Quote:
Originally Posted by Pegoready
Oof. That is a tough read. It's particularly difficult to read the same whiny story year after year.
I love Rivendell. They have influenced my thinking about riding so much. I still think back to the time when I was a new cyclist and discovered them in the early internet age. What a revelation! Theirs isn't the only way of thinking, but it's a healthy addition to your lighter/newer/faster/tech-ier urges.
Lately, I just cannot get behind anything they are doing. I click through their site looking for something, anything to buy to help them and it's all so strange. Leather straps that polish your hubs when you ride, Acera rear derailleurs, a bell.. not a bike bell, just a bell that dangles from a string off your handlebars. Completely manufactured attempts at building bikes sloppy and whimsically. It's like watching your favorite uncle age into senility.
Here are screenshots of three bikes from the 2004 Riv site:
|
This x1000. Nailed it. Bike design for road/dirt/mtb etc is converging around common sets of numbers for a reason. Grant is more interested in being different than he is in designing and building nice bikes that people want. His first version of different (90's through to around ~2012ish) was what people wanted. The market followed and he hates being samey, so he veered off course, and way off what most of us would say we want in a bike. Sounds like a hobby not a business. Feel bad for his employees.
If I had more storage first discretionary bike I'd buy is a rambouillet. Such a sweet bike.