Peeking Through the Knothole

Reader 42 Update

Rivendell Bicycle Works — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:51:18 +0000

I'd give it two months, but it'll be good. I'm seriously shooting for August 20 ship date (and post-to-site date), but that's not a promise. The "it'll be good" is a promise.

Plug for MUSA

Rivendell Bicycle Works — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:39:32 +0000

You won't find many pure plugs in this section, but our MUSA shorts, pants, and knickers are---well, I'm as happy with them as I could possibly be. If they weren't ours, and they were made by somebody I couldn't stand for some really good, deep, evil reason, I'd still buy them and wear them every day of my life. I wear M or L shorts, and XL knickers. I like the big baggy long knicker look. Anyway, the MUSA stuff is really good, and we get lots of repeat orders. If you're needing some riding bottoms that double as everyday bottoms, you should try them.
G

Join the ranks of the ferocious arch-pedalers?

Rivendell Bicycle Works — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:53:57 +0000

Friend Gary sent us a link to a Cyclingnews site column on foot-pedaling position and cycling shoes and biomechanics and all. Naturally it just elated me, because it fits right in with The Shoes Ruse claims. Now, if they could only get rid of the cleat itself and start riding in sandals, Adidas Sambas, and regular ol' shoes, they're really be up to Riv-speed.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/tech.php?id=/tech/2009/reviews/biomac_bio-mxc2shoes09

Seven or so new pics

Rivendell Bicycle Works — Tue, 26 May 2009 06:10:52 +0000

Jay got a new camera, an old Nikon FM with a 50/1.8, and last Friday (May 22) he went up to the High Rocky Place on the mountain by himself and took two of the pictures. Then on Sunday he and Aaron (works here Saturdays) and Alicia rode down in Big Basin State Park, on the roads down there, and that's where the other pics are frome.

Alicia rides a Bleriot, Aaron rides a Hilsen, and Jay was on his Hillborne. In the foggy rock picture you can see it. He used a prototype rack he's working on with Nitto. You can sort of see it in the picture.

To see all the pics, keep clicking on the RBW button. They come up randomly, and there are around 33 pics up there.

small note about new pix on homepage

Rivendell Bicycle Works — Sat, 02 May 2009 05:53:59 +0000

Four or five new pictures, with Jay, Mark, Vaughn. The hills here are starting to turn brown, but it's great riding. If any of you comes by and want to know where these trails are, we're happy to direct you. There are hard and easy trails close to us, and if you have 2 hours or more, you have access to everything. It takes no time at all to get there, but there's a lot of there there, and two hours just means you can spend more time in the woods.
Mark's on his custom Riv cross bike. Jay, on a Hilborne. Vaughn, a Legolas with a front-mounted Carradice.
The new photo note: Olympus XA camera, Portra 400NC film. Does that mean anything to anybody anymore? I mention it in case it does.

To scroll thru the photos, keep clicking on the RIV circle logo. There are 31 different photos, and they come up randomly. The fancy shoes are Allen Edmonds (MUSA!) Strands. Ha!

BLOGS? You want, like, insider stuff? Musings? Twitter-like and all? OK.

Rivendell Bicycle Works — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 18:57:19 +0000

I invented the modern day blog every bit as much as Al Gore invented the internet. Some of you long-timers may remember the Progress Report in the early Readers. It was a daily journal of hold-nothing back, and it went on for five years or so, stopping only when--none of you, but other online Monday morning quarterbacks would publicly second-guess decisions that I'd already admitted were dumb or financial failures. It got to the point where I'd say (in the Prog Report), "Man, I shouldn't have done that," and then somebody would go online and repeat to the world that I was stupid to do it.

On bad days and in bad weeks that are stressful enough without public chastisement, it just got to be too much. I have opinions about bike things, and I state them succinctly, and that combo sometimes suggests I'm a tough jerk who ought to be able to take a good lashing, but I hope I'm not a jerk, and I know I can 't take the lashing...so I stopped.

Having a Forum is stressful enough. I go onto it every now and then, and sometimes post something, but I still find that I lack the intestinal fortitude for it. The same fellow who likes my writing sometimes, doesn't like it other times. I tell myself, "That's only natural, what are you--nuts?--you expect everybody to like everything?" And of course I don't. But I wonder what he likes and what he doesn't, and then I wonder whether it's even good to know, whether I should write to the audience or just write, just say what I sorta feel I have to say or whatever.

I got a lot of criticism for "spilling my guts" and one guy accused me of not being manly about it. One remembers those things. One problem, or feature, inherent in bloggy junk, is the danger of thinking people care what you're feeling at any given time, that it matters. I know people care, because I know people--and by this I certainly mean 99.9 percent of our customers, of you guys--are good people who care. But bloggy stuff can take on a life of its own. It can be reinforcing in a dangerous way, or a pathetic way, to watch one's own musings slowly fill up the page. It's like filling up Shea Stadium, but without the nervousness, and it can go to your head.

The Progress Report days were generally less busy than a typical day now. Early early, it was just Spencer and me and a part-time helper, Maggie. The first year we started with about $80,000 in the bank, but I hooked up a fire hose to it and started siphoning it into the sewer with lots of bad decisions, but there were some good ones, too. Still, at the end of a year we had minus $3,000 in the bank, and I had to borrow it from my dad. He died a few years later (I wrote about that in a Reader) before I could pay him back, which bugs me still.

There's a plan here to collect and consolidate and publish a "Best of the Rivendell Reader," and so the other night I was going through some of the early issues trying to find things I liked good enough to put out there again, and I was not coming up with much. Some of the stories are good, but the photos were lousy, and I don't even have the original photos they came from, so we'd have to use a dub of the lousy printed photo, and I'm not sure I have the stomach for it.

We'll still do something. It feels odd to put out a self-praising "Best of...", but it would simplify life here if we could do that. We don't have all the files anymore, or even every issue.

Another thing, related, is that we'd like somebody to make a Reader-by-Reader list or some kind of searchable database for old Reader stories. Nobody here has time, but if one of you, somebody who knows himherself to be a fastidious, meticulous, detail-oriented follow-througher wants to tackle it, please do so and we'll give you a $250 credit. On the outside chance that this offer gets ultra-pounced on by too many, we're going with the first taker before Wednesday. That could be today, it could be tomorrow, and maybe nobody will jump on it. TAKEN CARE OF at 3:10 PM.

This post replaces one Spencer or John or Mark put up, about the Tweed bags coming in again. That reminds me--about tweed mudflaps, one thing one of my favorite Rivendelles groans about.

They were always tongue-in-cheek. A response to mudflaps made of thick, oil-stuffed English bridle leather. One one hand, it's just a mudflap, so what the heck, go hog-wild with it (hog leather?). On the other hand, there's a lot to be said of duct-tape mudflaps, and mudflaps made from recycled junk. Why not one of each?

But the tweed mudflap makers---they've been hurt badly by both the economy and the horrifying trend of today's British, youth not caring about their old, traditional bags. Our bag maker had to shut down for most of a year a few years back, and resurfaced reorganized and greatly shrunk.

Some of what we do here...is buy from makers who really need and appreciate our business. Most of the time, the stuff costs a ton to buy and a lot to ship here. Nobody here makes much money (me included, yes) for what they do and the contribution they make. So...when I read that people are bummed about this or that selling for more here than at VO or some place else, it really bums me out. Let me tell you: There is NO FAT here. We try to make up for things with free freight on $150+ orders, and the 5% credit rebate, but we don't price-shop our competition.

Who is our competition? We must have some. Many of you think many of us think VO is our competition, because it sells some of the same kinds of things, and some of the same exact things. I don't consider them competition. It is challenging, I admit, to discover they have something we have cheaper; and to think that we're being whittled away at by VO or Kogswell or SOMA or SURLY or Acorn, Carradice, VBQ, Berthoud, WallBike, or something...but these are good businesses run by good people. My overriding concern here is to keep my fantastic co-workers employed. Those other fine firms have the same concerns for their employees. And think of how disingenuous it would be for me to tout lugged steel and canvas bags and all that stuff...and then yelp like a whiner when whaddya know, other people start getting into it, too?

It is a personal battle for me to think of these guys as on our side, on our team. I'm winning the battle, but it takes diligence. I know we're in a niche, or a small pond. There are two ways to deal with that. One is to think, This pond: Not big enough for more than one fish! The other is: Welcome, new fish! We got a good kind of pond. Let's make it bigger. That second way is the way I think about it, but as I said, it's not always a cinch. I have turned the corner, though, and I think it's good for everybody's business, including ours--on a practical, money, cold-hard business level that goes way beyond karma points or whatever.

The competition, if anything is really our competition, is --- well, two things. One, my own emotions, which sometimes steer me down paths that aren't all that profitable (you'll read about one of these in RR42, and I will be strongly criticized...but I know all that now, before the fact, and I am resolute in this stupid-seeming thing we're about to do that's not worth guessing at). It's still not smart, but it's not as dumb as it seems, and not every decision here is made with the bottom line in mind.

And the other is the racing community, which is tricking lots and lots of people into a way of bicycle life that .... ummmm, isn't all that fullfilling. Not for all of them.

G
The "I invented blogging" is a joke, by the way. Not a good one, maybe a dangerous one. A bad, dangerous joke!

Tweed Bags Update

Rivendell Bicycle Works — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 19:56:11 +0000

A small run of Nigel Smythe Green Tweed bags is in production and we hope to have them here by June. Preorder now to make sure you get one before they sell out and to get a price break. Credit cards are not charged until preordered items ship and our standard shipping rates still apply.

preorder price / regular price

20-150 Nigel Smythe Li'l Loafer $105 / $110

20-149 Nigel Smythe Big Loafer $110 / $120

20-147 Nigel Smythe Country bag $205 / $215

20-148 Nigel Smythe Seat Pouch $135 / $140

Also, our most popular Keven bag is now going to be a Nigel Smythe product. Both Green Tweed and Tan Canvas are in the works with an ETA of June, as well.

20-151 Nigel Smythe Keven bag Green Tweed $82 / $90

20-172 Nigel Smythe Keven bag Tan Canvas $72 / $80

Call 800-345-3918 to preorder.

Note: this batch of bags is being made out of a different green tweed pattern design than previous green tweed bags (see pic of new green tweed fabric below).

well, thanks, Good Day, April 9. After bad day, April 8.

Rivendell Bicycle Works — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 03:46:43 +0000

Today, April 9, was a day that's everybody here will remember for ten years, no question about that. It was stressful and then great, and it was great on many levels. I'll just get to it. We have some monstrous bills coming up, for the Sam Hillbornes, and they're due before the Sams arrive. My wife, who pays our bills and deals with that end of the business and is usually unflappable, was quite wound up yesterday, and I mean really wound up. She doesn't get mean or yell, she just frets, and when she frets, we all have a reason to fret. ("And when Einstein's scared, brother....I'm scared."--Sam Hinton, Talking Atomic Blues, as sung at the Newport Folk Festival, 1963.)
We've pre-sold lots of them, but usually we don't collect the money until the bikes arrive (then we charge the balance on the frame) and then ship the bike (we charge the remaining balance). We didn't have the money to pay the bill, so asked the orderers if we could charge their frame balances now...to shift the payment forward and help the cash flow.
The alternative was borrowing money. We can't borrow any more from the bank. We're hanging in here, but we're tapped out, too. We pay our vendors and make payroll, but behind the chit-chat and bike passion and all that, is a constant hi-wire tension that revolves around cash flow. I think that's normal for a business. It certainly was at Bstone, and---ask any business what its number one concern is, especially these days, and if it doesn't say "cash flow," and then you say, "even more than cash flow?", that company spokesperson will probably amend the answer to, "of course cash flow, but I thought you meant besides that."
Anyway, we needed your help and got it. You agreed to pay now, and we got out of a deep jam. The gang here came up with the plan and made the contacts, asked the uncomfortable questions, and you did it.
We're still on a short leash, and we still tread water month-to-month. The fact that we're still here after 15 years just means we're used to it, and haven't done anything really big and stupid. Work is good, but these are hard times for everybody, it seems, and Rivendell Bicycle Works is feeling it too. Yesterday was horrible, today was great, and it's not just the moolah; it's the coming through part, too.

Grant

New homepage pix explan

Rivendell Bicycle Works — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 04:01:17 +0000

To see the referenced pix, keep hitting the "refresh" key (circular arrow) at the top of your screen, and the main photo will change. There are about 26 photos in the random rotation, and maybe 10 of them are from taken on an S24O (sub-24-hour overnight---a quickie ride-n-camp trip) nearby. Following is a brief story of it....

From HQ it was a casual 50-minute ride (mostly residential and bike path) to the trail head, where everything gets woodsy and creekish. Then ten minutes of flat riding, leading to 25 minutes of pushing the bike up a hill, then riding through dense woods, followed by more pushing and then we're for the most part above the trees and in the land of green domes and wildflowers (fiddlenecks are the yellow ones, and they're dominant). We were at the top 2 hours after leaving HQ, and rode around on the trails there before picking a campsite.

Rider is a friend. His bike is a Bleriot 55cm with one Col de la Vie tire, and one Schwalbe Middie. He had a Top Rack on back, where he strapped (using four John's Irish Straps) his one-person tent and sleeping bag and pad.
Up front he has a Mark's rack with a medium Wald basket with food, clothing. He's been on a dozen or more of these, and this is his normal rig. Sometimes he rides shop bikes or prototypes, but usually his own.

Ordinarily at this time of year we'd cook dinner (Trangia stove), but this time we ate sardines, strawberries (kept unsquished and in surprisingly good shape in a Trangia box), gouda and parmesan, and walnuts, almonds, macadamias, and apricot kernels. Trader Joe's sells apricot kernels cheap in a bag, and they're surprisingly non-bitter. If they were almonds they'd be lousy. They look like small orange-ish almonds.

I rode my 56cm Atlantis with Albatross bars, with a Big Boxy bag in back with food, tent, and clothes, extra water, book, and wash kit, and a Nitto Mini rack in front, onto which I strapped my sleeping bag and pad.

My Atlantis is the first prototype, from 1998, and has been on more than 50 of these trips. Can't beat it, but many of our bikes would be as good. I rode Schwalbe 26x50 Marathon XR tires and was glad for the volume and softness, because the cow hoofprints made some of the trails really bumpy. The Albatross bars are great for this kind of riding, although my buddy rides Noodles, no problem.
The photos were shot with a Voigtlander Bessa R 35mm rangefinder camera, with a 35mm lens. Friend shot some with a digital, and when I ran out of film, I used his digital camera, too. A Nikon Coopix somethingorother.
I'll replace this post in a few days, with something less me-me/we-we.
---Grant

Paper Reader 41 is here/and BLUE JEAN NEWS

Rivendell Bicycle Works — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 18:56:03 +0000

Thank-you for your patience. The printer delivered 5,000 copies on March 9. It's a limited edition.
If you want just a paper Reader 41 and nothing else, please order it by mail by sending $4 in cash to:
Rivendell Reader, PO Box 5289, Walnut Creek CA 94596 with an address
label.
The address label can be any piece of blank paper, 2.5" by 4" or so, with your name/address/city/state/zip.Something we can glue or tape onto a large white envelope.
If you are ordering other things here, click away and we will include the Reader
with the rest of your order. Or download RR 41 here for free!

BLUE JEANS: We don't sell them. We don't even wear a lot of them, but you can't show up at the ranch or the hoe-down wearing MUSA pants, and so...rotten economy, small companies hurt as much as big ones.....here's a tip if you're looking for super-duper Made in Georgia (not the Russian one) blue jeans---because no matter how much or little you wear them, blue jeans are a staple, and you need a pair, right:

www.gussetclothing.com

THey have a seamless crotch, so there's the bicycle-connection. Other than that, they're just really stout blue jeans. Various styles and fits. If you buy a pair, send us proof in paper--the label or something. Some kind of proof. And we'll give you a $5 credit here. This is one small way we-and-you can help the economy. If you need blue jeans. If you're going to get them anyway....

Send the proofa purchase to

Rivendell Bicycle Works
Box 5289
Walnut Creek, CA 94596
attn: Grant/Blue Jean Deal

Do it by the end of the month. We won't send notice that your account has been credited, but it will be, and any future order you place will have it on there automatically. Jeans run about $39 to $50. Stoutly made for the tough cowboys and ranch hands in Georgia, but they work for us bicycle riders, too.
Yes, help this company, and get some super good blue jeans in the bargain.