Enough of you are familiar with The Rivvy (my '99 LongLow) that I don't need to go into the background (for those who aren't see RivReader # 18 or the Summer 2010 Bicycle Quarterly).
But here's the part of the history I haven't shared with folks. When I selected the LongLow in 1998, Rivendell was phasing out their All-Rounder, and was testing the Atlantis. They were also offering the Heron. I really, really liked the idea of a 26"-wheeled do-everything bike, but I also wanted to have the flexibility of swapping in drops or uprights. Based on the geometry of the time I had concerns that a 26"-wheeled frame would not give me a short-enough top tube for that sort of flexibility without sacrificing standover height. I also wanted a bike that do it all -- commuting, touring and unencumbered sport riding -- and the LongLow seemed like a better choice than the last of the All-Rounders at the time. Along the way I've had ample opportunity to try all sorts of configurations with The Rivvy, and while the uprights felt great, the fact is that as I've gotten older I've favoered a fatter and fatter tire -- something that no one was really planning for in 1998 for a 700c-wheeled touring frame. The fattest tire The Rivvy can take with a fender is a 700x32 and in the rear that is a tight fit. Enter the All-Rounder, which came to me through an act of unspeakable amazingness in fall 2007. I spent three years running it with drops and never being fully satisfied with it. This year, fed up with my inability to run a fatter tire on The Rivvy and finally freeing myself of my stubborn struggle with drop bars, I swapped the entire handlebar/ stem setup from the LongLow to the A-R, and voila! I now have The Bike I (Really) Always Wanted. It just took me awhile to figure it out and get there. So now I have a Rivendell LongLow hanging on a hook in partial assembly, and I will stare at it (rather guiltily) this fall and wonder how to configure it next. Rather than pay a frame builder to make it take a roomier tire (I might be able to squeeze a 35 in there with fenders if I do that and I don't know if it's worth the cost to add 3 more mm), I will just disassemble it, clean it really well, and perhaps -- gasp! -- even repaint it. In the meantime, the person responsible for bringing the A-R my way should be happy to know that I'm riding the crap out of it even more than I was before. Thanks. Beth -- 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.
