Bird Dog. Beats the bushes for fabrics, raw materials, and odds & ends. Does stuff no one else has the time to do. Favorite LP: "The Beatles" (better known as "The White Album"). On-board in various capacities since 9:00AM Monday, September 18, 2000.
Joe BunikOne of The
Saturday Guys since March of aught-'12, Joe enjoys helping the wide variety of customers visiting our showroom, no matter the weather. A known dabbler and obscurophile, Joe is a web developer at a nearby university and luddite during the off-weeks.
S C <email>Does the bulk of the
buying and the receiving and some of the pics and some of the website.
Check with the S if you want to know when the something will be back in stock.
Sean Jimmie Rich HipkinSean's our newest part-time
all-round staffer splitting time between boxin' bikes, answering phones, stocking shelves, and working in the showroom. The youngest offspring of professional competitive eating, figure skating parents, he was born in Madrid while his parents were on European tour (Paella para Vida '93) and fed a strict education of skateboarding and print making. Raised some places in between the East and West coast of North America (yet he's neither Spanish or United States of Americanese) he now resides on the fringe of prime S24O real estate but he's still a little too timid to venture forth and luxuriate in his backyard haven. Studying graphic design at the local juco, he likes to spend his free time not reading and participating in militant, anti-library fundamentalism.
Harry H. Hugel IV [email]Our Head Saturday Guy. Latest in long line of like-named Harry H. Hugels. Works odd hours at a bank (not ours) doing technical stuff we don't understand. He might just be the happiest person you will ever meet.
Will KeatingBeen here ever since late September '12, answering the phones, working the Saturdays, and doing this n that around here when he's not at SF State during the week. SoCal born and raised, likes skating the Embarcadero and bike riding to LA with nothing but a little backpack no big deal. Favorite film: The Untouchables.
Miesha Kerl [email]Here since 2004, in charge of
web and mail orders and
helps with the retail store displays and so on. Plus, she's a willing
model, which is valuable at a place where nobody else can stand to do
it. Mother of Brian, Laiya, and Freddie. She also buys clothing and
books, so check with her if we are out of stock in those categories.
Want to change your address, check membership status, or have questions about an order? Ask
Miesha.
Jenny KlugHailing
from the San Joaquin Valley and current San Francisco resident, Jenny
is the other half of the
shipping department. When not using her hands
to pack orders, she plays drums in a couple of SF bands. Wears many
Adidas and rides Amtrak often. She's friendly as can be, but has been
known to make a mean espresso.
Robert KurosawaOne of four cyclo-x racers here, and head of of our crackerjack
shipping team. An artist on his own and a cardboard artist at work. He sets the country's standard for beautiful, compact, creative packing. A reluctant catalogue model, says the boss overexposed him in ads and catalogues during the Bridgestone years. Raised in Hawaii. At Rivendell since 2000. He hasn't an ounce of fat despite a diet that seems to rule out nothing.
Jared Lelievre (email)Model Specialties: Sam Hillborne
Our Newest full timer since September 2012. Jared's from Boston by way of Austin and lost in many places 'tween. Once a machinist, now an assembler in his encore career. Staff Vegan, curator of rivbike Instagram, somehow worked out a 4 day work week that gives him big weekends for S480s. Rides a 62cm Hunq all over the country, has a 62cm Sam on order, only eats sprouted almonds and won't drink the tap water.
Rich Lesnik [email]Specialty: Wheels!
Jazz musician (clarinet and saxophone) and former UA mechanic. Our wheel builder, and maybe the best one in the world, seriously. Also has a side business called Hands on Wheels. Here since 2002.
He likes touring and wheels. Every year he plans some kind of a longer tour than any of the rest of us do. Sometimes solo, sometimes with a group. He has a Riv custom touring bike, a Quickbeam, a Saluki, and A. Homer Hilsen, and an XtraCycle that he uses to haul wheels.
Rich is the most prolific wheel builder we know, and builds about 2.5 wheels each day, He owns and uses some really complicated wheel-building tools ultra-gadgets from the Swiss maker DT, generally, and really gets into them, figures them out, and in general just enjoys to high heaven every aspect of building a wheel.
The whole
world of wheel building is Rich's. But his knowledge is vaster than that, so you can ask him anything. But if you have a wheel question, be sure to
ask Rich.
Elizabeth McCarthy {email}Elizabeth is our
bike packer. When she's not packing bikes, she is a college student at Diablo Valley College. She also plays trombone. We've had compliments on her work, so your bike will be safe with her.
Scott MillerSchool teacher during the week (history), and bike seller and mechanic on Saturdays.
Keven Mowen [email] Model specialties: A. Homer Hilsen, Betty Foy.
Keven is with two e's, yes. He started December, 2005 and has worked various jobs unrelated to his human biology degree, including bicycle guide in Italy. He's fluent in Italian, so if you have any friends who want our stuff and speak only Italian and like to do their own ordering on the telephone, he's your man; same goes for Espanol. Keven likes Chi-running and riding, and races cyclo-cross. He's calm all the time. Keven knows all about our bikes and fitting methods and can help you with anything.
The one thing he does that nobody else does is manage orders for non-custom frames. Anything to do with them, from timing to paint, delivery, and so on. Wanna know where your frame or bike is? Ask Keven.
Vince NivoloA local Walnut Creek part-timer, you'll find him helping out customers in the showroom, taking phone orders, stocking shelves, and entering Tarantino look-a-like contests in his spare time. He had a 60cm Saluki, sold it for a 60cm Betty Foy with a big ol' basket and marathons.
Grant PetersEn [email]Here since the start. Main jobs are writing the Reader and catalogues and designing/developing the bikes and picking the stuff we offer. Disorganized, well-intentioned, clean but personally and organizationally on the disheveled side of things.
Good for general and technical questions, but tends to let things related to following up slip through the cracks. Tries hard, but tends to give confusing, complicated, overly detailed answers to simple questions, all under the banner of "helping." Loses sight of the big picture when he focuses on minor "now!"-type details.
Dave Schoenborg Operations ManagerEver since July 2008. Dave T9s the operational chain here and plays slide guitar on some riv-vids, including our most important one:
How to Measure Your Pubic Bone Height. Knowledgeable enough with mechanical issues to get into trouble, it's probably still best to ask our mechanics technical questions, especially about anything before 1984, his birth year. Drives a '69 MG, plays a '59 Gretsch, and splits time between his Homer & Atlantis.
Email
dave{at}rivbike.com with any website feedback, bug reports or broken links, or if nobody else seems right.
Brian Tester. (email) Model specialties: Hunqapillar, Atlantis, and Bombadil.
Bike mechanic. Knows Mac stuff, too. Plays with at least two bands, one as a guitarist and one as a manipulator of electronic devices. His cassette tapes from the 90s pop up now and then, says cassette recording is back. Lives in West Oakland, owns the East Bay hills on his Hunq, Homer and Legolas. Worked in Berlin. Hails from Minnesota.
