Aw, thanks, friends. I have had a ball on these bikes and I wish everyone else got to experience the same. And lots of other RivSisters will echo what I wrote. And it’s not hard to romanticize about bikes. The flowery language comes easy!
I have little bits of conversion I didn’t mean to make. I got dyno swearing that I’d never be a slave to charging my lights. But now I have a Garmin and a Varia that get charged anyway, because suddenly, I can’t live without either of those. So Charlie is looking a little odd, running around here with his Garmin up front and his Varia on his rear.
But he’s still pure Rivendell. Leah Leah, you should really be getting paid by Riv. No post on this forum has ever made me want a bicycle more than you're description of Charlie here! On Tuesday, October 7, 2025 at 8:52:16 PM UTC-4 Bicycle Belle Ding Ding! wrote:
Well they’re all missing out, Piaw! Charlie and I are in LOVE. We’ve been running off together allll summer and we have thousands of miles together now. Charlie is What Women Want. Long wheelbases…we are into them. Pullback bars? Say less; we’re sold. Oh, the racers in the group say Charlie isn’t a Real Road Bike? Hold my earrings.
I came home tonight from yet another club ride and my husband met me at the door. We did the schtick where he pretends to be suspicious of me and Charlie’s activities and confess Charlie and I were out in the night together again but it didn’t mean anything.
Charlie is a looker and a scoundrel. And those racers don’t know any of this joy.
I think it's a very cool frame (your build is AMAZING) but definitely a niche within the Riv niche. The road bike world is still quite conservative and getting them to accept pullback bars to match the long toptube is never going to be an easy sell. The dropped toptube is also a quirk some will balk at.
It's certainly true that the Charlie Gallop isn't a conventional road bike. To be honest, though, there are plenty of reasons non racers won't pick the Charlie Gallop as well. For instance, the ultra long chainstays mean that the Charlie Gallop would be difficult to fit into a bike box to get onto a plane to do a bike tour far from home. (That's also what turned me off the Homer as well) That long wheelbase also can make it hard to fit into trains or vans or cars. (I've done it with a tandem which is even longer, but let's just say that I've had evil stares from fellow passengers, and obviously some bus drivers are more helpful than others)
The pullback bars also are much much wider than narrow drop bars. So for instance, while I can easily fit 2-3 drop bar bikes into the back of a Honda Odyssey with the rear seats down), my wife's Cheviot would take up so much room that I'd have to move it onto the roof rack instead even when I'm planning to only move 2 bikes. In fact, a pull back bar at a crowded school bike rack would necessitate that you'd park the bike backwards with the rear wheel first, and in many cases a standard cable lock would have a hard time reaching the rack in those situations, and don't even start talking about a U-lock!
Don't get me wrong, I like my Roadini (my wife shot this video on Saturday's ride: https://youtu.be/6hBpmSL6lRc?si=v7gIUKY-4WelAjk3), but the additional weight is definitely felt when I lift it, and even with its relatively short chainstays (still 2cm longer than my touring bike!), I find that when I have to stand up and sprint it just doesn't accelerate the way more touring bike does.
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