would you take the liberty to adorn it with hand painted designs of your own ? Would you gut the interior and replace it with your own design ? While most do not, many do just that.
Still, every bike is unique no matter how it adorned. In fact there are no duplicates of anything, "Mirror mirror on the wall who's the fairest of them all ?" Hah ! It's a trick question in that it starts with the assumption of two or more, when in actuality there is but The One. When I had my '83 Stumpjumper (silver) one mid-80's winter I just felt like hand painting some of the lugs orange as I had some Testor's paint handy. It was irresistibly fun ! I think this is exactly what my Bombadil needs too, some hand painting here and there. It's already a custom single color. no decals. I bought it used and it was flat black, which to me was worse in person than I imagined. So when it needed some frame work I had Jack @Franklin custom frames use that black powder coat as a sanded base to paint it with light green metallic Imron. I didn't like the original decals either so I left them off. About the only stock Riv color I've seen that I liked in the Clementine soda pop Orange. The Susie orange is a mildly burnt/dull offering. I expected something brighter ..... boo hoo hoo ! Spray-can painting is something we used to do as kids to bikes and anything else that would take it. I wonder how many are willing to paint over and/or accent their stock paint jobs ? I'm sure some have ! I like the idea of a "blanco" primed and ready to paint as you like frame. Given a blank canvas some may find it overwhelming at first.... but after that first step into the seeming abyss and seeing that all is indeed well ..... such is the Living as Life Itself. On Tuesday, November 16, 2021 at 10:12:57 PM UTC-5 Joe Bernard wrote: > Here's a bit of history which I think will be interesting for this thread > in light of how beautiful and colorful and modernized these bicycles have > become: > > In the Blahg or Peeking Through The Knothole or whatever it was called > then, the original murmurings about the new, lower cost TIG-ed Riv was that > it would be painted flat black. The idea was you could use it as a beater > townie and touch it up with a spray can. I think - not sure about this - > the decals were going to be offered as a stick-on kit. The decal idea later > - this part I remember well - was retained for the glossy-paint bikes and > you were supposed to be able to have them do it for you with the regular > name, plus you would get extra letters to mess about with as you wanted. > But then the first frames came pre-decaled with a clearcoat and that was > the end of that. Interesting, no?? > > On Tuesday, November 16, 2021 at 6:13:50 PM UTC-8 Joe Bernard wrote: > >> Btw can we discuss the first Clem pictured in this thread? I think Leah's >> "eccentric" build is the coolest. One thing I can't really do with my >> custom cuz of the gray/red scheme is toss other colors at it, which is ever >> so slightly first-world-problems frustrating. I love the splotches of red >> and orange on her blue frame, that bike POPS! 💙❤️🧡 > > >> >> >> On Tuesday, November 16, 2021 at 5:52:26 PM UTC-8 Joe Bernard wrote: >> >>> Ok buckle up kids, your old pal Joe's got numbers. This is effective >>> toptube, which Grant will tell you isn't enough information to size a bike >>> so don't listen to me! >>> >>> New/current/late-2021 Clem L: >>> 45cm 62.5 >>> 52 65.5 >>> 59 68.5 >>> 64 70 >>> >>> These are the numbers for the last H model, which I believe match the >>> previous few years of L, too. My 2018-ish 45cm L matched this: >>> >>> 45cm 57.5 >>> 52 61 >>> 59 65.5 >>> 64 67 >>> >>> None of this (as far as I know) applies to the first gen >>> Clem/Clementine, I believe they're all a smidge shorter in reach. One >>> super-bad thing about the Riv site is you can still find PBH recs for these >>> frames based on the first gen..it's way off now. Also I know nothing of >>> stack/reach, which I'm sure affects all this stuff. >>> >>> For another chip in the cookie jar (I never remember idioms correctly so >>> I'm just making up my own now), my custom was designed for me at 79-ish PBH >>> with a tall headtube and intended to run Boscos. It's 54.2x63. >>> >>> Joe "numbers guy" Bernard >>> >>> On Tuesday, November 16, 2021 at 5:03:18 PM UTC-8 Patrick Moore wrote: >>> >>>> Perhaps more helpful: my perfect level tt road bike frame size is 60 X >>>> 56 c-c. My built road bikes have 57 and 58 cm c-c tts with Riv-type >>>> slightly upsloping tts. Please help me translate this into Clems. >>>> >>>> And again, how fat a tire will a 700C 59 cm Clem take? >>>> >>>> On Tue, Nov 16, 2021 at 5:39 PM Patrick Moore <bert...@gmail.com> >>>> wrote: >>>> >>>>> ..Aside: "59cm - 86 to 96cm; 700c rim size, but with room for "29er" >>>>> tires." I've never measured my pbh because I've known forever what st >>>>> size >>>>> and tt size make a bike fit me. But I'm 5'10" tall with Asian build (I >>>>> wear >>>>> 34 w 32 length jeans instead of v-versa; if I had an Anglo build I'd be >>>>> 6'1" ), so would I fit a 59? >>>>> >>>> >>>>> And, if so, how fat a 700C tire will a 59 cm Clem take? >>>>> >>>> -- 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/8887897e-fb4e-4671-a301-7d06a7345d6an%40googlegroups.com.
