I bought my 62cm green Hunq brand new in 2013, and rode it probably 3-4 days a week until I sold it to a listmember last year. I did do some light touring on it, but primarily used it for commuting and utility. Riding it year-round in the PNW for 12 years did reveal some shortcomings though, at least for my purposes. I was limited to 50mm tires with fenders, and even that took a little bit of creative Dremeling. The performance of rim brakes (ultimately Motolites, although I started out with cantis) does degrade in wet conditions. But my biggest complaint was the hassle of maintaining the exposed drivetrain. Hard use in all manner of weather necessitated annual deep cleaning, new cables/housing, etc. Obviously this isn’t a particular shortcoming of the Hunq, it’s true of all conventionally-geared bikes, but it proved to be enough of a headache that I opted to have a custom bike made that incorporated the best aspects of the Hunq with modern embellishments. My new (well, year-old) Bantam has a Pinion P18 transmission, Gates belt drive, hydraulic disc brakes, and can accommodate up to a 60mm tire. I’m grateful to my Hunq for its years of service and for teaching me what I valued in a commuter, but I can’t say that I miss it. The buyer ended up not keeping the bike, and moved it on to another listmember (for $500 more than I sold it to him, so well done Jeff, I have no problems with arbitrage!) but I think that most people would be just as happy (if not happier) with a Surly Ogre, were it not for the Rivendell mystique.
Jay Lonner Bellingham, WA
Sent from my Atari 400 I'm always curious how much the scarcity effect plays into one's desire to own one of these frames. I'd be interested to hear from some folks who sold their Bombadil and/or Hunqapillar about their reasons for moving on. Another Have making us Have-Nots/Missed-the-Boats feel sorry for ourselves… ;-)
-- Bob
On Monday, June 15, 2026 at 7:59:22 AM UTC-6 Drew Fitchette wrote:
Fun write up for a Hunq over on the Radavist:
On Monday, May 4, 2026 at 1:42:04 AM UTC-4 Joe Putnam wrote:
Chiming in to say a huge "thank you" to Drew, who sold me his old Saluki. It's a dream bike for sure, and quite unique among my bikes. Will need to post some photos soon showing off the stable, with this bike being a contender for "top dawg". Congrats you got that Hunq! my heart skipped a beat when I saw that.
![IMG_0601.jpeg]() In what feels like almost the most ironically poetic thing that could’ve happened, Riv posted what might be the last of the new (now extinct) Hunqapillars last week on their web specials page.
I(like many) have pined for one of these bikes since going down the Rivendell rabbit hole, and have gone through more than my share of frames trying to find “the one”, if that’s even a thing…
I’d recently posted here that I was after a 54 Hunq or 56 Bombadil, and that my 58 Saluki and 56 Atlantis would be up for trade if someone wanted. I received interest in both bikes if I was willing to sell them, and the Saluki went to someone who’d been dreaming of one for years, while the Atlantis is still here… for now.
Then… the universe said here’s a bike built essentially how you’d want, and the money goes to a good cause…
So I bought it, and will inevitably post a ton of photos of it when it’s here and in use.
- Drew in ATL
On Thursday, February 6, 2025 at 2:44:29 PM UTC-5 maxcr wrote:
In case you missed this, here are a couple of beautiful Hunqa's from the Radavist: A Visit To The Nutmeg Country Cycling Museum Part 2: Troy and Jen’s Stable of Bikes. On Sunday, June 4, 2023 at 1:09:40 PM UTC-4 Bill Rhea wrote:
![D82489DA-D437-4E5E-8DB9-192D50D1B61D_1_105_c.jpeg]()
This is from last year, touring the Oregon and NorCal coast on my 62cm Waterford Hunqa, which I believe I got in 2010 or 2011 as an "early adopter"
I'll never sell this bike, ever! It always puts a smile on my face when I ride it
-br It seems the Bombadil and Hunqapillar frames are beloved. They're stout, beautiful, and sometimes have intricate additional tubes and lugs. While I've done a lot of reading about Rivendell I was a bit unclear on the origins and intended uses of these frames.
I wanted to start a thread where we could share and dump info about these bikes along with pictures of builds.
Joe and Jim were helpful in laying out a bit of background in another thread, there's some great info there.
The first mention I can find of the Bombadil is in RR 41, sometime in 2009. Excerpted pages attached. As a few members might recall I am very into raw frames with brass spilling out of the lugs! I know that many Bombadil owners have had their frames repainted like Jason Fuller, whose absolute stunner shows up here from time to time. By the way, the picture below is one of my very favorite Rivendell images.
There's also the butter-banana Bombadil that recently sold on eBay. I believe that one was purchased by John Watson of the Radavist (and he's got a Hunq) so we might see some nice pics of that bike sometime soon.
Are both of these frame names borrowing from Tolkien? I understand RBW had to stop using Tolkien names.
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