Not Peter Jackson, but warm. There's another group who owns the rights to Middle Earth names, acquired from somuddy who got them from Tolkien in the late '60s. We were notified that we had to change, mildly threatened if we didn't, and ---- well, are you ready for a fun story with names changed or omitted to protect --- whatever needs protecting.
They called up, had the talk, and I put a note about it in the Knothole. Then one of you, Lawyer Bob, called and said, "let me handle it; tell me who these people are, etc." I said, "Smith, Tommy, and Carlos, lawfirm say we can't use all these names, and can't refer to Tolkieny stuff on the site, even as part of our history (of the name)." "Smith Tommy Carlos said that?" Really? It's a good law firm.I know them well. When they need a lawyer, they hire me." To wind this story up fast, we got to keep most, but agreed to start no new ones and get rid of one (QB)---since at the time it was discontinued and we had only a few left. It was a bone, kind of. It was a pro bono gift, by the way. Thank goodness. Brake change it's frankly a little embarassing, but I try to be beyond embarrassment as much as possible, and maybe this will be therapeutic. It may cut us or me down a few notches, but that's not a concern, and it's another KINDA interesting story. I hate interesting stories. I'm not going to oversimplify terms or explain them, because it's not important... V1 was 90 percent acceptable. It had cantis, and we opted out on those, since Silvers are available and great, and this would avoid 4 braze-ons. We wanted better tire clearance (even more than the bike that inspired this whose name canna' be spoken tonsly), and so changed the loca and depth of the dent. The downward-jutting fendermount under the bridge intruded about 3mm too much on tire clearance, so we said raise the bridge (at this point a sidepull-compatible bridge). Everybody liked the wino color, but reds are hard to tape, so Mark picked a dark slimey green that looks good. We said heck, let's cream the head tube to match the cream decals. About 2 weeks ago I got a jpg of the painted frame (one of 120), and dang, the cream on the head tube wasn't even close to the decal cream. And they'd been painted, all 120 (30 each 56-58-62). I said "can't have that, repaint solid green, no head tube cream. Does this mean complete repaint, or can the painter blast and mask the HT and just do that part? " A: No need to blast it, can just paint over it. Me: Won't the green be affected by the cream underneath it? The primer is grey, after all. A: Nope, it'll look perfect. Of course. Me: I don't believe it. A. Will send JPG. Me: No, please send whole frame. I'll pay freight. A. OK. So we got the frame in, it looked great (they were right---nobody in his or her right mind could tell a diff), and then when he went to build it up, found out the rear brake bridge had been changed to a non- sidepull type. Yet the fork was a sidepull fork. A one-brake bike? That won't work around here, so we had, it seemed, two options: Braze in new sidepullish bridge to match the fork, or canti-the whole thing. I was concerned about double-heating the stays---a super conservative concern---and the maker said it would rather canti-the-whole frame. How the bridge got changed remains a mystery, and we're digging for the answer, but the factory says it was our request (I was there at the factory less than 18 hours ago), and I wasn't in on that one, so I don't know. Anyway, they've agreed to turn it around quickly. It means now that Bettys will arrive before the Ones, but at least we aren't loading up the warehouse with 120 unsellable bikes, and for that we're greatly relieved. The fallout is sad--a few cancellations---but there's no other option. Mark here wanted cantilevers in the first place, and so did several customers, a few of whom didn't seen sidepulls as the dealkiller, but of course we're "happy" to give full refunds, because whosever fault it was, it is somebody with RBWDNA, and ultimately that means it's mine. But the bike, the actual bike, will be no worse for having cantilevers, and it could be argued that they never should've left. A process change assures this won't happennagain. On the plus side: The clearance is more than on the QB. The chainstays are longer. it has a kickstand plate. The fork crown is swirly-girly. The rear dropouts are the same (our own) model as the Q's and the angle is the same, so it should be doublable with the pads still one the rim. But we're selling it as a ONE speed frame, and what you do with it is up to you. We have QB cranks, though. The fork rake is delightful. It's not a crafty artisanal frame in the megabuck showy sense, but some details could certainly shame some frames that cost thrice as much. I'm looking forward to mine. G On Mar 21, 6:52 pm, James Warren <jimcwar...@earthlink.net> wrote: > I believe it is Peter Jackson's fault. > > -----Original Message----- > >From: jandrews_nyc <jasonaschwa...@gmail.com> > >Sent: Mar 21, 2011 6:35 PM > >To: RBW Owners Bunch <rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com> > >Subject: [RBW] simpleone > > >Does anyone know why it's not just going to be called the Quickbeam > >again? Given that the geometry is "nearly identical" and that now > >it's back to canti's, what else is different? Don't get me wrong...I > >like the name Simpleone. I like saying it with an Italian accent like > >one would say marscarpone. I just want to know more about it. The > >page on the Riv site mentions single speed riding, but nothing about > >the double chainrings up front. Is the manual 2-speed / 4-speed not > >really part of this bike's design? I think I'm going to purchase a > >frame-set in the next couple of days. > > >-- > >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-bunch@googlegroups.com. > >To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > >rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > >For more options, visit this group > >athttp://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en. -- 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-bunch@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.
