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Thinking Rivendell

03.24.2011 by Ray Niekamp // 21 Comments

After a few years of riding, I have figured out some things about my tastes in biking.

I no longer lust after the high-end carbon fiber racing rigs. I’m not joining the Sunday morning ride to hammer hard for 60 miles. I’m not planning to ride for 40 miles without taking a break some where along the line.

But I still love to ride my bike.

I like to ride long. And I do enjoy more intense training, if I’m training with a goal in mind. For example, I try to work in a ride once a week that visits some of our neighborhood hills. These aren’t big hills, but after several repeats on them, they amount to a tough workout.

It appears there are others who share my interests — lots of others. We never hear about them because they’re not the kind who join clubs and do group rides. They just enjoy taking a turn on their bikes.

There’s a bike maker for them. It’s Rivendell bikes, of Walnut Creek, California in the San Francisco Bay area.

Rivendell is all about bikes that put the rider in a more relaxed, more upright riding position. Their A. Homer Hilsen model (Yes, they go in for odd model names, too) is perhaps their flagship bike, and embodies Rivendell’s idea of a good ride.

If it looks a little tall, it is — a 61 cm model.

Notice the handlebars on the Hilsen. They’re roughly even with the saddle, not a couple of inches below it. The steel bike has fenders (with mudflaps), a triple crankset, and a leather Brooks saddle. It can take tires as wide as 38 mm and still fit fenders, although many Hilsen owners probably run 32s.

Here’s part of Rivendell’s philosophy, as outlined on its website: “If you’re a mid-50s rider of moderate fitness, but ride fewer than 3,000 miles per year, and you want to ride longish and steepish hills, the standard road gearing you’ll find on virtually any stock road bike, is too high. Your big ring should be less than 50t, you middle ring should be 36t or 34t, and your small ring should be 24t or 26t. The biggest cog on your cassette should be at least 27t, and preferably 32t. For non-competitive riding, it’s hard to justify tires smaller than 28 mm.”

Yeah, baby. Give me a bike like that, and I’ll scoot right up all those steepish hills in this area. I won’t be nearly as fast as I can be on my current bike, which isn’t nearly as fast as some of my friends’ racing bikes — but I’ll be fast enough for me, and probably a lot more comfortable.

Grant Petersen, who heads Rivendell, has distinctive opinions about what makes a good bike. Poking around on the website will turn up a lot of Petersen gems, like these:

“Go for a one-hour ride underdressed sometime, because it’s good to be really cold on a bike every now and then.The reverse (overdressing in hot weather) is not necessary!

Never blame your bike or your health or anything else if you’re the last one up the hill or in to the rest stop.

If your brake hoods are black, wrap your bars with a different color tape, so it doesn’t look like a one-piece set-up.

Never let your chain squeak.”

It might seem that Rivendell is all about riding slow and easy. While that’s part of what it supports, it also likes a well-designed, comfortable, fast bike. So I suppose for some of us, it’s a matter of having your cake and eating it, too. Laid back — but fast — riding. Riding done for your own satisfaction, not anyone else’s.

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Categories // Bikes Tags // Bikes, steel

The Handmade Bike Show – I Wasn’t There. Here’s My Report.

02.27.2011 by Ray Niekamp // 3 Comments

What’s that old saw about living somewhere, but never taking advantage of its attractions? That was me this weekend. Austin, Texas hosted the North American Handmade Bicycle Show (NAHBS) and I didn’t go.

However, it was hard to miss, even away from the Convention Center venue. Saturday night, Bicycle Sport Shop hosted a little party (hundreds came) in conjunction with the show. They encouraged people to ride their bikes to the party, and those who owned handmade bikes were allowed to bring them inside the store and exhibit them. I turned out for that event, although I wondered if the big crowd was there for the bikes, or for the free beer and ice cream.

These are just some of the bikes people rode to the party. The 70-degree evening was perfect for a night ride. Only a few cars got to use the shop’s parking lot.

Inside, one attendee puts his own handmade bike on a rack while others travel the aisles to look the bikes over.

Some of the exhibitors at the show were at the store too, displaying some of their bikes. Co-Motion had a nice corner of the store, perhaps because Bicycle Sports Shop carries Co-Motion bikes.

A Co-Motion Nor’Wester touring bike fitted out as a commuter. Note the wooden fenders.

This road bike by Austin-based Alchemy Bicycles attracted a lot of attention.

So, after seeing all these bikes and people, am I sorry I didn’t swing by the Convention Center and take in the real show? Not really. Handmade bikes are beautiful pieces of craftsmanship, but for me, they’re out of my league. I doubt I’ll ever own a handmade bike, both because of their cost (although some seem to be priced in line with the higher-end offerings of the mass production bike companies), and because of what I consider my relative lack of sophistication about bikes. I’m perfectly happy with the Specialized Allez I own, and I see myself making upgrades to it before I pop for a whole new bike, and a custom built one at that. But I guess I can always dream.

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Categories // Bikes Tags // custom bikes, handmade bikes, NAHBS

That New, Better Bike

01.13.2011 by Ray Niekamp // 12 Comments

Ramon H.

 

Once we noobs have been riding a while, it’s only natural to think about upgrading to a better bike.  For one Bike Noob reader, Ramon H. of the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, everything happened to line up at the same time: the bike shop had what he wanted, his wife is really nice, and he got a heckuva deal.  I asked Ramon to write a guest post about acquiring his bike, a titanium Serotta.

It all got started because I had taken my entry level Trek road bike into the LBS (Wally’s Bicycles) because there was a severe shifting issue in the back.  Basically, the bike kept shifting back and forth all on its own.  I had ridden the bike for several thousand miles, so I would not have been surprised if they would have told me to get a new cassette.  While I was there, I decided to ask how much it would set me back to buy Shimano 105 components.  The rationale was that I was probably going to buy a new cassette anyway, so might as well do this upgrade if the numbers looked right.

Wally had always had a Serotta floor model that several of us would drool at everytime we came into the shop.  He commented that the main shortcoming of the bike was that it was a titanium frame and that most of the folks that were serious about spending that kind of money would inevitably veer towards carbon framesets.  I had always thought about getting a Serotta with a titanium frameset, but the cost was very prohibitive.  Wally informed me that the issue with my entry level bike was that one of the cables needed replacing.  He started running the numbers on the gruppos I had asked him about and they were not coming back too nicely.  I already had known that when one buys a bike, the gruppo is a big part of the cost, so no surprise on my part there.

The interesting part is what happened next.  I think the cycling gods were smiling upon me that day because you could almost see the lightbulb go off on Wally’s head.  He took out his measuring tape and did a couple of quick measurements on my entry level bike and the Serotta floor model.  I was extremely hesitant because I knew what the cost of that bike was.  I remember Wally saying something like, “Hmm … this is very odd, almost freaky odd.”  He started telling me the measurements and they were coming back uncannily similar to my own bike.  He already knew that I always wanted a Serotta because I had mentioned it a couple of times before.  He said, “Those measurements are coming real close to your existing bike.  You are welcome to ride it during the shop’s ride in a couple of days so you can test it out.  The bike has been sitting on my floor since the day I opened the store over a year ago.  I want that bike to go to a person who is going to do plenty of riding.  Let’s make a deal …”

And quite a deal he gave me.  It was one of those deals that I could not refuse.  Unfortunately, it was one of those deals that I had not budgeted for.  I went home and consulted with the missus.  She came back to the shop the next day to take a look at the bike and asked all of the preliminary questions a spouse tends to ask.  Ultimately she said, “Ride the bike during the shop’s ride tomorrow and see how it feels.  If you like it, you would be a fool not to buy it.”

The Serotta Fierte, all Ultegra. (Click to enlarge.)

Of course, the next question you will have is: How does it ride?  It is almost magical.  For starters, I get a lot more for the effort I put in.  This bike is fast!  I can keep an 18-21 mph pace quite easily.  On the entry level bike, this same amount of effort would only get me to a 16-19mph pace.

The acceleration is phenomenal.  When leading a group, it is not uncommon for me to easily drop the entire group as we are coming out of a traffic light or a turn.  There is a lot of yelling when I do this because folks think I am being a jerk.  Honestly, I don’t do it on purpose.  The bike just takes off by itself, so I have learned to tone it down when I take off and not even get off the saddle because otherwise I end up dropping the group.

The ride is also very smooth.  I can ride over chipseal and while most folks are hurting, I am just enjoying the ride.  Now here is the best part of owning a titanium frame: never having to worry about rust on the frame or about the paint job.  Titanium rusts very very very very slowly, and not the same as other metals.  That means I don’t have to worry if I get sweat all over it.  Additionally, there is no paint job and I don’t have to worry about scratches or about having to apply polish/wax to it.  As as friend put it, “If your frame gets scratched, you just take some steel wool and rub it right out.”

Good for you, Ramon.  If we wind up on the same ride in Central Texas someday, you’ll have to let me ride it — before you use it to leave me in the dust.

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Categories // Bikes, guest post Tags // Bikes, guest post

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