I came to the LongLow game later, ordering mine in September 1998 and taking delivery in August 1999. By then the LongLow was being offered with canti braze-ons as standard. Since I wanted one-handed ease of adjustment on tour, I ordered mine for sidepulls (and bought one of the few sets of long-reach sidepulls available at the time).
In retrospect, I should've stuck with the cantis. The sidepulls with fenders don't give me enough clearance for tires larger than 700 x 32 -- and that's a tight squeeze in the rear. I am contemplating paying a local framebuilder to raise the brake bridge and add the canti braze- ons so I can run a 35 with fenders. The other option that occurs to me is to turn this frame into a go- faster, more unencumbered sort of affair, and make my 26"-wheeled bike more of a beats of burden. I'm playing around with ideas. Still, the LongLow remains a good design and I'm glad I got it. Beth On Aug 30, 6:12 pm, "Bill M." <bmenn...@comcast.net> wrote: > Doug has the details right, but IMO the defining characteristic of the > LongLow was the standard reach sidepull brakes. They were not > generally available when the original Road Standard was designed so it > has short reach brakes. Once Shimano introduced a double-pivot > standard reach brake the LongLow became possible. The long stays and > increased drop were natural changes to go with the increased tire > clearance made possible by the brakes. I believe Douglas Brooks got > the first LongLow in a beautiful burgundy cherry color. I coveted > that bike. > > A little Googling tells me that dbrk's LongLow was delivered in 1996. > The lugs on this one match my '95 Road, and another '95 on > Cyclofiend's site. later / custom Roads had fancier lugs. I'd say > this bike is more than the claimed 10 years old. > > I paid $900 for my Road Std. in 1995. That was the going rate without > the contrasting head tube option. $1550 is more than the frame would > have sold for new in 1995/6. I bought the prototype Mountain/ > Expedition from Riv for $500 in the late 90's (and sold it for that a > couple of years ago). > > Bill > > On Aug 30, 2:58 pm, Doug Van Cleve <dvancl...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > IIRC, the Long Low had longer chainstays and a lower BB than the same era > > Road Standard (hence the name). It also had round fork blades, like the > > Herons that were also offered back then and I think it was set up with more > > tire clearance and either canti or standard reach caliper brakes. > > > Doug > > > On Mon, Aug 30, 2010 at 2:26 PM, Seth Vidal <skvi...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > I've seen this riv for sale for quite a while; > > > >http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/bik/1926067572.html > > > > I've got no particular interest in it but I'm curious if anyone here > > > knows the backstory on this one. It never seems to sell and I'm not > > > terribly familiar with the long low in general - what was its defining > > > characteristics versus the same vintage rivendells? > > > > -sv -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
