These replies are wonderful! Thank you both for reporting on your Charlies.
Tin - please, PLEASE write about your club ride experience with your Charlie. Before I had mine, I was riding a Platypus with the group, so not unlike your Buena Vista. I absolutely notice a difference between my two bikes - that Charlie is easier to ride faster. How soon before you can get your bike and do a group ride?
Leah Hi Everyone,
Leah, I'm in the same boat! Writing also on a rainy day - I bought a Charlie specifically to ride on group/club rides, and from the Rivendell copy felt it was designed exactly for someone in my position. I've been happily getting around on a Soma Buena Vista for these group rides but wouldn't mind a speed boost for some of the longer road ones. I've been keenly following your Charlie posts and have been encouraged by your experiences.
Getting onto this thread a little early though, as I actually haven't taken the Charlie for a group ride yet. It's still at the bike shop getting racked and fendered. A spin in the alley suggests it is a lighter ride than I'm used to, and because I sized up to a 57 it still feels stable and smooth - it's a familiar feeling probably due to the bikes I currently ride. I'm hoping the light weight and increased gear range will make the crucial difference to my riding, while still being a bike I can ride and use daily.
I'm expecting to be tolerated, but perhaps underestimated based on group reactions to the BV, but I welcome it. One of the bike mechanics didn't think it would make of a difference to performance, but in my own experience borrowing a friend's gravel bike on some of the longer rides even a little improvement is all I'd need. And if not, I subscribe to the notion that Rivs are about 80% similar to each other; variations on a theme that I would enjoy riding regardless. Here it is below with road bike inspired black and silver parts. Will report back after the first group ride soon!
Tin
Hi Leah and all,
I don't have a Charlie, but am very Charlie-curious, so I'm pleased for this thread and will look forward to hearing how other people are finding theirs :)
I'm also quite curious about whether people are finding the Charlie more light and lively than the Homer, for people who have ridden both! (I'm tossing up between these two.)
As a tall person at the top of the nominal weight range for the Charlie, I'm also curious to hear if any heavier folks have been riding it, and how they have been finding it. I'm guessing that one wouldn't be in danger of breaking the bike, but I'd be interested to hear if the bike feels 'noodly' at that end of the weight scale.
Apologies for adding more questions than answers, and looking forward to hearing about people's experiences, Tom (Cambridge, UK)
On Sunday, June 14, 2026 at 6:34:19 PM UTC-5 Bicycle Belle Ding Ding! wrote:
At the gem of our area, George. Gull Lake!
Home of one of the last remaining fleets of International 210's, the boat I grew up racing on.
Ted Durant Milwaukee, WI USA
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