I just visited Rivendell headquarters last week for the first time and it was great. I was lucky enough to talk to Keven, Dave, Rich, and Grant in person. They gave me a delicious espresso and even lunch. I had just completed a ~6,000 mile zig-zag trip across North America (New England, northern Ontario, Alberta, BC, and the Northwest coast) from Boston, and am currently visiting a few friends who live in and around the SF bay area.
Anyway at Rivendell I was going on and on about how amazed/impressed I was that I never broke a spoke on my Rich les...@rivendell built wheels, nor even had to true them, and about how none of the components I had purchased from Rivendell, from cranks to chainrings to shifters/derailleurs had broken or even worn out. The Nitto Noodle bars have taken several front/side impacts along the way and have not even so much as bent. I finally replaced my rear tire at over 5000 miles coming down the Oregon coast, with another Schwalbe tire I bought in Kalispell, Montana at Wheaton's bike shop (just because they had them... plus I thought I might need one eventually, and it shocked me that they carried Schwalbe's) but I think the original tire could have gone longer, it's just that I was starting to get mysterious flats and could see the mesh/cords in some spots where rocks had punched through. The Brooks saddle occasionally got soaked in overnight rainstorms when I forgot to cover it, and ridden for 10 hours immediately afterward- no problems that I can see. Wool underwear/t-shirt and nylon pants/MUSA shorts made me actually look forward to riding in the rain (free shower). Also the Nitto mini-rack and Wald basket & bungee-net system could not have worked better as far as I'm concerned. Yesterday I noticed this post on Rivendell's website, and am surprised to see that Grant posted some photos, and amazed at Grant's memory of our conversation from last Friday when I was there. http://www.rivbike.com/assets/payloads/361/original_matthewtour.pdf Grant is right- the Bombadil would have handled this journey much better. the Waterford frame was overloaded and at speeds between 14mph and 25mph would wiggle/noodle quite a bit depending on how I had distributed the load (along the way I tried several things and refined the load balance as much as I could). But in terms of components, I sometimes worried about them but apparently never had to. Other folks I've met along the way (who were on bicycle trips) had lots of stories about broken spokes and various mechanical issues, but I mostly had stories about the magnificent wildlife we have here in North America, or sometimes abusive offroad terrain matched with spectacular landscapes, etc. I did lose a brake pad once but I think it just worked itself loose, and I did crash into a swamp at dusk on the north shore of Lake Superior (bent fork) but that's pretty much it, off the top of my head. Anyway it was cool to meet the folks at Rivendell. I even camped out up on Mt. Diablo the night before and got to see at least 5 migrating tarantulas on north gate road, and they left quite an impression... we sure don't have spiders like that back east. Matt -- 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.
