Gill - This is great. Tell us which color you ended up with; I’d love to see the bike. Riding your Clem like a scooter…well, that’s got to be a first, though in today’s newsletter Will from Riv WAS riding his Susie around shifting with his foot, so strangeness abounds.
I think $1650 for a Clem is an absolute steal. Don’t hate me, but I paid far less than that for mine. The first owner was out East and had bought his 52 blue Clem L on impulse. No sooner had he assembled it and ridden it a week than he was listing it for sale. A paltry $960. I offered to buy it, and he agreed. Too much time went by, and sure enough, he had changed his mind, decided to keep the Clem. But a day or two later he felt like he wouldn’t ride it enough and offered it to me again. It has lived with me ever since. October of 2019. Best money I ever spent! Leah > On Nov 17, 2021, at 6:29 PM, Gill <[email protected]> wrote: > > > So it’s been 15 months. I love the bike and extoll it’s virtues to anyone who > asks (and to some who don’t). It was not love at first sight. I bought a clem > for it’s personality - and price. Comfort and off-road capability were the > inducements. As time passed I came to appreciate clem’s beauty and now find > traditional diamond frame bikes look common and truncated in comparison. For > me the price was a sweet spot. It cost $1650, enough to be a quality bike but > not so much that it causes reluctance to ride the granite strewn trails of > cape ann for fear of dinging it up. Clem does what you ask of it. Out last > week a pedal came off at an inopportune moment stripping the crank so I push > rode it like a scooter 4 miles home and thought it still rode nice. Can’t > offer build inspiration as my clem is still stock. All I’ve done is > reposition the shifters to below the bends freeing up hand space. This has > made a big difference for any sort of aggressive riding/climbing, works well > for long descents too as you can lay forearms flush on swept back and be > comfortably aero. > > Maybe I’m just easy to please but for me this is a no-brainer. Whatever you > need, on or off-road, loaded or unloaded Clem Smith is a first ballot hall of > fame bike. > > >> On Wednesday, November 17, 2021 at 5:45:12 AM UTC-5 Garth wrote: >> Yeah, the Clem to some qualifies as a "beater bike", albeit a still >> relatively expensive one. The term is meant to convey something of a lesser >> investment/value/importance that one feels more liberated to be creative >> with. If you bought a new custom Riv, or a say a shiny new car .... would >> you take the liberty to adorn it with hand painted designs of your own ? >> Would you gut the interior and replace it with your own design ? While most >> do not, many do just that. >> >> Still, every bike is unique no matter how it adorned. In fact there are no >> duplicates of anything, "Mirror mirror on the wall who's the fairest of >> them all ?" Hah ! It's a trick question in that it starts with the >> assumption of two or more, when in actuality there is but The One. >> >> When I had my '83 Stumpjumper (silver) one mid-80's winter I just felt like >> hand painting some of the lugs orange as I had some Testor's paint handy. It >> was irresistibly fun ! I think this is exactly what my Bombadil needs too, >> some hand painting here and there. It's already a custom single color. no >> decals. I bought it used and it was flat black, which to me was worse in >> person than I imagined. So when it needed some frame work I had Jack >> @Franklin custom frames use that black powder coat as a sanded base to paint >> it with light green metallic Imron. I didn't like the original decals either >> so I left them off. About the only stock Riv color I've seen that I liked in >> the Clementine soda pop Orange. The Susie orange is a mildly burnt/dull >> offering. I expected something brighter ..... boo hoo hoo ! >> >> Spray-can painting is something we used to do as kids to bikes and anything >> else that would take it. I wonder how many are willing to paint over and/or >> accent their stock paint jobs ? I'm sure some have ! I like the idea of a >> "blanco" primed and ready to paint as you like frame. Given a blank canvas >> some may find it overwhelming at first.... but after that first step into >> the seeming abyss and seeing that all is indeed well ..... such is the >> Living as Life Itself. >> >> >> >> >> >>> On Tuesday, November 16, 2021 at 10:12:57 PM UTC-5 Joe Bernard wrote: >>> Here's a bit of history which I think will be interesting for this thread >>> in light of how beautiful and colorful and modernized these bicycles have >>> become: >>> >>> In the Blahg or Peeking Through The Knothole or whatever it was called >>> then, the original murmurings about the new, lower cost TIG-ed Riv was that >>> it would be painted flat black. The idea was you could use it as a beater >>> townie and touch it up with a spray can. I think - not sure about this - >>> the decals were going to be offered as a stick-on kit. The decal idea later >>> - this part I remember well - was retained for the glossy-paint bikes and >>> you were supposed to be able to have them do it for you with the regular >>> name, plus you would get extra letters to mess about with as you wanted. >>> But then the first frames came pre-decaled with a clearcoat and that was >>> the end of that. Interesting, no?? >>> >>>> On Tuesday, November 16, 2021 at 6:13:50 PM UTC-8 Joe Bernard wrote: >>>> Btw can we discuss the first Clem pictured in this thread? I think Leah's >>>> "eccentric" build is the coolest. One thing I can't really do with my >>>> custom cuz of the gray/red scheme is toss other colors at it, which is >>>> ever so slightly first-world-problems frustrating. I love the splotches of >>>> red and orange on her blue frame, that bike POPS! 💙❤️🧡 >>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>>> On Tuesday, November 16, 2021 at 5:52:26 PM UTC-8 Joe Bernard wrote: >>>>> Ok buckle up kids, your old pal Joe's got numbers. This is effective >>>>> toptube, which Grant will tell you isn't enough information to size a >>>>> bike so don't listen to me! >>>>> >>>>> New/current/late-2021 Clem L: >>>>> 45cm 62.5 >>>>> 52 65.5 >>>>> 59 68.5 >>>>> 64 70 >>>>> >>>>> These are the numbers for the last H model, which I believe match the >>>>> previous few years of L, too. My 2018-ish 45cm L matched this: >>>>> >>>>> 45cm 57.5 >>>>> 52 61 >>>>> 59 65.5 >>>>> 64 67 >>>>> >>>>> None of this (as far as I know) applies to the first gen Clem/Clementine, >>>>> I believe they're all a smidge shorter in reach. One super-bad thing >>>>> about the Riv site is you can still find PBH recs for these frames based >>>>> on the first gen..it's way off now. Also I know nothing of stack/reach, >>>>> which I'm sure affects all this stuff. >>>>> >>>>> For another chip in the cookie jar (I never remember idioms correctly so >>>>> I'm just making up my own now), my custom was designed for me at 79-ish >>>>> PBH with a tall headtube and intended to run Boscos. It's 54.2x63. >>>>> >>>>> Joe "numbers guy" Bernard >>>>> >>>>>> On Tuesday, November 16, 2021 at 5:03:18 PM UTC-8 Patrick Moore wrote: >>>>>> Perhaps more helpful: my perfect level tt road bike frame size is 60 X >>>>>> 56 c-c. My built road bikes have 57 and 58 cm c-c tts with Riv-type >>>>>> slightly upsloping tts. Please help me translate this into Clems. >>>>>> >>>>>> And again, how fat a tire will a 700C 59 cm Clem take? >>>>>> >>>>>>> On Tue, Nov 16, 2021 at 5:39 PM Patrick Moore <[email protected]> wrote: >>>>>>> ..Aside: "59cm - 86 to 96cm; 700c rim size, but with room for "29er" >>>>>>> tires." I've never measured my pbh because I've known forever what st >>>>>>> size and tt size make a bike fit me. But I'm 5'10" tall with Asian >>>>>>> build (I wear 34 w 32 length jeans instead of v-versa; if I had an >>>>>>> Anglo build I'd be 6'1" ), so would I fit a 59? >>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> And, if so, how fat a 700C tire will a 59 cm Clem take? > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the Google > Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To unsubscribe from this topic, visit > https://groups.google.com/d/topic/rbw-owners-bunch/dqoOrlGkFdg/unsubscribe. > To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to > [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/d3a61e7b-5d77-460b-bfdd-52e492089f48n%40googlegroups.com. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. 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