Roberto's 54cm Joe Appaloosa
This is my current everyday, everything, bike. I knew I wanted a Rivendell ever since I built my wife’s Platypus. The ride quality of the Platy has been unrivalled for her and has made all sorts of outings that previously seemed out of her comfort zone not only totally doable, but also supremely enjoyable. Seeing the use Sarah quickly started to get out of her Platy, and seeing her ride it so effortlessly made Rivendell click for me. Riv frames are expensive, about as much as a high-performance, speed optimized race bike frame. However, setting aside the unsettlingly short lifespan of carbon frames, how many hours of use do performance-oriented bikes even get in a year? Riding the Riv almost every day to work not only makes my commute something to look forward to, but it inspires me to take the long way home more often than not. Slowing down, and enjoying my surroundings rather than simply smashing through them. This year, my Riv has accompanied me on countless destination snack rides, road/all-road/gravel rides, a few MTB singletrack rides and a couple glampy overnighters. Not only that, but my longest ride ever to date was aboard the Joe: an impromptu 195km jaunt when a couple companions and I decided we’d rather book it home than spend yet another night camping in the rain. Other than being soaked to the bone, the Joe kept me comfortable and in excellent spirits. I’ve used it for just about everything, there are so many thoughtful details about the frame that make what Riv say about the Joe ring true: “The Joe Appaloosa is as good an all-around bike as we make. It’s 100 percent perfect for 90 percent of the riding you’re likely to do, and 90 percent perfect for the other ten percent.” When I first built my Joe last year, it looked like this: A few things have changed since, let’s take a look! The Joe Appaloosa is one of their 2 dedicated loaded touring bikes. The other is the fabled Atlantis, but according to Riv, they’re both pretty much the same. I’ve adapted my build from the original spec in a way that’s more versatile for my everyday life. Handlebars: Nitto / Bassi Bobby bar prototype. [Available early 2025]Although I love the swoopy Magic Components Moth Bars, I found they somewhat limited what I wanted the Joe to do for me. Being someone that tends to prefer flat bars, the slightly more active position provided by the Bobby bar feels more natural to me. It’s wide and straight enough that I can stick out my elbows for better control on hairy descents and when standing on the pedals. Yet, it’s backswept enough that my wrist position feels natural and tucking in my elbows in a headwind is super comfortable. I love placing my hands right at the bends for a slightly more stretched out position. Based on the made-in-Taiwan version, these feature a 25.4mm clamp, measure 750mm wide and will come in black and silver sometime early next year. Racks: Nitto / Sim Works Obento front and Nitto Campee rear.My preference for front load-bias on other bikes these last years made me naturally want to start with a big front rack for carrying all of my needs. However, I came to learn that the Joe rides better (IMO) when the cargo weight is balanced front and rear. Simon, on the other hand, has come to prefer a front-bias on his Joe so YMMV! I just think the extra-long chainstays make a ton of sense for balancing a large saddlebag and/or paniers. Also, it seemed like a shame to not make use of the oversized M6 rear rack eyelets (a very nice touch). The Obento front and Campee rear’s versatility make them a joy to use on top of looking amazing. Yes, they’re eye-wateringly expensive, but having had the incredible opportunity of visiting Nitto last year, I knew I needed to get my hands on their expertly-crafted racks. Pedals: MKS Pretzel.I started off with Sim Works Bubblys, which are great especially for more delicate-soled footwear. I found myself pretty frequently wanting more grip, so I’m currently riding MKS Pretzels and they’ve been perfect thus far. Fenders: Honjo / Sim Works Flat 65.Ok, these were a splurge and mayyybe a little extra but they’re so pretty… They cover the 2.0” tires perfectly. My next move will be finally installing some Gurp Buddy Flaps I bought last Winter. The front fender needed a little “adjusting” to fit between the lugs of the fork crown. It was a cinch thanks to a handy-dandy Fender Adjuster I made by sanding a piece of 2x4 by wrapping sandpaper around a coffee tin that seemed to be roughly the right diameter. Some good whacks of a ball-peen hammer did the trick. I like to use the fender packaging, some rags or pieces of cardboard to mock up the fender’s position and assess any necessary adjustment to the radius. Aluminum fenders can’t be installed under tension, unlike plastic fenders, or they’ll be more prone to develop stress fractures. The final position of the fender should ideally be it’s natural resting position. Lots of tutorials use the string method for finding the fender’s centreline, but I don’t find that method to be satisfactory. Using digital calipers, I measure the actual width of the fender (which varies, especially after re-radiusing the fender), divide it by 2 and set the calipers to that dimension. Then, I lay the fender on a flat surface and use the caliper to make an etch on a piece of masking tape I put on the fender. If in doubt, I flip over the fender and repeat to validate the true center. The rest remains unchanged, lots of which was actually pillaged from my former Hog’s Back: Derailleurs: Shimano XTR front and rapid-rise rear. I first used them on my former Le Montréal, then moved to the Hog's Back before landing on the Joe Transmission: 45/36/24 x 9 speed 11-36 cassette. My favourite shift lever setup: Shimano Dura-Ace bar ends mounted on upside-down Paul Thumbies. When under the bars, they’re out of the way when I want to move my hands forward on the bars, as mentioned earlier. Friction, obv. Also initially featured on my Hog's Back Brakes: Shimano XT calipers & Avid FR-5 levers which I love. They’re cheap, have a great shape, are plenty stiff and have much less lateral play than similarly-priced levers. I’ve had these for about a decade now. Wheels: Shutter Precision front hub, Shimano LX rear hub, Sun Ringle Rhyno Lite rims, 36 Sapim Race double-butted spokes per wheel. A solid, bang-for-your buck wheelset. The Shutter Precision hub is from my former Bianchi Grizzly and has about 8 seasons and at least 5 Winters under its belt. The bearings are certainly starting to show their age, so I might be due for an upgrade! Continental Race King 29x2.0” Folding: A staple! And, as it turns out, have the low rolling resistance of much more expensive tires. The tread is highly versatile and the casing is comfy. Although these are tubeless-ready, they're not setup that way. I don’t want to deal with goopy tires on all of my bikes. Saddle: This Brooks B17 is my first leather saddle, and I’m quite happy with it! The latest batch of Joes just landed! Hit us up if you’re looking for your own forever bike.
Julian's Roaduno
I'm a sucker for #newbikeday. In the past year, I've kind of laid it on thick, with three new whips acquired and only one let go of. I tell people it's because of the money I saved living car-free for the past 18 months, after 17 years of car ownership before that. This is true, but obviously I'm just addicted to riding new bikes. So meet my Roaduno! A prototype from pre-production of the run of frames Rivendell just released, they brought this 51cm Ana-Purple bike to the Philly Bike Expo where we exhibited in a neighbouring booth this spring. It caught my eye while we were setting up, and when it hadn't sold by the end of the last day, I took it as a sign I needed a test ride. One lap around the convention center and I was sold! I'm a single- and dingle-speed aficionado, after all. Eben Weiss, better known as Bike Snob NYC, describes it perfectly to detract the dingle-haters: "The upshot of it is that you’ve got a “road” gear and a “trail” gear, and it’s less like having a geared bike than it is like having two singlespeeds in one". It's a surprisingly handy setup - I'm in the higher gear 9 out of 10 km I ride, but for those moments when I need it, I'm so happy to have the 24/18 easy ratio. The bike is basically set up like Riv's stock build, though I swapped out a few bits here and there to fit me right: it came with a Brooks B17, but because it's a Roaduno I felt road-y and put this cool old Selle Italia Turbomatic on; the stock Gravel King tires were cool, but I needed some of that small batch terroir rubber, the Ultradynamico Rosé; and finally, the Riv x Nitto Billie bars it came with are great, but I was feeling a little sportier and pulled a fan favourite, the Sim Works Getaround, from my parts bin and it fit just right. The wheels are built by Rich, Riv's legendary wheelbuilder, and feature Suzue's disco-finish quick-release track hubs and some unbranded Velocity Quills. Riv's Silver2 shifter perched below a Thumbshifter Mount controls an IRD front derailleur, getting me between the chainrings on the Rivendell Silver Wide/Low crank. A Paul Melvin tensioner keeps the chain taut, and my old White Industries freewheel has a new home on my Roaduno. A Nitto S65 seatpost and Pearl stem keep the cockpit crispy, and I reinstalled the two-tone ESI grips that Riv built it up with for the show. Champagne finish MKS Gamma pedals give me all the grip I need for sporting around. This bike has been super fun around the city so far, but I've got big plans for it. My latest favourite form of touring is multi-modal, and requires some dis- and re-assembly periodically along the way from point A to B. Be it a bus, trunk, train, plane, ferry, truck bed, you sometimes need to make your bike small. Winooski Wheels has been talking about the idea of an airplane bike, that flies and flies, where it can be disassembled pretty extensively without being coupled or a folder. I'll change the shifter to a downtuber to get rid of that cable and housing, add self-extracting crank bolts, and get a compact headset wrench, which'll allow me to take things apart small enough to fit in an extra-extra-large cordura tote bag and pretend it isn't a bike! If you're keen on a Roaduno of your own, get in touch! We've got a full run of frames in stock, and would be happy to discuss dream builds. Photos by Troy @killiskii
Luc-Antoine's Long-Awaited Atlantis
Well, at long last, here it is: my 62cm Rivendell Atlantis 3, also known as Pélagie. The Atlantis had already been my dream bike for a number of years when we got the A-OK from Rivendell about opening an account with them and becoming a dealer during those dreadful days of 2020 – talk about a silver lining to that whole thing! And after a couple-odd years of waiting around (and a few times when I was told it would never happen), it’s finally here. I’ve been riding it for just just over two months now and it’s everything I had hoped it would to be: a smooth-yet-responsive, comfortable, surprisingly fast bike that makes you wish the road ahead was just a wee-bit longer. It climbs great, it descends even better, and thanks to that double top-tube, it’s actually quite stiff for a bike this size and, of course, it’s absolutely gorgeous. It’s set up as a daily commuter right now because that’s exactly what it is: it’s my only (non-winter) bike. I’ve been riding it mainly to go to work, school, to run errands, get groceries, etc.; mostly on pavement, with the occasional trail when it shows up along the way; it’s actually a quite capable trail bike, too, which isn’t the kind of stuff I’m typically attracted to riding, but it’s nice to know I can if I want to. That tall Technomic stem with the Albatross bars, both from Nitto, get me nice and upright, and when paired with that admittedly controversial saddle angle, you’d think you’re sitting in your favorite armchair. The basket is a must, but I’ve been longing to have a proper saddle-bag so that my stuff stops clanking around whenever I do go down one of those unexpected trails. For the parts, I tried best I could to build the Atlantis most suited for my immediate needs and wants, as opposed to building it for the future, hypothetical tour around the world, a mistake I've done many-a-time and is always a dumb idea (that being said, I’d definitely ride this thing around the world just as it is now). Add that to the need to build it as cheaply as I could with a potpourri of parts I had laying around, picked up mainly from my old Polyvalent, and newer stuff because, well, I had never had a bike with v-brakes before (I know, weird right), and I ended up building the RIVEST Riv I could’ve: practical, no-nonsense and easy to maintain with fun bits and a few quirky riv-isms that I sprinkled all over the darn thing. I could make an extensive list of everything on it, but most of it is super basic or I already explained on my previous staff bike thing, so I’ll try to stick to the more fun ones: The hubs are, I think, early oughts Shimano Deore LX in this beautiful gold colour that I got from Zach, which he got from Roberto. Apart from that pristine lineage, their somewhat unusual colour fit great with with the cream headtube of the bike and they’re the classic open bearing shimano stuff that you rarely ever have a reason to replace other than a change in æsthetics. I laced them onto Alexrims DM18s; I could’ve done fancier, but they’re super solid and it’s my understanding that Riv used to build all of their bikes with them until they started to carry Velocity (which I might still get if and when these ones croak). Take a gander at those panda spoke nipples, too, speaking of Riv-isms. I got the Deore XT long-cage Rapid-Rise on ebay a few years back; it’s been on a few bikes but I feel like it only started to feel at home on this one. The upside-down Silver2 friction thumbies from Rivendell are honestly the best shifters I've ever used; simple, precise, and with a RR rear derailleur, they’re as instinctive as a shifter can possibly get. Also a good trick for seamless friction shifting that I got from friend and Villeneuve co-mechanic Troy is an 8 speed cassette (which is plenty enough for the riding I do) with a 9 speed chain; keeps the trimming time to a minimum. Yes, the brake levers are upside down, yes it’s a thing that Rivendell bikes often have, yes it’s somewhat of a Rivnerd thing that I didn’t think I'd do because I think that particular Riv-ism is just a bit too nerdy; BUT, turns out, it actually serves a purpose: if you want to put your thumbies upside down like this, if your brake levers are the right-side-up, the bolt that tightens the lever to the bar is in the way of the shifter. So you actually HAVE to put it like this. Also I personally think it looks kinda cool. Snoopy follows me everywhere. It’s actually a tube valve-cap thing that I took off a bike I fixed a flat on years and years ago. It was sitting at the shop for a while in expectation of that particular client coming around so I could give it back, but they unfortunately never did, so I decided to give it a good home and it’s been red-Lock-Tite'd on this piece of innertube on some stem or other for a few years and bikes, now. It doesn’t have a name, I'll find one some day. If the client sees this and wants it, I’ll gladly give it back. I got no clue how I'll take it off of that valve thing, though. That grip-job is a happy mix of Blue Lug extra-ness and G. Petersen laissez-faire. Both sides are uneven, I think one side has one more layer of shellac than the other. I don’t know if I like the feel of it yet, but it’s progressively been accumulating beausage and I think it looks fun. I did the same grip twine thing on a Hog’s Back recently and it’s much nicer than mine. I might re-do it eventually. They’re not a part per se, but I think these here chainstays deserve a mention. They’re particularly long, ridiculously some might say. I think they’re amazing (apart from those two times a day where I have to haul the thing up or down my two flights of Montréal stairs), but to be perfectly honest, when you’re riding it, apart from being especially stable, you don’t really think about them. They’re not a life-changing feature, they just work well and I personally think they actually look super cool. I understand people who don’t, though. I always tell people that Rivendell is kinda like the Grateful Dead: on one hand either you get it or you don’t, but also it’s way more than just a brand, there’s a whole culture along with it and these obnoxiously long chainstays, like the endless jams of, say, Dark Star, are part the thing, for better or worse. As we all need a bit more GD in our lives, we could all use an extra 10 cm on our chainstays, I think. So that’s it, I could go on forever about this bike, but we all have other things to do. This bike is it for me. I would never try to fool anyone by saying I'll never buy another bike again (no one’s gonna buy it, and I shouldn’t be selling it), but I honestly don’t see what else I could want in a bike. Try it out, you’ll love it. Hell, if you’re tall enough, you can even try mine if you want to. G’day y’all, s’ouerra, LAC
Touring Joe Appaloosa
Feel free to open images in a new tab to embiggen This Rivendell touring bike has been my dream for years. I love Riv's commitment to lugged steel, beauty in bikes, and bloody-minded practicality. It's a hell of a balancing act! Swinging into the saddle makes me feel like sinking into a comfortable couch. Rivendell's frames are meant to have you sitting up fairly upright, and perform best when you go with it, ideally with a swept-back handlebar. This, and the extremely long wheel-base, makes the bike look slow, but it absolutely is not. It gets up and goes wonderfully, shifts cleanly, and it's super-stable climbing and descending on really bad roads. You won't believe me until you try one, but please do, you'll be astonished at how these bikes feel. I've ridden this loads up north of Montreal in the Laurentians, and south in the Eastern Townships, on all kinds of roads and unmaintainted rights-of-way. Last year me and Joe went around the north and south shores of the Saint-Lawrence on a weeklong trip, and this year the plan is the VTXL. In any case, being on this bike all day feels natural, restful and encouraging. Joe Appaloosa is a worthy companion for the gentle adventures I enjoy most. Reliable and well-loved parts carried over from other bikes RD-M592, Shimano Deore Shadow 9-speed rear derailer. From my old roommate's totaled Surly that a car ruined. This is the fifth bike it's been on, and it does everything I ever ask of it without complaining. I intend to use it until it explodes, then install an identical one I've squirreled away in my parts box. The Microshift R8 double front derailer turns out to be just fine friction shifting a triple. Figures. The gold KMC X10 chain was on another bike briefly before this one. Very bling. I had to add links from another non-gold chain to make it fit Rivendell's XXL chainstays. Hplusson TB14 wheels, which used to be on a disc-brake bike, but are just as happy here. 36-hole for tradition and strength. The rear hub is Velo Orange's old 10-speed disc touring field-serviceable hub. It comes apart without tools, which so far has been mostly helpful for easy cleaning, but it's nice to know I can change a spoke without a cassette tool. Dia-Compe GC999 cantilever brakes. Pin-pads aren't as bad as you've heard to adjust. The pulley yokes are just me being deluxe. Nitto Albastache handlebars, the weirdest bars I've ever had. I knew C&L friend Peter would have a pair from his old Bridgestone. Thanks Peter! Dia-Compe non-aero brake levers. These used to be on a Noodle handlebar, and they fit amazingly on the Albastache. The incompressible brake housing was on that other disc-brake bike. Waste not, want not. The Bassi leather bar tape has been re-wrapped who knows how many times, this is their third bike and third handlebars. Tubus rear rack, because the heavy-duty rack goes where it's needed. Does panniers as well as bag-support. The rear B+M dynamo light is bolted to the rack, so it follows along too. Fresh, exciting parts added since owning the frame Nitto Dirt-Drop stem, the elegant choice for a stem you can really wail on if you need to. Trail-approved by Nitto's ultra-rigorous tests. Rivendell/Dia-Compe Silver2 shifters. These came out around when I got the frame. They're the greatest shifters ever made. Brooks B17 saddle, a sure thing. The SON dynamo hub is new, replacing a Shutter Precision which had to replace an entry-level Shimano elsewhere Kasai Trail Beam headlight, for wide beams in the woods at night. It also has a USB port to charge a battery pack. Nitto R14 rack, which is supposed to be a rear bag-support rack. It doesn't get a huge front load, mostly my lightweight sleeping gear, maybe a shirt that needs to dry from a storm. Bassi Classic Triple crank. The range is appropriately large, and perfect for touring wherever I please. MKS Grip-King (Lambda), I was riding in sandals the day before taking these pictures, so super-wide super-supportive pedals were just right. SRAM 11-36t 10-speed cassette, because I get a perverse pleasure from fritcion shifting a 9-speed derailer over a 10-speed cassette. When it's worn I'll replace it with a 9-speed, or an 8-speed, or whatever's in stock. The Widefoot Cargo cage underneath the downtube gets my Nalgene strapped to it on tour. King Cage bottle cages are my new favourite. Affordable and tough, not to mention the good looks. WTB Nano 29 x 2.1" tires. As you can tell from the cleanliness of the bike, great for mud but I like them on everything but perfectly smooth pavement, so great on most tours. Nice and grippy on gravelly climbs as well. Carradice Nelson Longflap, a laughably huge saddlebag, which fits everything necessary for a weekend tour and expands ever bigger with the Longflap folded out. The side pockets don't fit a Nalgene, but only just. Swift Gibby stem bag, this year's Campout edition in coral. I needed a bag, it was in stock, and it was a cute pink. One-handed action is really practical! Not pictured: The frame pump, a pleasure to use and quick to inflate. The beat-up Ortlieb pannier bags The fenders and smooth tires, they're pretty quick to change into for riding and touring on roads and in the rainy months. Words and pictures by me
Luc's Polyvalent With No Specific Use
Open images in a new tab for big Prior to building this bike, I had an extensive history of buying/building bikes that I didn’t actually need on impulse. I’ve had the 29er off-road touring drop bar bike that I never actually used, I bought a new, lugged Marinoni road frame that literally sat in my closet for a year before i sold it off to make room, a gravel bike (whatever that means) that I rode under a dozen times and that I ended up selling for half of what I paid for it (along with incredible, like-new SunTour bar-end shifters which I think about every now and then when I need a reminder that selling a bike on an impulse is just as dumb as buying one), etc. And so, when came the time to build my Polyvalent, my goal was primarily to build a bike that I would use every day, whatever the weather, that had no specific use, i.e. not a touring bike, not a road bike, not a gravel bike, not an off-road-all-road-bikepacking-grinder-whatever - just a bike that I could go to work with, get groceries with, ride up to the Mont-Royal belvedere to drink a couple beers with co-workers after shifts, or, who knows, go out touring for a couple days with, if the opportunity arose. For the parts I decided to go for a classic, timeless, unapologetically un-trendy build with a bit of an ‘I have read way too much Grant Petersen’ touch. I get teased sometimes at the shop for buying parts that I can barely afford, but I have a profound hatred for planned obsolescence and so I tend to buy parts that will definitely outlive my bike and, hopefully, me. For the nerdy bit, most things that can be Nitto are (except for the bottle cage but not for lack of wanting one), the crankset is a Sugino Alpina2 - brace yourselves - triple, and I went for an IRD Tenacity cup-and-cone square taper bottom bracket that is serviceable and regreaseable and rebearingable and all of that good stuff. I’ve never owned a bike with 26-inch wheels before so Julian at the shop was very helpful on giving me advice on what rims to get: good ol’ Sun Ringle Rhyno Lites in 36h, laced (with the help of wheel-wizard JD at the shop because I think I’m way better at lacing wheels than I actually am) with double butted Sapim spokes to a Deore XT hub in the rear and a Shutter Precision Dynamo hub in the front. The saddle is a leather-less Brooks C17 Carved which I absolutely adore, the bar tape is some leather-less Fizik that I kept for a year after taking it off a bar that I sold to Simon at the shop. The front rack is a Soma Demi-Porteur, the basket is a chrome Wald 137 (with the attachments to mount it on your handlebars still on, because I love how angry it makes some people at the shop that i didn’t just take 5 minutes to grind them off) and the dynamo light is some 15$ led-thingy that JD lent me last year, which i doubt he even wants back because it’s terrible. The headset is a Campagnolo Record I had bought a couple of years ago for another bike without measuring my stack height so it had been sitting unused in a drawer forever. All of this stuff put together with fun bits like Silver bar-end shifters, MKS Gamma pedals, Yokozuna Compressionless housing and new-old-school Shimano aero brake levers. Since these photos were taken, I’ve changed the Deore Rear derailleur for a silver Altus (because it’s silver, but also because the Deore, in my famously not-so-humble opinion, looks absolutely horrendous, and also because I can’t help myself but show the world how much of a Riv fanboy I am) ; I’ve hand-painted an accent-aigu on the Velo Orange logo (vÉlo orange) (if anyone from VO reads this, there’s a typo on your logo, btw) and I’ve added leatherless flaps made by Honjo for SimWorks to the fenders. I absolutely love this bike, every part of it. Vélo Orange did a fantastic job at making the perfect blend of a classic and a modern frame and I’m kinda bummed they won’t be making it anymore. I hope I get to ride it to my native Péninsule Acadienne in New-Brunswick at some point when/if all of these pandemic shenanigans are over. Thank you to the good people at Cycle C&L for giving me the opportunity to talk your screen off about my bike. This has been fun, I hope to see y’all at the shop so we can talk forever about how indexed front derailleurs are dumb and how John Prine is the most underrated singer-songwriter of his generation. Love, Luc-Antoine Photos by one-man Specialized refurbishing machine Jonathan Chhun