Three Sams

Apr 19, 2023

Rivendell's Sam Hillborne, which they categorize among their "Country Bikes", is a versatile frame made for all types of roads and a good amount of touring.

The Sam is a do-it-all road bike: road biking, road touring, groceries, shopping, commuting. That's why it's been so popular! All roads and all weather, too. In Riv's words: "Can the "gravel bike" you're considering fit fenders? How about racks?"

Here are three builds fresh off the stands expressly spec'd to do it all! Some similarities, some differences, but in all cases these bikes are set to be trusty companions for decades to come!

Photos by JD

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Eric's Fast Belmont

Eric's Fast Belmont

Simon Dec 16, 2025

Open the pictures in a new tab to see 'em good and big. I was really excited when Eric wrote in asking if we could make a Belmont his way, because it showed he really understood the point of the frame, and that it's probably the only one around that fits his needs. He'd been looking for a Canadian replacement for a road frame "with more class and soul than a modern carbon special" with which he could do road rides and randonneuring out in BC. Speed and comfort was the name of the game. Eric wanted silver parts everywhere (and was disappointed but understood that we don't offer the Belmont with a quill stem) and, a surefire way to have a corner of my heart to himself, downtube friction shifters. I'm also in agreement with him that a 700C wheel with 32mm tires is plenty for anything on a road and keeps rotational weight and pneumatic trail down compared to a wide all-road tire. In lieu of the quill-stem cockpit, we found a beautiful setup with a Dia-Compe CB-2 headset, Nitto Ultimate Road UI-26 forged stem, and Velo Orange Nouveau Rando handlebar. To complement that, the seatpost and saddle are, to my eyes, an iconic combination: Brooks Swift with Nitto Crystal Fellow. The results speak for themselves and everything will be tough and remain just as gorgeous for the lifetime of the bike. The Brooks microfibre bar tape goes with their saddle, no surprise there, and the TRP brake levers can be set up on modern compact handlebars or on traditional round drops, depending on if you install the included spacer block, which is such a relief when trying to narrow down bar choices. They naturally pair perfectly with the TRP Spyre brakes that come standard on a Belmont build. The three-arm French throwback YMC crankset is sourced from Blue Lug, and it really ties the bike together. It was Eric's first choice of cranks and he was entirely correct, the æsthetics couldn't be better, even if he and I would have been just as happy with a Bassi Classic compact. The Belmont is a frame that's happy to be built as a fast modern randonneuse, but is in no way limited to that. I really look forward to building peoples' ideas of a cool bike and seeing what we can come up with together, it's one of the fun parts of this job!

Marc-André's Black Mountain La Cabra

Marc-André's Black Mountain La Cabra

Simon Dec 11, 2025

This is a frame which was brought to us by Marc-André, who wanted a very specific build. Black Mountain Cycles are a shop in Point Reyes Station, California. It's a small town not too far North of San Francisco on Highway One, with lovely galleries, ice cream, and this manufacturer within view of the Black Mountain. They design really particular frames which I can only describe as "What if a road bike could mountain-bike". It's a really fun idea but makes it a little more difficult to build the complete bike. There's not a lot of leeway on which components work with the frame, and together. Honestly, I appreciate their philosophy both as a company and in the way they choose to make bikes. This build wound up being really appropriate to the kind of trail riding Marc-André does, and has zero compromises. We've got Shimano GRX on the drivetrain, with a small mountain-bike crank and a wide-range cassette, superb wheels from DT Swiss (handbuilt by us), and lots of winning Ritchey WCS bits to fill it out. There's no other way to say it: this bike absolutely rips. It's meant to be very stable climbing at low speeds and descending quickly on rough gravel trails.

A beautiful made-to-order Panasonic road bike

A beautiful made-to-order Panasonic road bike

Simon Dec 1, 2025

Local rider Terry came to us with this gorgeous, brand new Panasonic road-bike frame, welded just for him through Panasonic's famous made-to-order framebuilding system. Check out the factory visit in the video below, it's super cool! For those who don't know, yes this is the same Panasonic that's made batteries, turntables, etc you've encountered before. They also happen to be a huge domestic bicycle manufacturer in Japan, mostly under the brand name "National". Since the 80's they've had an impressive ordering system for specifying your frame model, sizing, and colours. This bike came to us as a frame and Campy groupset, and we supplied the rest of the components, along with our usually thorough assembly. The nice, fast Campagnolo wheels go perfectly with the drivetrain, while the classic-looking components we're known for really tie the bike together.  Note especially the Cinelli Giro d'Italia handlebar with Nitto stem, a typical Italy-Japan mix like we've always loved. Terry borrowed one of our loaner saddles to try it out, which you can see in these pictures. See below for pictures of the details, and don't forget to open the images in a new tab to really zoom in! We're thrilled we got a chance to help you build your dream bike, Terry! Happy riding.  
Dumitru's Classic Rando-Montreal

Dumitru's Classic Rando-Montreal

C&L Oct 22, 2025

Dumitru came to us with a mandate for his dream drop-bar build, and the result came out just right! He wanted a few things: an upright and comfortable position, brifters and a 1x transmission for ease of shifting, light weight stuff where it counts, and classic silver and brown styling.  He sized between the 52 and 55cm frames, so we opted for the latter to achieve this "French Fit", with the handlebar significantly higher than the saddle. Nitto's super-short, super-tall Technomic quill stem helped out here to get the bars nice and close.  For brifters, we opted for SRAM's Apex1 group, which we've tested time and again on our Hog's Back builds over the years. The double-tap shifting is intuitive and fast, and the ergonomics of the levers is excellent. Instead of using their crank, we opted for our Narrow-Wide Low crankset, which has a smaller 38t chainring than the Apex1 offers as a minimum, and can even be lowered to 34t for future-proofing or outfitting this bike for hillier rides. Plus, it's silver! To shave some weight, we opted for where it counts: the wheels. Velocity Quills are our favourite lightweight road rims for wide(r) tires, and they built up perfectly to a Velo Orange rear hub and Shutter Precision front, with double butted Sapim Race spokes that are both lighter, and stronger. Clad in Rene Herse Babyshoe Pass tires, these are smoooooth spinning wheels!  Speaking of silver, we needed to make this ride classic. The Montreal is a great platform for this, and we kept things shiny all around. Honjo's beautiful aluminium fenders might appear old-timey at first glance, but they're actually light, solid, and wonderfully functional. The Brooks B17 saddle, which needs no introduction at this point, checks all the boxes when it comes to comfort and good looks.  Catch Dumitru riding long distances on this guy! It's since been outfitted with racks, bags, and lights, and continues to evolve over time and age like a fine wine.  Photos by Troy