The New Yorker article on Grant Petersen and Rivendell

[benb]

Originally Posted by tellyho

I think there was a closer Tolkien cause. There were multiple models with Tolkien names and I think the estate eventually forced Riv to cease and desist.

Rivendell Mountain Works seems to still be in existence.. their website is up and running and they have stuff for sale.

Wikipedia claims Grant named his company after RMW, but RMW named themselves after Tolkien.

The word Rivendell was made up by Tolkien.

I have this tendency to create an association in my head between Rivendell and Arundel. But Arundel is a real place in the UK. Arundel Bicycle is American though.

[redir]

YEah it seems like even though it was named after the back packing company, or in companionship with it, it still has an LOR theme.

They are great looking bikes. Gotta love fancy lugs like that.

[fourflys]

Originally Posted by benb

Wikipedia claims Grant named his company after RMW, but RMW named themselves after Tolkien.

did you see the link I posted right before your reply? Grant explains where the name came from.. both RMW and Tolkien are cited..

[benb]

Originally Posted by fourflys

did you see the link I posted right before your reply? Grant explains where the name came from.. both RMW and Tolkien are cited..

Yah you posted that fast enough I never saw it.

[marciero]

Originally Posted by benb

I have this tendency to create an association in my head between Rivendell and Arundel. But Arundel is a real place in the UK. Arundel Bicycle is American though.

Maine too. Pronounced "a-RUN-dl" FWIW

[mstateglfr]

Originally Posted by commandcomm

For those that followed the trends, Grant pushed the wide tire and gravel bike trend in the 1990s to push back against the 23mm and 25mm. Jan bought a Rivendell because it was one of the few frames he could find with wider tires that was not just for touring.

With all of the gravel bikes out there, Rivendell was one of the first to make the all around bike with wider tires that can ride on the road and dirt trails. In 2006, he called the A. Homer Hilsen a county bike that you can everything. Who else was making a bike like this in 2006 that was not custom? Here is his explanation from the Rivendell Reader complements if Cyclofiend. http://cyclofiend.com/Images/rbw/rr38_pg44lg.jpg

I always respected Grant for persevering in a tough industry while selling what he wants and sticking to his ideals.

Production 700c wheel bikes that could handle wider tires were not as common as they are now, but they absolutely existed in the 80s, 90s, and 00s before the Hilsen made its debut.
It fit 38s with a fender...so 42mm without. Thats cool, but it wasnt a category creator like it seems you are suggesting.

CX bikes and touring bikes existed, and many bikes in both categories could fit a wide tire like that.
Heck, when the Surly CrossCheck was released in '99, it fit 45mm tires. That is possibly the most common bike in the 'wide tire non-racing do-it-all' category this century.

As for Jan Heine buying a Riv so he could have a wide tire road bike...I have read that he rode it with 28mm tires. Not sure what model he bought or any other details, but riding it on a brevet with 28mm tires and having a large section of that be gravel seems like a decision mistake or a design limitation.

[ColonelJLloyd]

I already have a dad bike, but I'd really like to try one of the newer Rivs with the really long chainstays.

[fourflys]

I think the main difference was that most of the bikes fitting those larger tires sold new at the time were not using caliper brakes, which I believe 90% of the Rivs did.. My Homer is a 650b based on the size it is and when it was made (wish it was 700 TBH, but early, smaller Homers had 650b).. while it wasn't a category creator when compared to older road bikes, I'm not convinced there was much sold at the time it came out that could fit that large of a tire that wasn't an MTB.. most cross bikes of the era might fit a 38 since UCI regulated a 33mm as the max tire size for competition.. also, it was fairly hard to find tires that wide at the time (esp "road" tires), unless you didn't mind steel bead garbage tires.. that's the other spot that Riv and Jan gained some traction, contracting Panasonic to produce some larger, more supple tires for the US market..

just because they weren't the first doesn't mean they weren't a bit revolutionary for the time..

Originally Posted by mstateglfr

Production 700c wheel bikes that could handle wider tires were not as common as they are now, but they absolutely existed in the 80s, 90s, and 00s before the Hilsen made its debut.
It fit 38s with a fender...so 42mm without. Thats cool, but it wasnt a category creator like it seems you are suggesting.

CX bikes and touring bikes existed, and many bikes in both categories could fit a wide tire like that.
Heck, when the Surly CrossCheck was released in '99, it fit 45mm tires. That is possibly the most common bike in the 'wide tire non-racing do-it-all' category this century.

As for Jan Heine buying a Riv so he could have a wide tire road bike...I have read that he rode it with 28mm tires. Not sure what model he bought or any other details, but riding it on a brevet with 28mm tires and having a large section of that be gravel seems like a decision mistake or a design limitation.

[weisan]

Rivendell Road Standard
Full fender coverage
Panaracer Gravelking slick 28mm tires
Mid-reach brakes
threaded fork - threaded quill adaptor - modern stem - modern handlebar

This is my "rain" bike. Sometimes I question my judgment with using a steel frame in the rain but...it rides so smooth, have enough clearance to accommodate wider tires and fenders, I simply ignore my inner grumps and take it out to ride during incremental weather and every time I am out riding it, it reminds me of its fine qualities and the joy it gives.

Sorry for the low quality pics.

IMG_20170611_083643151_1280x720 by Wei San Hui, on Flickr

Resizer_166610375833125 by Wei San Hui, on Flickr

Resizer_166610375807223 by Wei San Hui, on Flickr

Resizer_166610375658411 by Wei San Hui, on Flickr

Resizer_16661037560927 by Wei San Hui, on Flickr

Resizer_166610375752519 by Wei San Hui, on Flickr

[martl]

Originally Posted by Xrslug

I don’t think he’s as doctrinaire as he comes across. He road raced when he was younger and is (or at least was when I was still in the Bay Area) a strong rider who still rides “for exercise” on occasion (e.g. timing his climbs up Mt. Diablo). His larger point has always been that an overriding (p.n.i.) emphasis on racing and riding for exercise shortchanges what the bicycle can be and ultimately turns away a lot of people who might otherwise ride. People who have worked at Rivendell for years were/are racers.

Grant Peterson expressed his respect for Mike Appel, who is *my* favourite US frame builder, so i in turn express my respect for his work. Whether the bikes he choses to build fit my pattern of bike i want to own, is a different matter

[weisan]

Originally Posted by Kirk Pacenti

Nice! the 94/95 Rivendell road bikes inspired my posters...

kirk pal, wow, that's really cool! I wouldn't know about the connection unless you brought it up.

[Kirk Pacenti]

Originally Posted by weisan

kirk pal, wow, that's really cool! I wouldn't know about the connection unless you brought it up.

Thanks, Weisan!

Of course Grant got poster #1/850.

BTW, I sold my remaining stocks of those lugs to Carl at https://metal-guru.com/. I think he's still got ~50 sets left.

[mstateglfr]

Originally Posted by fourflys

I think the main difference was that most of the bikes fitting those larger tires sold new at the time were not using caliper brakes, which I believe 90% of the Rivs did.. My Homer is a 650b based on the size it is and when it was made (wish it was 700 TBH, but early, smaller Homers had 650b).. while it wasn't a category creator when compared to older road bikes, I'm not convinced there was much sold at the time it came out that could fit that large of a tire that wasn't an MTB.. most cross bikes of the era might fit a 38 since UCI regulated a 33mm as the max tire size for competition.. also, it was fairly hard to find tires that wide at the time (esp "road" tires), unless you didn't mind steel bead garbage tires.. that's the other spot that Riv and Jan gained some traction, contracting Panasonic to produce some larger, more supple tires for the US market..

just because they weren't the first doesn't mean they weren't a bit revolutionary for the time..

Yes, I agree that most were not using caliper brakes.
I am hesitant to say long reach caliper brakes are an inherent improvement over mini-v or V or canti brakes though.
But yeah, the brakes were different from what was on CX and touring bikes at the time, definitely.

As for quality wide road tires being a struggle to source...yes I agree that those guys did help push wide quality 700c road tires forward and did help popularize them.

I absolutely acknowledge that Riv helped develop a branch of cycling that many benefit from now due to some bleed-over.
But the post I responded to made it seem, to me at least, that a bike in the mid-00s was category changing and revolutionary. That's why I disagreed.


ETA - and in the early 2000s, multiple tire brands besides Panaracer sold quality 35-42mm tires. Maxxis, Ritchey, IRC are a few that I know of for sure because I had tires from them that were 38-42mm between '00 and '04. Selection now is obviously way better though.

[gravelreformist]

As I was pedalling easy today in this beautiful fall weather on a mix of perfect tarmac, gravel roads, and new chipseal, enjoying the late-summer colors of upstate New York, I got to thinking that the notion that racing dominates the cycling market is itself an anachronism. It was much more true 20, 30 years ago when there were periods where your choices of bikes were largely race bikes (road, mountain, and cyclocross), touring or commuter bikes, or entry level hybrids and mountain bikes. There weren't many 'nice' bikes that weren't heavily race inspired except for custom builds.

Today I don't see that as a problem. In our local active cycling community, I doubt more than 1 in 30 enthusiast level riders has done a race in the last 5 years. The majority of bikes people ride are gravel and/or all-road in style, or long travel mountain bikes. Most of those riders are cyclists for the enjoyment of it, not to go fast. They may ride carbon/electronic/disc bikes because unless you are precious about it, those bikes are more capable and more fun than a heavy steel bike with friction shifting and mediocre brakes. But racing is all but dead in this country.

[fourflys]

fair enough.. guess I didn't see any of those in a road (not cross or off-road) version.. at least in a lighter, kevlar bead tire..

Originally Posted by mstateglfr

ETA - and in the early 2000s, multiple tire brands besides Panaracer sold quality 35-42mm tires. Maxxis, Ritchey, IRC are a few that I know of for sure because I had tires from them that were 38-42mm between '00 and '04. Selection now is obviously way better though.