(At the risk of going a wee bit off-topic...)
copake_ham said:
Rivendell bikes are interesting - their catalog is even more of a "hoot".
Yes, they are ultimo-luddites in the bicycling world and I am glad that they are around.
But I don't go for "preachy, preachy" with bikes or cameras.
I don't find them any more preachy than the usual mainstream bike
mag du jour.
Probably a tad less so.
Fact is, Rivendell's framesets are heavy, lumbering steel dinosaurs. They provide neither the stiff responsiveness of aluminum (which is, admittedly, unforgiving in it's transmission of road shock to rider) nor do they provide the "reasonable responsiveness with forgiveness" of carbon fiber.
I don't know about you, but the steel frames I've ridden over the last decade were anything but "heavy" and "lumbering", even compared to, say, OCLV. They've also been able to take useful items like fenders for other-than-fair-weather-riding. There's more to cycling than crits and mad-fast double-century rides.
Also, Rivendell does not make its frames - it buys them from a Japanese manufactuer. No big deal in that - but it begs the question given their price markups that they are just a "middle man" supplier as opposed to say Serrotta or Calfi - just two of the US-based framebuilders who are active today?
The frames with "Rivendell" on the downtube are, in fact, custom frames made here in the States, and – as with any custom frames made here by anyone else, of any material – they ain't cheap. All the other frames on offer by Riv (Atlantis, Saluki, etc.) are made in Japan, and, while also not cheap (if you're comparing them to off-the-rack bikes from the usual suspects), are nowhere near as pricey as the custom Rivs.
Further, if you really delve into the Rivendell catalog, you find out that they are sell a lot of non-bike stuff (e.g. pencils) just to "prove" their Luddite "bona fides".
Why would I buy a pencil from them? Who cares?
I suppose some of the catalog stuff falls into the catagory of
schtick, but I put it into the "mostly harmless" category, and at least the stuff on offer is useful. A Hummer H2, by contrast, is an
outsized example of schtick, and, IMO, decidedly not harmless.
In nearly 30 years of "serious" cycling, including many large group rides, I have seen exactly ONE Rivendell bike frame being ridden. I did also see them once display gear at the pre-El Tour de Tucson registration center.
In regard to the custom models, they don't make a lot of them each year (much to the chagrin of of those on a waiting list for one, which is rather long). One of the bikes I regularly ride, a 20-year-old Alex Moulton 14-speed, is an
extremely rare sight on a group ride. Once in a great while it gives me a sense of snob appeal, but most of the time I pay no mind and just ride.
🙂
I have ordered a few components from them for my older bikes but would hardly miss them if they went away!
I order stuff from them from time to time, and I
would miss them if they went bust. They seem to be doing quite well, though, so I'm not at all worried about them.
Oh, and having gone through my Pro Togs phase many years ago - there is NO WAY I would go back to using the wool bike clothing they sell! UGH!!!
Modern wool is actually pretty nice. I also use a bit of the synthetic stuff where and when it makes sense.
Ride, wear, and shoot what'cha like. As George Harrison sang, it's what you value.
- Barrett (who now returns you to your regularly scheduled forum, already in progress)
