I'm just getting back from a ride on my much loved Heron Road with fenders and modern/accurately labeled 28mm tires.
You designed the Heron Road to make the most of short reach calipers - and I have to say you hit the mark and then some Grant. One certainly hopes that the realization that tires were labelled differently when these bikes were made - and when the marketing literature was written - will resolve the issue for all involved. Hugh "Happy with my '99 Heron Road" Flynn Newburyport, MA On Friday, May 9, 2014, grant <grant...@gmail.com> wrote: > I designed the bike for those clearances, and the samples we got fit those > tires. But ---------- you know---I don't want to get into a backand forth, > but would just like to make a few points > > ----- one maker's 700x35 is skinnier or fatter than another's > ---- at least a few (that I know of) makers started being more accurate > with tire dimensions around about 2003. Panaracer changed its 35 to a 32 > around that time, and I think others followed > ----- it's a stretch to say "I've made a living being honest about bikes" > but it's not a stretch to say I've always gone to obsessive extents to be > forthright, and yet...this > ----- what one designs and requests is sometimes different from what one > GETS. > > in my experience, there is less variance from spec from higher volume > makers than from lower volume ones. I don't mean to paint smallies with a > broad brush, but foundationally, if you're going to make a hundred of the > same thing at the same time, it ultra-behooves you to lock in the machinery > within a gnat's hair of spec. > > We have, over the years and in secret and at our own expense much of the > time, rejected frames because this or that tiny detail wasn't quite exact. > Because we see so many bikes, we have keen eyes and senses for out-of-spec, > and we don't get on the slippery slope of accepting it "this time" for > political or diplomatic reasons. > > These are hand-made bikes, and although Jim may not trust us anymore (I > understand that), i believe in my bones that they are remarkably > consistent and true to the propaganda about them. It's what I do with my > life, and I care deeply about all those details. But with tire designation > changes and the rare mfr goofup and the nature of human labor, it is just > hard to achieve 100 percent perfection. I WISH that didn't call into > question our standards or intent or integrity, but I certainly understand > Jim's disappointment, and am sorry for it. > > G > > > On Thursday, April 24, 2014 1:28:00 PM UTC-7, Jim Martin wrote: >> >> Hello All: >> >> I just purchased a beautiful used 1999 Waterford built Heron and you can >> see the sellers ad >> here<http://forums.thepaceline.net/showthread.php?t=146608&highlight=heron>. >> Before buying it I looked at the archived version of the Heron website >> for >> 99<http://web.archive.org/web/20000510073030/http://www.heronbicycles.com/general_info.html>and >> read: >> "A Heron Road has lots of the same features as a >> Rivendell<http://web.archive.org/web/20000510073030/http://www.rivendellbicycles.com/>, >> and is just as versatile. You can put fenders on it or ride it with 700x35s >> on bad roads and fire trails, and you can race it on a smooth course." >> >> So imagine my surprise when I tried to install my wheels with 32mm Conti >> Sport Contact tires. And found that they are within about a half a mm of >> the rear brake bridge. No way you could ride a 35mm tire. Certainly can't >> ride the 32's with fenders and its hard to know if I can get fenders and >> 28mm tires to work either. Why the misleading information? I'm not blaming >> the seller because, after going straight to the web site, I already "knew" >> about tire clearance I didn't bother to ask him. So much for my trust in >> all things related to Rivendell. >> >> Jim >> > -- > 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<javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','rbw-owners-bunch%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com');> > . > To post to this group, send email to > rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com<javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com');> > . > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- Hugh Flynn Newburyport, MA -- 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 post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
