I did my hilly commute through the east bay hills (~35 miles, ~2500ft of climbing). Ride report: PURE WIN
On Tuesday, March 6, 2012 8:50:00 AM UTC-8, RonLau wrote: > > For those who does not live in Bay Area. Mike's shop couch has been > THE hot topic within SF Randonneur group. One of our member has been > known to spend hours on that couch. I was told he rode 40 miles from > SF just to sit on it. > > If you ever come here and want to ride, that will be good place to > go. You can do the Lighthouse loop (40 miles) from there or go out to > Petaluma to say hello to Bruce Gordon and White Industries (30 miles?) > > Give us a call here and we can go with you, or you can get John Potis > to go with you, he knows that couch. > > On Mar 5, 11:01 am, William <[email protected]> wrote: > > Thanks to Rivendell, my entire stable of bikes got turned over in the > last > > few years. That process started in 2009. The last remaining bike I had > > from my past life was a custom road bike (Davidson Signature), but even > > that, I decided, was too small. I corrected that somewhat with a tall > and > > long stem, which looked a little goofy but improved the situation. The > > nagging shortcoming to my Davidson was that I can't run anything wider > than > > a 700x25. Hence it's for sale on ebay, as many of you have seen (now it > > has a bid!). > > > > To replace it, I had bounced around several ideas. First off, a 59 > Roadeo. > > I'm virtually certain a Roadeo would be perfect for what I want from > this > > particular spot in my stable, but I'm on a bike department budget that > made > > that impossible. A San Marcos was out of the question, mainly because > I'm > > in between sizes. So, I considered the forthcoming Rawland Nordavinden, > > was tempted by a super low sale price on the VO Rando frame, and kept an > > eye out for a 58 Rambouilet. > > > > My search ended when I got turned on to Black Mountain Cycles, a one-man > > shop in Point Reyes Station. Mike Varley does the design and Taiwan > source > > thing for both a road frameset and a really slick monster cross. Mike > has > > a long history of design in the bike industry, and he's got a > spectacular > > operation. We had an open control in Pt Reyes Station last month on an > SF > > Randonneurs brevet. I stopped in, checked out a couple measurements, > and > > bought it. Our RBA was pretty entertained that my receipt for that open > > control was for a frameset. Anyway, I drove out there and picked it up > > yesterday, and got started on the build. So now I have a road bike that > > makes it easier to get the bars up, takes Jack Browns without fenders, > and > > Roly Polys with fenders. It's entirely possible that I'll have the > money > > for a Roadeo someday, and riding this will get me ready to buy that with > > confidence. Or maybe I'll get more refined opinions and do a Custom. > This > > bike gets me to a MUCH more useful road experience at an incredible > price. > > I highly recommend giving Black Mountain Cycles a look if you are in > the > > market for a $600 road frameset. > > > > Pictures show the progress and status: > > > > http://www.flickr.com/photos/45758191@N04/sets/72157629154963632/ -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rbw-owners-bunch/-/xVHrBk7o4KoJ. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
