The Clem rides like a Rivendell, meaning very nicely. It's stout like my Bombadil, but definitely more laid back and cruiserish.
The thing that the Clem does for me is more about me. I'm a super detailed bike builder. I'm extremely proud of many of my builds, and I dwell on them a lot. I'm always thinking of ways to make my numerous perfect bikes more perfecter. The Clem feels to me like it is giving me permission to just get on my bike and ride, and not think so dang hard about stuff. I probably won't buy a complete Clem, but Riv will have a standard build of complete Clems. Those bikes, I'm completely convinced, could make me completely happy, and that would be the first off-the-rack complete bike that could do that since I was 12. That's magic, to me. I imagine folks who can afford an Atlantis, but can't make themselves ride a $4500 bicycle roughly without stressing out about it, so they don't buy one or can't enjoy it. The Clem is so darn inexpensive and so begging to be used, that those people will have permission to go out and have fun and not worry about it. That's fantastic. I also imagine folks who cannot afford an Atlantis, and lurk on the boards all the time waiting to get one second hand, and have put all the mental and emotional energy into a perfect bike that I've done. I imagine those people now see a Clem as their way to get something that is an affordable way to get a perfect bike. I imagine those people wanting to pore over the geo-charts and worry about stem length and 8sp vs 9 and butt-lengths etc. Those people I'm afraid might be frustrated by the process. The Clem is the Clem. The details that don't matter, don't matter. The Clem is not to be swooned over, dwelled on. The Clem gets me back to the idea of dwelling on the memorable things I'm going to do on a bike, rather than dwelling on the bike itself. I may not buy one, because I'm already doing a Clem build the hard way (I always do things the hard way). A mid 80s lugged mountain bike is at the framebuilder now getting a bunch of braze-ons. The build is Clem-like. If I bought a Clem, I think it would be so I have a pair of camping bikes so me and a companion can get out of Dodge any time and campout. The thought of doing that already has me excited. I get home from work on a summer Friday. The Giants game is about to start. "Henry, let's bounce!" We jump on the Paramountain and the Clem, with the AM radio, and gear, and drop into Wildcat, Briones, Tilden, Chabot, you name it. We camp out, listen to the ball game, contemplate the stars, and come back in the morning, new men. Who cares what butt lengths you have when that's what you are doing on your bike? On Friday, March 20, 2015 at 9:49:03 PM UTC-7, Surlyprof wrote: > > Bill, > > How'd it compare to the other Rivs you own? You appear to have enough to > be considered a reliable authority. > > John > > On Friday, March 20, 2015 at 12:21:27 PM UTC-7, Bill Lindsay wrote: > >> I rolled by RBW HQ this morning and got to test ride a 52cm Clem. I've >> always felt lucky that I'm pretty much exactly Grant-sized. Turns out >> today I got to ride Grant's Clem prototype, and didn't even have to change >> saddle height. It's terrific. It rides how I expected it to ride, meaning >> it disappeared, made me smile, and made me reluctant to return it to them. >> >> I don't know if I will pre-order, but if I do, the $150 they are paying >> me to adopt early will go towards a set of Bosco Bullmooses. That's the >> bar for that bike. >> >> Bill Lindsay >> El Cerrito, CA >> >> >> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
