Rivendell saved for now...

[echelon_john]

Bob Jackson absolutely still makes custom frames. Got one sitting right here!

Originally Posted by belopsky

I’m not sure what you’re getting at here.

Bob Jackson has sold me everything I’ve wanted and the only thing they didn’t want to do is build me a custom bike because they don’t do custom frames anymore.

[54ny77]

Interesting business model. Those employees might want to start a side gig....as a launching pad for once this place goes kaput.

https://www.rivbike.com/blogs/peekin...e/post-holiday

"Starting off with this, but it gets way better:

Holiday sales here were lousy. We lost $2,900 today--calculated by the cost of keeping the doors open, the daily overhead, and the net profit on sales that came in. Overall, a good year, but we could use a little boost. How about a store credit for $20? Spend it whenever. This isn't another Hail Mary thing. We're not that terrified this time around. It's just that we are draining too fast from a reservoir that's not where it ought to be, and if you can buy credit here, please do. It isn't risky, I promise. This is the nature of a business that is underfunded and requires relatively huge outlays of money months in advance of receiving the inventory that takes six months to a year to sell."

[roguedog]

I have always loved the orange Rambo and was also really bummed to have missed that model.

I get where Grant is coming from and he has been the voice in the wild for some time now. This "new" trend of all road and gravel bikes should be proof his decades of preaching has finally come to its own.

I get it and have an Atlantis though I've always sorta wished it was a Rambo. I am not anti Riv. I really want them to do well but if you can't make in this time of all times then I just gotta question..***.


download.jpeg

[FastforaSlowGuy]

Originally Posted by zmalwo

$215,000 is a pretty big number, at least they could have offered some shares of their company to certain big donors. bailing out a private business by donation just seems wrong.

They’d likely end up violating a bunch of state and federal securities laws. A lot of folks think “crowdfunding” is suddenly a thing. Well, it sort of is, but with about 7 million strings attached.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[BobbyJones]

The problem may not be with the product, but with the business practices.

[ashwa64]

Originally Posted by gdw

Grant jumped the shark many years ago. Urban lumbersexuals have moved on to other trendy toys and encouraging Rivendell cult members to make fires while bike packing/camping is kinda irresponsible especially when you live in a state that has major fires every year.

yeah, because gravel bikes are passe, right?

i don't understand why so many here talk so much ****, i don't get it and it's why i avoided the place for years.

will have to look up what the **** a lumbersexual is...

[54ny77]

was cracking up when i read that term, had to look it up myself....

http://www.citypages.com/arts/meet-t...al-man-6592215

"Behold the lovechild of the metrosexual and the hipster, a man who's incorporated a hearty helping of good ol' American masculinity into his sartorial sense of harmony.

He's old enough to grow a beard, but not so old as to hold hints of salt in the black pepper. He longs for the days when life wasn't complicated by big-city dreams, when a man could eke out a living off the land. But the closest he's gotten to downing a tree is stuffing his face with bûche de Noël.

The lumbersexual has an evergreen-loving heart, but he's a desk jockey trapped in the concrete jungle. His raw masculinity must be practiced after hours. When you actually find him in the woods, he's staring into the distance, wondering if Valencia is the right filter for this sunset Instagram post."

Originally Posted by ashwa64

will have to look up what the **** a lumbersexual is...

[Llewellyn]

Originally Posted by NHAero

For $3,500 you could have a full custom Dave Anderson frame/fork with options, from a builder working at the peak of the current art. Dave Kirk's prices are modestly higher. Two of the best builers anywhere. I imagine there are other fine builders with pricing below $3,500 for a full custom. So what's the reason again for a custom Riv?

With the current $US/$AU exchange rate you could probably get one of Dazza's creations as well. Much more bang for your buck than a Riv IMO.

[Ed-B]

I've been reading along with all these Rivendell posts for some time now, and while I can't say anything that differs much from other persectives, I think the situation is salvageable.

I was a card carrying BOB (Bridgestone Owner's Bunch) with Grant before he found himself out of work when Bridgestone left the US bicycle market. And I followed along into the early days of Rivendell. I could identify with his perspective on bikes, and the market in general. Twenty years ago, we were in sync. Those first Waterford Rivendell Road frames were perfect for my kind of riding, and they still resonate with me.

I ordered my first custom frame from Grant in 1997, a Joe Starck road, and I still have that frame, another Joe Starck custom, and a Heron road. There were several others too, four other Herons, two Rambouillets, a Quickbeam, and a Saluki. I sourced all of my Nitto bars, stems, seatposts, and many of my other components and bike stuff from Rivendell. The company was very influential, and a source of high quality products that I still use to this day.

In 2004 Grant resurrected the 650B wheel, and an early article in the Rivendell Reader about 650B conversions set me off on a course of all-road cycling that opened new avenues and forever changed my perspective on "road" bikes. I will be forever grateful that Grant took the chance to give 650B wheeled bicycles another lease on life.

But then, we diverged... The Rivendell frames and bikes went off on a tangent that didn't appeal to my interests or style. And I've moved on, adding modern bikes and tech to my cycling environment. Brifters, carbon, threadless forks, etc. It's all good!

In recent years the industry has picked up on this all-road, "Country Bike" thing, called it "Gravel" and incorporated modern tech into this genre to create a whole new growing market segment. Grant Petersen was there 15 years ago, but in my opinion he didn't drive it further. Other players hopped in, they're setting the direction, and they are profiting while Rivendell is picking up loose change on the side.

When I think about what the market offers now, and what people want in cycling, it's clear to me that Grant Petersen and Rivendell Bicycle Works have a story to tell, and could create a product suite that could be brought to the market with offerings that more people would happily buy.

It's not too late to make Rivendell Bicycle Works a profitable and growing company. I don't know if Grant Petersen can redirect the company and get on that track, but I'd love to see it happen.

[pbarry]

Originally Posted by Ed-B

I've been reading along with all these Rivendell posts for some time now, and while I can't say anything that differs much from other persectives, I think the situation is salvageable.

I was a card carrying BOB (Bridgestone Owner's Bunch) with Grant before he found himself out of work when Bridgestone left the US bicycle market. And I followed along into the early days of Rivendell. I could identify with his perspective on bikes, and the market in general. Twenty years ago, we were in sync. Those first Waterford Rivendell Road frames were perfect for my kind of riding, and they still resonate with me.

I ordered my first custom frame from Grant in 1997, a Joe Starck road, and I still have that frame, another Joe Starck custom, and a Heron road. There were several others too, four other Herons, two Rambouillets, a Quickbeam, and a Saluki. I sourced all of my Nitto bars, stems, seatposts, and many of my other components and bike stuff from Rivendell. The company was very influential, and a source of high quality products that I still use to this day.

In 2004 Grant resurrected the 650B wheel, and an early article in the Rivendell Reader about 650B conversions set me off on a course of all-road cycling that opened new avenues and forever changed my perspective on "road" bikes. I will be forever grateful that Grant took the chance to give 650B wheeled bicycles another lease on life.

But then, we diverged... The Rivendell frames and bikes went off on a tangent that didn't appeal to my interests or style. And I've moved on, adding modern bikes and tech to my cycling environment. Brifters, carbon, threadless forks, etc. It's all good!

In recent years the industry has picked up on this all-road, "Country Bike" thing, called it "Gravel" and incorporated modern tech into this genre to create a whole new growing market segment. Grant Petersen was there 15 years ago, but in my opinion he didn't drive it further. Other players hopped in, they're setting the direction, and they are profiting while Rivendell is picking up loose change on the side.

When I think about what the market offers now, and what people want in cycling, it's clear to me that Grant Petersen and Rivendell Bicycle Works have a story to tell, and could create a product suite that could be brought to the market with offerings that more people would happily buy.

It's not too late to make Rivendell Bicycle Works a profitable and growing company. I don't know if Grant Petersen can redirect the company and get on that track, but I'd love to see it happen.

Me too, subscribing to the RR from day one. They lost me by the late 90's with the constant hand wringing and whining.

Yes, it is, given the intractable nature of the guy at the top. If they aren't seriously looking within to figure out "why?", and ready to make Big changes, they're not going to make it. What's the definition of insanity..?

[belopsky]

Originally Posted by echelon_john

Bob Jackson absolutely still makes custom frames. Got one sitting right here!

Define custom? Geometry? How old is it?

They absolutely told me that they stopped doing custom geometry

[Drmojo]

But
Grant did rekindle the childhood joy of riding bikes

[Drmojo]

my buddy- not a big time rider like most on this, um, elite forum, just got a Clem Smith. He has back issues, but rode the hell out of this bike on a crazy, rocky, dusty trail near Dunsmuir on his new Riv, while I could not keep up.
Yes, Soma, Velo Orange, and Jan at Compass-Rene Herse in 2 days- took Rivs biz but they started so many recent trends and this thread

Long live Rivedell!
The king is dead
Long live the king

[CunegoFan]

Originally Posted by Ed-B

In recent years the industry has picked up on this all-road, "Country Bike" thing, called it "Gravel" and incorporated modern tech into this genre to create a whole new growing market segment. Grant Petersen was there 15 years ago, but in my opinion he didn't drive it further. Other players hopped in, they're setting the direction, and they are profiting while Rivendell is picking up loose change on the side.

It is no longer about versatile bikes that can be ridden by non-racers on a variety of surfaces. It is about recreating what cycling was imagined to be like in the 1930s...1920s...1910s. It keeps going backwards but comes complete with ancient soap recipes and shaving creams. In a few years the next Rivendell might look something like this.



The business is now based on quirky customers who intentionally seek out quirky products. If Grant was running a clothing company, he would be selling powdered wigs and breeches.

[cash05458]

Never really liked his bikes but then again folks have different tastes...but the phrase of the day has to be "Urban lumbersexuals"...