I have become like some of you and cannot leave well enough alone on my bikes. I was perfectly happy with my Platypus trio and my Charlie Gallop. But the more you ride, the more you know, the more you can’t stand something irksome in your build.
My 50 cm purple My Little Platy: dialed. Has a defined purpose. Fat tires, compact frame = perfect for dirt, gravel and travel. Have taken it on several of those rides this year and it slayed. Taking it on another dirt road 50 miles next weekend, and I expect it to do the same. My raspberry OG Platy: Dialed. Became my camping and touring adventure bike this summer. Sublimely comfortable and utterly capable. Hundreds of miles of touring and camping just this summer! We are now converted. Charlie: We’re in love. We go to all the club rides together, which is usually 3 days/week. He’s a scoundrel and utterly charming. My mermaid Platy: Crickets. So, the mermaid. I was falling out of love with the color. And it was set up as a 1x, which was all the rage and definitely what I thought I wanted at the time. I got exactly what I asked for; everyone did right by me. But I was never in the right gear; they were all too hard or too easy, and I never felt at home in that gearing. Any other bike in my collection will do what I require of it, and each feels like it was made for me, and me alone. In the nearly 4 years we’ve lived in Michigan (which is also when I got this 1x mermaid Platypous), I have gone gangbusters on my riding. I am closing in on 4,000 miles for the year of ‘25. I have ridden nearly 12,000 miles in 4 years and I have developed *preferences.* So, change the drivetrain, Leah, you say. Well, it was a fancy Garbaruk drivetrain done in lime and gold to match the earthy theme of that bike. Shifters, derailler, chain rings, cages, pulleys, cassette - it would all have to go. The lime and gold drivetrain should stay with that bike, and that bike should stay with someone who loves it. I decided I’d sell the bike with the drivetrain and try to keep as many parts as I could reuse. Because I had another project in mind. Rivendell came to the Philly Bike Expo with one of the prettiest, if not THE prettiest production color I’ve ever seen. A periwinkle stunner, belonging to James. When Rivendell released it as a production bike color, I looked wistfully at it. They were sold out at Riv, but one dropped onto the Blue Lug page in 55cm, and I bought it. It must have been the only one, because they were out of stock after my order went through. I sold my mermaid bike to a darling couple just north of me, so I hope to see it again one day. I didn’t even have to make a listing as I had merely mentioned it to my buddy and he sent me a buyer. I kept the wheelset, dyno lights, bars, stem, mirror, rack, basket, fenders, mudflaps and kickstand. I bought Silver shifters, a used derailler, traded my cerakoted Paul levers for silver Paul levers, new Rivet stamped leather grips, a rose gold Crane bell, Silver cranks, a triple, a new cassette, new seatpost (the new Platys have 27.2), and a new Brooks B68. Like most of my bikes, this one has a theme. The purple bike: 80s My Little Pony, Charlie: Northern Lights. The raspberry needs one; I’m working on that. This Platypus is a Woodland Fairy. It’s all I could see when I looked at the periwinkle. Ethereal, delicate, silvery lusciousness. I’ve covered it in little butterfly charms and holographic fairy decals for the fenders. There are bottles of “fairy dust” hung on the frame if you look for them. The colors are pastel and shimmery. The walnut leather brings an element of earthiness to the build. I don’t have a dedicated purpose for this bike; it’s pure luxury to have it. It could be used for shopping, touring and even camping, the way it is presently set up. But all my bikes get ridden, and I don’t mind a little redundancy. The instagram link is below, if you want to see the Woodland Fairy Platypus. And now, I’m really done for good this time. Hold me to it. Leah https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPrnTrYkloq/?igsh=MXM1czE0YTMzYzJuZw== -- 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 [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/dc934e51-e3a4-4783-9d2b-7fd9d8aadff4n%40googlegroups.com.
