As a kid I went from little red roadster, to Sears Free Spirit stingray, to a Huffy ten-speed (all gifts from parents. I'd get the Paramount I really wanted later...much later). In college I had a Schwinn (LeTour?) and a Shogun which was the best bike I'd ever had. Felt fast but in reality it was pretty heavy brute. I later built it up into a fixed-gear and rode it for quite a few years. Next came a Trek Multi trek and another Schwinn….then the madness begins! I signed up for the STP in 2002 and started looking for a "good bike". That was when I first discovered Rivendell but I ended up with a Bianchi instead. It was fine but didn't have the clearance or the aesthetics of what I was looking for. Got the vintage bike bug (and the Paramount) and became somewhat obsessed…many bikes later still working on that affliction. Got a Bleriot in 2007 and it's been my favorite bike since. I also had a Rambouillet but ended up selling it to finance a used custom Riv a few years ago. I'm pretty happy now but still keep looking. Not much interests me except for certain vintage looks …would love an old Frenchie or an early Jack Taylor. I've also had kind of a desire for the whole BQ, custom, Rando/650b thing but every time I think about pulling the plug I go for a ride on my Bleriot and feel pretty satisfied.
Some pics of most of the bikes mentioned plus my current vintage favorites... http://www.flickr.com/photos/77502424@N00/sets/72157641680403133/. Rob Markwardt On Friday, February 28, 2014 9:13:47 AM UTC-8, jinxed wrote: > > Over the last couple weeks I have been fortunate to get out and ride each > of the bikes in my stable. This offered some really surprising comparisons > and conflicted some of my previous thoughts on each bike. My bikes are USA > made and they're all steel, and I'm attached to all of them. They also > happen to be different wheel sizes. 26" Riv AR, 650b OAC Rambler, 29" Spot > MTB, and 700c Cross/race. > > My biking trajectory was BMX - MTB - Cross - Road - and now is some sort > of hybrid of all those. I was a staunch opponent of 29er and clung to 26" > adamantly until I finally gave up and tried the larger wheel size. I had to > eat a lot of crow when I enjoyed it. Since then I've never gone back to 26" > off road, but still held on to romantic praise for it. > > CX was just a natural offshoot of MTB when trying to ride on the road. > Although I raced road bikes, I much preferred riding them in the dirt. My > ultimate ride is a fast swoopy twisty turny jaunt through wooded > singletrack on a CX bike. It's what my bike dreams are made of. > > My first Rivendell was also my first 650b and it felt like a bridge > between the MTB and CX. It seemed to be the true all round that perfectly > fit the way I wanted to ride, and more importantly where I have the most > access to ride. I have several dirt trails I prefer riding on, but I must > take pavement to get there. I think the best aspect of the Rivendell line > in it's entirety is that they do well in many types of terrain. Obviously > age and life circumstances affect how and where I ride, but I find much > more enjoyment out of the exploration type of riding I'm doing now. I > attribute much of that to this list and the ideals behind the bike designs. > > This brings me to my recent riding. If I had ranked my bikes based on > mental attachment, it would have been AR, CX, 650b, 29er. But after riding > them all back to back I realized my enjoyment of the ride of those bikes is > a different sequence: 650b, CX, 29er, AR. > > I'm surprised I prefer larger diameter wheels, because I refuse to admit > 26" is dead! But if I were to choose, 650 is the smallest platform I'd go > to. > -- 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.
