My problem with visiting Riv initially was "the rock star effect". I discovered Mr. Petersen's writings/philosophy through The 3 Bridgestone Catalogues, and related to it from a distance. For some strange reason I wrote him a letter in 1992 asking about an old Motobecane I found, and he called me! I was a little startled by this, but managed to stumble through the conversation.
Then Riv started, and I was full on the bandwagon with the Readers and whatnot, and finally got up the nerve to visit RBW HQ. "Rock Star Effect" was still in full force..it seemed strange to me that actual-for-real Rivendell bicycles could just be out in the open, leaning against a big steel shed. You have to understand, back in the mid-'90s Riv was pretty out there on the fringe of Bike World; gorgeous lugged frames with creamy headtubes weren't exactly littering the streets. Then I stepped inside and met Grant and Mark. They couldn't have been nicer or more down to earth, but I still had a hard time translating nights paging through Bstone catalogues into, "Oh yeah, these are the folks connected to that..it's just a bike shop in Walnut Creek. No biggie." So now I'm older and wiser and used to chatting with famous-ish people on Twitter, and...nope. Showing up at RBW still makes me nervous ;) Joe "I..I..I.. it's nice to meet you, sir" Bernard Vallejo, CA. On Sunday, June 7, 2015 at 8:55:09 AM UTC-7, Daniel D. wrote: > I wasn't sure i would like the shop either. While the products are right > up my alley. Some of the writing can be a turn off. But now after meeting > the crew on person including grant, i can see a tongue planted in cheek > better > > > On Friday, June 5, 2015 at 10:25:34 PM UTC-7, drew wrote: > > I was thinking about starting a topic like this too, as I went for the > first time a few weeks ago. I had some fear about visiting, since I've sunk > a lot of money and belief into the company in the last few years. Maybe > they would be dismissive or the vibe wouldn't be what spoke to me after I > got away from "mainstream" cycling. I'm sure it will come as no surprise to > the Bay Area folks that everyone at riv was so nice,so accommodating. In > Los angeles, I'm pretty used to either being ignored while bike store > groupies mess around, or having employees tell me what I "really should > be..." Etc etc. I ended up buying a medium saddlesack, of which I have > lusted over for years. Grant overheard the transaction and came out to cut > some cord, attached some hooks and showed us how he likes to use it. He was > especially interested to hear how my fiancé is liking her Clem protovelo, > (she adores it in a way I didn't think she would ever love a bike) and she > left completely enamoured by the experience (big win for me). Anyway, yeah, > we were both so impressed and happy to be customers. -- 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.
