On Sat, Jul 11, 2009 at 5:55 PM, Doug Van Cleve <[email protected]> wrote:

> Forgot to mention it, but I'm pretty sure you could get things tweaked even
> in the early Waterford days.  I am pretty sure I have heard of a Waterford
> Riv with polished stainless dropouts, for instance.  I am not sure if that
> extended to custom tubing choices or geometry though...


I took delivery of my first, Waterford built, Riv custom in early 1996,
ordered in 1995. This was in the day when you had the Road and could
customize it for a small upcharge. I had mine customized in spades, since it
was a road, with 73 parallel angles, built more or less around the All
Rounder geometry but tweaked, with a shorter front center and road tubing
and clearances and lugs. And 54 cm c-c, when I expect Grant would prefer to
have me on a 60 -- my last custom was a 58.  The first Waterford/Riv road
was built to my plea to get an XO-1 like bike that was more roady and
handled better. It did, indeed. I must say, though, that customs #s 2 and 3,
'99 Joe and '03 Curt respectively, also built for 26" wheels, are far, far
**far** better in handling, altho' #1 was, as I say, far, far better than
the XO-1.

>
>
> Doug
>
>
>
> On Sat, Jul 11, 2009 at 4:52 PM, Doug Van Cleve <[email protected]>wrote:
>
>> Answers inserted to the best of my knowledge...
>>
>> On Sat, Jul 11, 2009 at 10:07 AM, [email protected] <
>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>> With all the interest generated by the anticipated, new club-rider
>>> road bike, thought it might be an appropriate time to bring up the
>>> history of pre-Ram Rivendell road bikes.  The only mention of these on
>>> the cyclofiend site is in the list of models and there seems to be a
>>> dearth of specific information on these bikes on the web in general.
>>> Some specifics of interest to me:
>>> Were the Heron Road and Rivendell Road Standard available at the same
>>> time or did one succeed the other?
>>
>>
>> Waterford built Road Standard and All Rounder were first, maybe then the
>> Long Low, then came the Heron road and touring models.
>>
>>  Did they have the same lugs, geometry, tubing?
>>
>>
>> Nope, Heron lugs were simpler and unique.  Rivs were custom drawn Reynolds
>> 753, Herons were 531 and had round fork blades (as did at least some Long
>> Lows).  Heron geometry was very similar, but had fewer sizes (maybe even cms
>> vs. every cm.).
>>
>> Is there a reliable way to differentiate a semi- custom Road from a Road
>>> Standard?
>>
>>
>> The earlier, stock Road Stds. were all that custom 753 and had a special
>> French style but in English tubing decal.  The semi-customs have a mix of
>> tubes and no tubing decal at all.
>>
>> What features could be changed on a custom - tubing, braze-ons, brakes,
>>> geometry?
>>
>>
>> On the semi-customs (like my Joe Starck built '99 Road Std.) the tubing
>> was picked for you, you could pick from a variety of braze-ons but the
>> geometry was stock.  A "full custom" meant tweaked for you, but Grant still
>> picked the geometry and it probably didn't deviate much from the standard.
>> Long Lows usually (always?) had cantis, because the standard reach brakes
>> were all old stock at the time.  Semi-customs and customs have a serial
>> number that indicates the builder and year.
>>
>> Were all match-built Rivendell Roads Standards?
>>
>>
>> No, match built All Rounders for sure, not certain about the Long Low.  It
>> was pretty much absorbed as the normal RBW BB height was lowered to 8cm drop
>> like the LL.  Match was added because Joe couldn't keep up with demand.  For
>> a time, all semi-customs and customs were JS and stock builds were match.  I
>> don't think match ever did any non-stock building.  Curt Goodrich was
>> brought in to supplement Joe and eventually became the sole Riv builder when
>> match failed.
>>
>> Are geometry charts available for these
>>> bikes - in Readers or catalogs?  How will the new road bike compare to
>>> these?  From reading about the Ram, the major changes made from the
>>> Roads were long reach brakes, wider fork crown, longer chain-stays,
>>> double taper seat stays.  Did trail and bb drop remain about the
>>> same?  Sounds like the new bike will have some features of both, but
>>> lighter tubing than either.
>>> David
>>>
>>
>
> >
>


-- 
Patrick Moore
Albuquerque, NM
Professional Resumes. Contact [email protected]

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