My first adult bike was a 1995 Trek 730 Multitrack and I thought it was the perfect bike for me, but as I learned more about bikes, I discovered I wanted way more tire clearance (730 = 40mm, barely) and a much longer top-tube. I was a fan of quite a few smaller bike brands and wanted something non-mainstream and something steel. I already had a very good set of 700c wheels, so the Hunqapillar was the only thing on the market that was what I was looking for. A few brands have put out models that were close, but all suffered from too short a top tube, either being designed with drops in mind, or trying to split the difference between drops and flat/alt bars. I see this is the only flaw in the original 56cm Atlantis, with it's 57 cm ETT. If that bike had a 60 or 61 cm ETT, it would have been my Grail bike. I would have invested in a second set of good wheels that one.
I also was very curious about the "riv ride" I had heard so much of, over the years, so I the Hunqapillar being the sole candidate to fit my needs was a nice bonus. On Sunday, December 12, 2021 at 4:14:38 PM UTC-6 Ray Varella wrote: > I received an early flyer/reader in an order from American Cyclery San > Francisco. > After reading the specs on the frames, the Allrounder sounded like a great > compliment to my classic road bike, by the time I ordered one they had gone > to customs and the Atlantis was replacing the Allrounder. > I went with a custom. It was one of the best handling bikes I’ve ever > owned. > I was bombing down Mt. Diablo one day and a couple guys on modern road > bikes were trying to reel me in. > When we got to the bottom of the mountain one of them said “you handle > that old truck pretty well”. > It still cracks me up to think about that. > > Grant and company design very nice riding bikes and really excel at the > Allrounder style of bike. > > Ray > > On Sunday, December 12, 2021 at 1:53:52 PM UTC-8 Joe Bernard wrote: > >> I was a Bridgestone guy, bought a leftover XO-3 in 1994 as Bstone USA was >> folding and Grant was deciding what to do next. That turned out to be >> Rivendell and I eventually bought this, a Romulus. >> >> Joe Bernard >> >> On Sunday, December 12, 2021 at 12:53:10 PM UTC-8 aeroperf wrote: >> >>> >>> I see Laura B’s thread about Susie vs. Platy, and Iconley’s timeline >>> with 15 Riv bikes, and so I thought I’d ask: >>> >>> What made you buy your first Rivendell bicycle? >>> >>> Not “What do you like about Rivendell bicycles”, or “Why did you buy a >>> second one?”, but why did you buy your first? >>> >>> >>> In my case >>> I wanted steel, because I liked the feel over aluminum (carbon was just >>> starting). >>> I wanted lugged steel, because I think I think a lugged steel bike is >>> awesomely pretty. >>> I got to ride a friend’s Sam Hillborne in 2010, and it fit like a glove, >>> and I remembered that. >>> So when I retired in 2014, I bought a Sam. >>> >>> Now I could go on about how I love my Sam, but that’s not the point of >>> this. It’s to find out why you bought your first. >>> >>> Did you Google “Rivendell” one day and stumble into the bicycle shop >>> instead of the Tolkien book? >>> Did you want a bicycle that was at home on dirt roads, where the 24mm >>> tires of a good used 80’s road bike just couldn’t cut it? >>> Do you think Grant Petersen is a bicycle god, and you’d buy anything >>> that he designs, once you could afford it? >>> Are you into the “waxed canvas and square taper” kind of mindset? >>> Did you get a Riv because it was a boutique bike, or in spite of that? >>> >>> Difficulty- no pictures, unless it is of a Riv in a tree with “A guy >>> told me I could have this for free, if I climbed up and got it”. >>> >> -- 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/77c3b8b0-1dc5-41e5-95b1-08bda2158ccen%40googlegroups.com.
