I bought my 1st Rivendell because I thought it was a good deal vs. the classic lugged steel frames available at the time. People seemed to want a small fortune for old used lugged steel frames and Rivendell was offering a discount on some Sam Hillbornes that had been delivered without the cream headtubes. I like building bikes as much as riding them. Once I got the 1st frame, wow - here was an extremely high quality modern lugged frame with excellent paintwork, and I can buy a bare frame and build what I want. The Rivendell lugwork puts the old French bicycles to shame, and no searching for obsolete headsets and bottom brackets (but VO has cured that), stems, etc. I don't exactly remember whether I discovered Rivendell or VO first, but it was around the same time. I never bought a VO frame back when they were lugged, but I did buy a Neutrino Mini-Velo a couple years ago. I have a few modern bikes, but I came of age during the bike boom of the seventies. In 1972, I bought a used Gitane Tour de France - double butted Reynold 531, Campagnolo hubs and derailleurs, silk Vittoria sew-ups (it was my 4th ten speed at that point). I like the look of bikes with thin steel tubes. I have gotten used to the sloped top tubes now that I no longer have the drop bars positioned lower than the saddle. I still have the 1973 Schwinn Paramount P-15 that I bough new from the Schwinn Store in 1975 after I got hit by an on-duty cop on the Gitane and the frame got bent. the P-15 Paramount was kind of similar to a Rivendell in that it was looked down upon by the racers because it had the heavier Reynolds DB 531 tubing and "longer" (a relative term) chainstays, and clearance for bigger tires and a triple crankset - something that was known as a sports-tourer back then. It was my only bike for decades (I did have a Masi for a few years during the Paramount years). I think that I discovered Rivendell when I was looking into having Waterford restore the Paramount paint (still haven't had the Paramount repainted by Waterford).
Laing On Sunday, December 12, 2021 at 3:53:10 PM UTC-5 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/829290b9-ca69-45f3-8499-ef244d567146n%40googlegroups.com.
