Both brands (companies, philosophies, products) are loved in our family. I bought my first Rivendell product in 2000, my first bike in 2002 (63cm Romulus), and have basically kept everything in house with zero degradation in utility ever since.
I bought my first Surly bike for my son (42cm LHT) on his 8th birthday, a bike which has since been passed down to his younger brother while the older one rides a 55cm CrossCheck. On Monday of this week my now 5' 4"-all-legs 13 year old rode off to school on my 61cm Bleriot / Xtracycle, trumpet on one side, giant Duluth pack, locks, rain gear and whatnot on the other, with lights and reflecties everywhere. It's his now, which was always the plan. Remarkably, it fits him fine. He straddles the top tube with feet flat in PF Flyers, and with '86 Suntour XC stem, bars, and shifters, the each is perfect. He looks great on it, and he's proud to have it. Anyway, Surly provided a great way for a kid who wanted to really ride to move into a quality bike at a fair "stretchable" price point at an early age. 6 years ago the options were really limited for kids or small adults, and to have a 42cm frame available was a big deal to me, and the price was value-justified. Making a market commitment like that is a hard thing to do for any company, and if the Rivendell design philosophy nudged Surly toward a "not-dumb" ethos, stretching the range of frame sizes to intersect with the '24 inch wheel kid-bike options was definitely a not-dumb move, and one that Surly, with their "not-lugs" approach was uniquely positioned to consider and execute. That LHT offered everything that an Atlantis from a capability perspective, and though the "Rivendell kids bike" comes up on this forum every once in a while, making one would probably force a not-lugs exception to make it feasible, and selling them would be a not-profitable endeavor, or so I suspect. We've enjoyed years of utility, transport, and just plain fun on Surly and Rivendell bikes, and I have two kids who can work on their machines, lock them properly, ride them safely and effectively on Seattle's streets, and who understand that bicycles are fun and useful. That makes me happy. > -- 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.
