In New York City, well, I bought my Bleriot last summer from a list member in Bklyn. I ride it every day on my commute, lock it up up everywhere and it does occasionally collect a few nods and comments of appreciation ... but I can count on one hand the number of Rivs I've seen around town in the past 2 1/2 years.
I live in Manhattan and well, the majority of shops here are concerned with what you would expect for a large city with a staggering cost of doing business ... that is, lot's of catering to the racer/carbon fiber end of the market. There's a huge community of racer and racer wannabe's in the greater NYC area. And honestly, it's beautiful. Everything I've ever learned about cycling as an adult I've learned here. From commuting on the first crappy Chinese mtb's back in the mid 80's to later being adopted by Team Bklyn and then Team Gotham ... guys from every imaginable ethnicity who graciously tolerated just how badly I sucked at mtb racing, cyclocross racing and road racing ... NYC has given me everything I could have ever asked for on a bike ... except for the seed of love planted by the feel of wind on my face and beauty of leaving my troubles behind as a seven year old who finally was able to get up on his two wheeled stingray ... but that's another story. I've (mostly) left my CF racer days behind and for the last year and a half have been killing it on a 650b Saluki up and down the Hudson ... River Road, 9W, Piermont, Nyack, Haverstraw by woods trail, Bear Mountian, etc. ... and while that bike picks up more compliments than a pretty girl in a short skirt in midtown, again, I just nearly never see any Rivs on my travels ... I know they're out there 'cause I read about 'em here ... but invisible, we seem to be ... On Thursday, September 6, 2012 11:56:30 AM UTC-4, Jim Thill - Hiawatha Cyclery wrote: > > I see various threads on here about Rivendell's representation in various > parts of the country. We seem to have a better than average showing of Riv > here in the Twin Cities. > > Back in late 2004 or early 2005 when I bought my first Riv, an Atlantis, I > thought it was pretty unique. Soon after I started riding it, though, I met > lots of Riv riders by pure happenstance. First was a guy who called himself > "Single Speed Steve" on a Quickbeam - we flagged each other down on West > River Road. Some short time later on the light-rail, I saw a guy with a > really beat up Atlantis that had been, apparently, repaired (by Curt > Goodrich I later learned) at least once, which was obvious with the > rattlecanned repair areas. I freaked the guy out, I think, when I started > talking to him about his bike. We later became friends, but I don't think > he has the Atlantis anymore. After awhile, seeing different Rivs in the > wild lost its novelty, because it became at least a weekly occurrence. Now > I walk to a nearby food co-op, and frequently see a green 2TT Hillborne and > a QB parked there at the same time, in addition to some other bikes that > clearly have Riv-inspired style. A coffee shop I ride past daily has an > orange Sam parked outside (I know the bike personally, and it's original > owner sometimes appears on this list). Of course, in my day job, I > encounter lots of Rivendells. The Twin Cities, despite having snow and ice > on the ground 11.5 months/year, is quite a bicycle haven, and for whatever > reason, Riv has a strong showing among the more common bicycle brands. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rbw-owners-bunch/-/MYs04KLm2wQJ. 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.
