The _VERY_ rough page for "Generation 1" Rivendell frames is here:
http://www.cyclofiend.com/rbw/gen1/ There are some Catalog scans (Catalog #5) of the Road Standard, Long Low and All Rounder The Long Low (and Road Standard) begat the Rambouillet The All Rounder begat the Atlantis As for the the specifics... mmmm.... wow. That's probably a bit of an essay. My opinion is that most of the Rivendell models have been tweaks and evolutions. One of the driving factors was actually the availability of certain parts - specifically "real world" reach brakes and large volume, round profile tires. When the Long Low was around, most of the road tires were 19, 21 and 23 cm, while the brake reach was extremely limited. So, there's that. The other thing is that I think Grant hones in on what makes each bike different and then intensifies the ideas - the essence of each design, if you will. For example, the Rambouillet sits between the Hilsen and the Roadeo, but probably each is influenced by it. When the Rambouillet came out, it wasn't common to ramble singletrack and mountain trails on a "road" bike, but with the increased clearances and larger volume tires, it was possible. That design really was at the edge of what could be done with common brake components, and when the Silver dual pivots came out, that obstacle was removed. Big tires and ample clearance moved the design one way (Hilsen) and then the idea of running the comfy undercarriage (itself influenced by working with the 650B/584 tire size), but bringing back the light responsiveness of the Rambouillet into a more road focused design gave us the Roadeo. If you read back through the early Readers, Grant wrote a lot about this - trying to maximize his ideas against the realities of what was available. Sitting here in 2013, it's hard to believe that only 10 years ago it was about race-driven design. That pretty much no one had heard of larger than 23 cm road tires, let alone 650B. If you have the time, get the copies of the early Readers - it's well worth going through them. The 2009 Series - which gave rise to the Hillborne was really a refinement of the Atlantis made by someone other than Toyo. Unfortunately economics of Japanese crafted frames has been a challenge. I still want to expand some of the RBW history on the site - but have been pretty busy getting my VO work up and running for the past year or so. Here are specific "early model" pages: http://www.cyclofiend.com/rbw/atlantis<http://www.cyclofiend.com/rbw/atlantis/index.html> http://www.cyclofiend.com/rbw/bleriot<http://www.cyclofiend.com/rbw/bleriot/index.html> http://www.cyclofiend.com/rbw/bombadil<http://www.cyclofiend.com/rbw/bombadil/index.html> http://www.cyclofiend.com/rbw/hilsen <http://www.cyclofiend.com/rbw/hilsen/index.html> http://www.cyclofiend.com/rbw/quickbeam <http://www.cyclofiend.com/rbw/quickbeam/index.html> http://www.cyclofiend.com/rbw/rambouillet <http://www.cyclofiend.com/rbw/rambouillet/index.html> http://www.cyclofiend.com/rbw/romulus <http://www.cyclofiend.com/rbw/romulus/index.html> It's also interesting to see how the idea of frames begin and where they end up. The First Bombadil doesn't look at all like the final iteration, while the Hunqapillar morphed dramatically during conception. There's a lot of gaps in what I just wrote, of course. The answer I always give is that when you are ready to get a bicycle that rides great everywhere, and can be adapted to your needs, it's time to check out Rivendell. - Jim cyclofiend.com On Wednesday, September 4, 2013 10:46:16 AM UTC-7, George Schick wrote: > > I'd appreciate a reply from anyone who could point me to an "evolutionary" > trail of Rivendell bike models, if such a source exists. In other words, > let's say I'm a Rambouillet owner and am riding along and get stopped by > someone who is curious about and interested in the bike. The most I would > be able to tell them is that it is the successor to what Riv once called a > Long-Low, though not precisely the same. What I'd really like to be able > to tell them is 1) the differences between these two models and why one > replaced the other, 2) the succession of bikes since the Rambouillet up to > the current model, and 3) the differences between successive models along > the way. In this way the inquirer would have a complete picture of the > Rivendell company/business philosophy toward bikes and be more likely to > make a future purchase. I don't know if Riv has ever published something > like this or if it's ever been hashed over someplace in a blog thread, but > it would be very worthwhile info to have. > > -- 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/groups/opt_out.
