Rivendell saved for now...

[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:







And here is what they are doing now:

[AngryScientist]

Originally Posted by Ed-B

It's just sad to read that people are working at reduced pay to keep it going. That's not sustainable.

Riv is also located in one of the, if not THE most expensive places in the country to live. The captain of the ship needs to know when to sound the general alarm and lower the lifeboats, before the crew get stuck in the engine room and go down with the ship. I hope the captain over there figures out how to plug the holes, re-ballast the boat and keep steaming, or call it a good run and get the crew off before it's too late.

[jtakeda]

Grant sure knows how to create a bank run for all those gift certs from the Hail Mary. I’m using mine asap

[Uncle Cranky]

Yikes! They don't need to cut their pay by 40%. They need 40% less employees.

[Hawker]

I don't know Grant, have never met him....but have been reading his stuff occasionally for over twenty years. Clearly he is a poet, an artist and a person of whimsey. In addition to knowing something about building a bike.

And fortunately, he has been able to assemble a team of people who feel pretty much the same way and who are committed to his vision and probably to him as a person. But...the best thing for the future is for him to find a partner who is an experienced businessperson first, who may or may not know anything about bikes. Sell the person part ownership so they have skin in the game and let them make the calls about product and process. But it has to be an experienced person with a track record of running a successful business or knowing how to turn businesses around. Sounds like love, emotion and debt are getting in the way of success and asking creditors and employees to take the hit can't last forever.

But...I find his heart and spirit attractive and it's a nice "feel" as opposed to the Big three American manufacturers...just not sustainable I'm afraid.

[Burnette]

Originally Posted by Pegoready

And here is what they are doing now:

Wow, it's amazing these sell at all today.

[Burnette]

From the blog:

"Mark's cut back his pay 40 percent to reduce our payroll, but he seems to have cut his hours back about 10 percent. Spencer raised his hand to cut back as much, too. Robert and Jenny are down to 40 percent, too (related to not enough boxes to ship out). I've cut my pay significantly but am working the same hours. Isn't that how it's supposed to be?"

No, no it isn't supposed to be this way. And a 40% pay cut is huge, they can'tbe making that much. I feel for the workers there. That's going to wear thin fast on them and their families.

And an eight grand buffer in an enterprise that size means they're one hiccup away from closing.

He's going over scenarios about the end of the business and all plans look bad except the "angel" buyer. Good luck with that.

And after this and the last entry I'd be surprised if anyone dealing with them didn't require cash first.

[jtbadge]

I'd be surprised if these prompted gift card purchases didn't account for the entirety of their alleged $8-9k profit for last year.

Make bikes people actually want to buy or go out of business.

[steveoz]

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:







And here is what they are doing now:

You just hit the nail on the head....I remember the older Rivendale bikes, they were retro/cool and he had some definite ideas on what/why/how bikes should be....level top tubes, lugged, steel, fatter tires....The bikes he sells today are the same kind of abomination he used to rail against!

[CunegoFan]

Originally Posted by Burnette

From the blog:

"Mark's cut back his pay 40 percent to reduce our payroll, but he seems to have cut his hours back about 10 percent. Spencer raised his hand to cut back as much, too. Robert and Jenny are down to 40 percent, too (related to not enough boxes to ship out). I've cut my pay significantly but am working the same hours. Isn't that how it's supposed to be?"

No, no it isn't supposed to be this way. And a 40% pay cut is huge, they can'tbe making that much. I feel for the workers there. That's going to wear thin fast on them and their families.

The next step is asking employees to put company expenses on their personal credit cards to get them to a new product release.

[mtechnica]

I dunno what happened. The dude that was responsible for some pretty nice Bridgestone bikes (including the RB-1 racing model) now derides the very thought of a racing bicycle and in the same blog post posits that the best riding bike out there is a glorified beach cruiser, all the while wondering why the business is floundering - when meanwhile people are still buying - you guessed it - “normal” road bikes (and mountain bikes).

I’m pretty sure I posed the same exact thing the last time I responded to this thread or one of these threads. Lol...

[eddief]

Love Riv and quirk and tall headtubes and gorgeous off the rack lugged bikes. And VO does all that (without the lugs) and then designs or sources a huge number of things relevant to the culture. So VO does the culture deeper, wider, better, and with less weirdness. Grant lost me first at double top tubes and has only gone farther afield since. I've owned three Rambouillets and two Bleriots thinking the beauty was the answer. In the end those bikes were not the best for my fast club rides and I can find the same fit in a tall Trek Domane.

I don't think the niche is big enough to succeed in without a laser focus on the audience and making sure you are constantly hitting the mark. Grant is really good at a lot o stuff, including building a small cult. The cult is divided now and Grant's vision is not keen enough to support the operation. Too many niche-y expensive projects with seemingly mediocre ROI.

I for one would be sad to see it end.

[marciero]

And a tandem sort of based on this. Rear triangle anyway. Sold 35 of those.

[parris]

Am I the only one that thinks the back end of those bikes seem quite long?

[raygunner]

Originally Posted by parris

Am I the only one that thinks the back end of those bikes seem quite long?

My understanding is that the long chain stays were the brainchild of one of their former employees.

Instead of going low trail and disc they went long chain stay in addition to
cannibalizing their line-up.

And I can't believe they don't have the Hunqipillar anymore!

Anyways, a discussion thread on this topic on the RBW Owners Group got nuked as it turned into "squabbling". The kooliad hasn't worn off!