on 1/7/11 12:06 PM, Kelly Sleeper at tkslee...@gmail.com wrote: (great questions which ended with...) > What makes the Rivendell Different.. how does one explain that difference to > those that just see a steel antique looking bke?
I think there have been a couple of handling or "discussion of trail" threads where this has popped up before. These are a couple points I've probably made before... Rivendells (and I include all of the designs, not simply custom models) have a similar quality of ride. While a Roadeo is different from a Bombadil, there's an underlying set of design tenets which seems pretty consistent. For me, in my riding conditions, they are superlative. They are stable, predictable, solid handling bikes that generally keep me out of trouble, and then react appropriately when I'm silly enough to get my self into it. If they didn't handle well, nothing else would matter. The handling and ride is a sum of a all parts. It isn't _JUST_ trail, head angle, bb height, chainstay length, angles, and length. It's all of those things. You cannot just change one aspect and have the same bike. The bicycles are a product of those variables, plus the things which Grant has learned in the XX number of years of plotting out frames, testing them and thinking pretty deeply about the results. The bicycle designs have grown to be incredibly versatile. Ten years ago, the longer reach brakes weren't availalble. The clearances which we now enjoy were only possible with canti brakes. Finding a 28mm 700C tire was difficult, let alone a higher quality 30mm+ tire. The limiting factors have been the components, and Grant has always been pushing the envelope in this particular corner of the bicycle world. Add to that his commitment to high quality bags and racks and you end up with a useful and continually variable design. As I've repeated too many times, both my Quickbeam and Hilsen have been errand bikes, road bikes, mountain bikes, race bikes and brevet bikes in the time I've had them. Over the past couple years, I've grown to feel that if a bicycle can't be fendered or adapted, it really is not a "bicycle" in the true sense. In other words, when people ask what my "road bike" is, I kind of stare at them blankly. All of this could be done roughly, or quickly, or with a more industrial design tenet, but the fact that Rivendell connects the tubes with lugs, has small, undernoticed details and pays attention to decal fonts, paint colors, and bicycle packaging (just to pick out a quick few) to the extent that they do just locks them in for me. It distinguishes them as practitioners of a craft. It's important to me to support that. The "finish" work is part of the craft...part of the art of what they practice. I suppose it's easy to equate the outside, finishing layer with the whole. The first thing someone notices is the paint layer, the contrasting colors, the lugs. While that's part of the equation, the strength lies underneath. - Jim -- Jim Edgar cyclofi...@earthlink.net Cyclofiend Bicycle Photo Galleries - http://www.cyclofiend.com Current Classics - Cross Bikes Singlespeed - Working Bikes -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
