Rivendell News

New, improved MSL prices

Rivendell Bicycle Works — Thu, 08 May 2008 18:40:21 +0000

As I mentioned two postings ago, the weak dollar is jacking up our Japanese prices so much that we can either stop selling it or raise prices, and since our entire business and all of these jobs and our whole dang company is so largely Japanese-centric, there is no actual decision to make, and prices are going up enough to Minimum Sustainable Levels (MSL) effective today at about 3pm Western Time.
As anybody who works here at Rivendell knows, I don't like raising prices, but I much less rather like bleeding the business until it dies, so without further apology, that's what's going on.
Now: If you're a member, you still get a five percent rebate credit based on your calendar year's purchase, you still get free shipping on most orders over $150, and on orders less than $150, our $8 flat-rate is still cheap.

The MSL prices are much healthier for us. They aren't that much higher. Moustache H'bars were $52, and now they're $60. Noodle Bars went from $52 to $60, too. Nothing worse than that, and Nitto hardware is the best and the world, and still well below the prices of name-brand equivalents made not as well and not as beautiful in countries where the labor costs are a small fraction of what Japan's are.

Thanks...... Grant (on behalf of all of us here)

Reader Forty in the Mail

Rivendell Bicycle Works — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 14:13:08 +0000

Some of you will have it in three days, some in a week, and all by April 21 (if you're a current member). It has a different format this time, and two words in the headline are intentionally misspelled, something I'm mentioning here only because in the final draft of the editorial, I mistakenly removed the reference and the reason. The reference was a short sentence long and the reason was tiny, but its absence is not so tiny, and that's that.

The part number for RR40, in case you are not a member and want us to mail it out first class immediately, is 24-213, and it'll run you $3. There is at least $1.50 worth of information $0.50 worth of general enlightenment and another $0.50 worth of entertainment, and the missing fifty cents covers part of the postage.

We got some frames in. The first batch of A. Homer Hilsens to include the old Saluki sizes 47 50 52 54 56 for 650B wheels (in the same Saluki geometries, which are functionally identical to the AHH frames in all ways that matter), and just this one time, half a dozen 55cm frames for 700c wheels.

Most of the 57cm and bigger frames in this batch are going to dealers--we still have about nine dealers--but the smaller 650b-ers are available. Since our delivery has been slow-late-bad, we're having Wford build more AHH's for us, starting this month. They're already experienced with Hilsens (having built more than 50 already), and with the combo of weak dollar and slow delivery, it makes sense for them to make more. In a perfect world we could flow these in to our lineup seamlesslly and silently, but 'tis far from a perfect world, so that won't happen.

For the record and as a compliment to both Toyo and Wford, we here personally, candidly, honestly, and as the folks most in a position to take a credible stance on such matters, rate the two frames equally. But the Wfords cost us more (e'en with a strong ¥ and weak $), so if you buy a Wford-built AHH frame only, it will cost you $100 more. If you buy a whole bike, we'll absorb it and take the hit, over and out on that one.

Something of minor interest to a tiny percentage of you: The 72cm frame is now going to be a 71cm frame. We have steer tubes long enough for a 71, but not quite long enough for a 72. Are not going to get a custom steer tube just for the 72, so 71 it is, and if you need a bike in the low 70s, well, it's still something to be happy about.

Our new cheap but excellent 650B wheelsets (read more about them in RR40) are now available with 135mm spacing, but will soon--like by April 25--be available with 130mm rear hubs. This makes road-bike conversions even easier, and if that's something you've been thinking about, this is something you should know. We'll have them up on the site when they're here, and they'll be the same $180/pair, and built with 105 hubs.

It feels a little creepy and strange to continue business as usual in a Sheldon-less world, as though now we're over his passing. I'm still in the pretending stage, but I have pictures of Sheldon around here and there to remind me, and for the sake of lots of things and many people the show really does have to go on, but every now and then another acknowledgement of him will pop up, like now. In Sheldon's case, we all really did know what we had before he was gone, and he didn't strut around as though he knew that, but he was smart enough to know it.

Grant

Gotta love that weak U.S. dollar...

Rivendell Bicycle Works — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 20:24:36 +0000

IF you're a tourist from Another Country. If you actually live here and have a business and sell stuff made anywhere except China, then it's a harsh, bad deal. Same, if you buy things from one of those kinds of companies.

Giant to us is the strength of the Yen (¥, or "option Y on a mac keyboard) which is key to our business,The more ¥ a Buck buys, the lower the price of anything Japanese. In what follows, an expression such as "The ¥ was at 150" means one dollar bought 150 ¥. Sorry about the financial talk, but it affects things.

In 1972 and before then, the ¥ was at 375 or so, and you could get really great Japanese cameras really cheap. Japan's bike market and technology weren't yet at the point where Japanese parts had much international appeal (that was about 6 to 8 years off still), so it's not like you could get an Atlantis equivalent for $500 complete or anything. But cameras, sure. Nikon, Olympus, Canon, Pentax, Yashica, and others were already up to speed.

Japanese bike makers and parts makers were getting pretty good by the late '70s, and the dollar was still strong (¥ at about 250), and so you could go to a Japanese maker and basically say, "Give it your best, don't hold back on materials, feautures, quality, details, aesthetics, lustre, or anything," knowing that however over the top they went, the finished product would still be super affordable.

In 1984, the ¥ was still at 250, and by that time the parts-makers had learned plenty, and bike parts made in that year were Special. By today's standards, they didn't work any better, but they looked better, and even the cheap parts had details that even today's best parts lack. One example: A pivoting rear derailer cable clamp, which assures the straightest pull on the parallelogram throughout the range of gears.

It's not like it matters in practice, but it does matter in theory, and the smart designers knew that it was the right thing to do, so they did it--even on $12 rear derailers. And, the finish was really good. Today we have matte where then we had polished and anodized. Today we have screened-on names, and then we had forged-in, cast-in, and engraved.

Now, don't go getting all weepy and pathetically and unnecessarily sentimental about things you didn't even know about when they were happening, just because you can't get them any more. I'm just saying: When the dollar is strong and the ¥ is weak (1:250 or so), you can pretend you're Bill Gates or Oprah Winfrey when you go bike shopping.

In 1985 and as the result of a Big Meeting of Five Big Governments from the US, Japan, Germany, England, and I think Italy but it might have been Switzerland, the exchange rates were arbitrarily leveled, and the USD went from 250 to 150 overnight (May 1985). As a result, there was a huge shift to Taiwan, and all the nice & classy details such as the pivoting cable clamp and non-rubboffable manufacturer's marks, went out the window. No big deal, many things have improved, but just not in that way. We have The Clean Air Act, and now a guy is running for President and actually has a chance, who wouldn't have had a chance back then. There's more organically grown food, and a few good books have been published.

But now the ¥ is at 100, and that's the lowest it's been since a month or two in 1995, when it hit mid-eighties. We base our pricing on a ¥ at 115--which, by recent standards, could be considered a pessimistic benchmark, but you always want to err on the side of thinking you've got less money in your bank than you actually do, if you know what I mean. We PRICE things according to 115; and now it's at 100, with no soon promise or reason to believe that the dollar will strengthen.

Even at 115, our margins are low, and now, it's just not working. I mean, we have inventory, we want to sell it, but we're going to have to raise prices. Even without the falling dollar, our prices have increased.

So, no big deal--if you want the good stuff, you'll just have to pay more for it, starting in about mid-April. That's when we raise prices on things from Japan and England, at least. Bikes, frames, Nitto stuff, bells, bar tape, pedals, headsets, tires, and so on.

The NIGEL SMYTHE & SONS bags have increased tremendously--our listed prices were based on a much stronger dollar/weaker Brit pound, and in some cases our prices are now 40 percent higher. So them too have to go up or go 'way. These are low-margin items for us, since we like the idea of fine British Bags and all, but as of March 23, the new prices are in effect. Don't be bummed--if you like us, you'll want us to benefit when we sell something, not bleed.

If you're a member, you still get the five percent credit rebate. That should help some, right? OK, all for now, thanks.

Grant

New 650B Wheelset

Rivendell Bicycle Works — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 18:05:06 +0000

Sometimes these posts will be short, just announcing something we just got that would get buried if we just put it in the proper category listing without calling attention to it. The plan is to have a NEW section to put stuff like this in, and that will happen in time, but for now: $180 gets you a set of good 650B wheels. Perfect for conversions-on-a-budget or a Bleriot-onna-budget, or just a good cheap set of wheels. Go to the wheel section and see them there. All for now, thanks. Grant

RR 40 (The Fortieth Rivendell Reader)

Rivendell Bicycle Works — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 06:27:32 +0000

It is finished and will be in the mail by the end of this month. THere are some good stories in it, and overall I'd give it a B+. THe outside contributions bring it up. My own stuff drags it down, and that's not false modesty, as you will see when you see it. I just want to make that clear, in case some of the contributors see this and get the wrong massage. You don't want any of THOSE!

A friend has plantar fascitis. He's been to the doctor of course, but the advice he gets is to stay off his feet, don't walk, and he sort of has to. It is ridiculous, I guess, to ask for help or advice about this, but I bet some of you have had it and probably have something helpful to say. It's not me, but I'll pass it on. I'm grant@rivbike.com.

Thanks. Especially if you're an arch doctor, but even if you aren't.

Grant

Ventile and RR

Rivendell Bicycle Works — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 20:57:09 +0000

Ventile: The Xl is gone, still have the L and a M. I'd say it's a smallish large, probably a smallish medium, too.

RR40 will go to the printer on Friday or Monday, probably Tuesday. You should have it by April 4 or so, latest.

It has a few good stories in it, and I hope you all like it OK. I'm working on 41 now, and it may be a good one, too.

More later...mainly just wanted to note that the XL Ventile sold. Keven bought it, actually. Does that count?

Grant

Three Ventile cycling jackets

Rivendell Bicycle Works — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 19:54:55 +0000

In a week or so when there's time to do it if we haven't sold these by then which I think is unlikely, I'll write more about these jackets and ventile cloth in particular, but for now it's sort of an experiment, to see how many of you know about them already, and how many can actually afford one, and what the intersection between those two groups is, and then seeing if you have the need right now, as Winter is leaving us.

What it is: A dark green cycling jacket.

Material: Ventile cloth (all cotton)

Which Winston ordered the British textile industry to develop such a fabric, to save lives? Churchill.

When: Right around World War II.

Is it waterproof? Yes

Is it as waterproof as the most waterproof modern fabrics? No.

Waterproof enough, though, I mean, really, truly, in rotten conditions? Yes.

Weightwise, what are we talking? A large weighs 2.2 pounds.

Pack size? About as big as a football.

So, is it the tourist's delight? No.

What's it for then? Commuting, general wear in the rain and the wind.

What's cycling-specific about it? It's cut not super baggy, it has six streamlined pockets--four in front, two in back.

Any reflectors or anything? No, but it has a hood designed to go over a helmet, so when you get hit...

Is it compatible with our highly reflective BACK OFF! triangle? Yes!

Where can you see one?

http://www.hilltrek.co.uk

It's the cycling jacket. Ours comes with a hood (extra and not mentioned on the Hilltrek site).

Where is is made? In Scotland, by one seamstress. She works part-time. We ordered fifteen of these IF they could be delivered by mid-Feb, and she hadn't even started them by Feb 25. Today is March 7, and we just got them in.

Price: $375. Consider if you're a member you'll get free shipping and a 5 percent rebate credit ($17.50) on this purchase alone.

Three in stock. We can get more, if you commit and can wait. Any color Hilltrek offers--red, navy, black, or this olive green.

How to order: (800) 345-3918. Just say you want one, state the size, and don't be bummed if it's sold already. We can get more.

Grant

We know the news

Rivendell Bicycle Works — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 23:13:33 +0000

I got a call at home early this morning, and now that it's up on the Harris site, it's okay to acknowledge it here.

Everybody knows it by now, and thousands of words have been written about it by now. It should be hundreds of thousands. Even if hundreds of thousands, it wouldn’t approach the number of words Sheldon wrote in his enviable, concise, straight-to-the-point style that every communicator ought to have, and I wish I could do as well.

One thing you will read, or have read many times by now, is “there will never be another Sheldon,” and nothing is truer than that. It wasn’t just his hats and genius clownish demeanor, or his yellow-and-blue website, or his Sheldon Brownish knowledge of everything about bikes—from every era. His knowledge spilled over into music, acting, cameras, websites…whatever Sheldon was interested in he became expert at. But unlike many experts who flaunt it and use it to make those who knew less feel stupid, Sheldon was a humble educator.

Is there anything better to be? I think there isn't. Is there anybody who has helped more people, solved more problems, and contributed more enthusiasm and knowledge about bikes to more people? Nobody else is even close.

The last time I saw Sheldon was in September, at InterBike, the big industry trade show. Every year I'd see him at the show, usually the first day, and we'd talk for a while and then go on. Sheldon had multiple sclerosis, did you know that? He'd had symptons for a long time, and about a year and a half ago he went from cane to electric wheelchair, and from a regular bike to a three-wheeled recumbent, but if you didn't see it you wouldn't know it, because he was always the same. His mood was always upbeat and respectful. He didn't walk around like the hotshot he was, and he didn't talk about his condition unless you asked about it, and he didn't feel sorry for himself even though he had every right to.

Anyway, the first day of the show passed and I didn't see him, but I knew he was there. That night I was eating dinner at a buffet with a friend and some Australians, and Sheldon wheeled on over, and we talked for fifteen minutes or so, food on the table. It was always easy to talk to Sheldon. We had our separate worlds, but they were linked by the common bigger one, and the feeling I got that night was the same feeling I always got when I talked to Sheldon face-to-face. I'm thought of as an expert at some things, it's just stuff that happens to me, things said or written, whatever it is...and I know people think it, and it comes less from what I actually know, and more from just being known. I know at some level it's important to Rivendell's success, so I don't run away from it or anything, but what I want to say is that Sheldon was as much my hero as he was anybody's, and for me, talking to him was especially relieving and relaxing, because with him, I knew he knew all I knew and so fantastically much more, so he didn't have any expectations of me. There were no insights I could offer him, because he knew all I knew already. There wasn't any part from the past, or trend from the '70s, or even a flash-in-the-pan thing that he didn't remember better than I did.

About two and a half years ago when he came out to California to visit his daughter in college out here, he stopped by Rivendell and we went for ride. He'd lost about 50 pounds, and wanted to go on a good old ride, whatever I'd do if he wasn't there. So we headed up Mount Diablo, a 6.5 mile 2000-foot climb to the halfway up mark. My plan was to go easy, just talk and all, but I didn't have to slow much for Sheldon. He rode well and looked great on the bike, like a monkey handling a peanut, as smooth as we all want to be.

He wanted to ride something different from his normal riding, a ride he wouldn't have been able to do two years earlier, and asked about trails heading down. The most direct trail down is Wall Point, a steep, loose, bumpy trail that has some of everything on it, and much of it not fun. He'd already surprised me on the way up, but I wasn't sure he'd be OK on the Rambouillet with 32s on the way down, since 99 percent of the riders you see on this trail have dual-suspension bikes, and it's one place on the mountain that you don't snicker at all that machinery.

Of course I wouldn't be telling the story if Sheldon stumbled, walked, or did any of that, but he rode the whole thing, talking most of the way, unfazed by sections he should have been fazed by. So.....despite his physical problems (which had started to show even before this), and despite his desk-jockey day job, and his unfamiliarity with this terrain, he rode it as well his first time as I did my thirtieth or so.

I wanted to tell that story, because Sheldon is so extremely associated with computers and websites and links and all, that it's easy to forget that he was a bike rider when computers were as big as refrigerators, and never stopped being one, and from what I saw that day, his skills never faded.

We in the bike world know Sheldon as a bikey computer guy, but of course there are more important things than bike knowledge, or computer ways, or riding ability. Sheldon always made you feel good. Even though he was a legend, he was easy to be around.

Sheldon died, and in our little bicycle world, news doesn’t get any bigger or any sadder than that.

Grant "I'm glad I knew Sheldon" Petersen

P.S. In 2001 in RR25, we did an 8-page interview with Sheldon. You can download and read it here (it's about 2mb and you'll need Adobe Acrobat to open it). In the intro to it, last paragraph, you may notice the word "knowledge" is spelled three different ways, with only one of them correct. Not even half. Sheldon never would have let that happen.

Reader update, Bomba-update, other

Rivendell Bicycle Works — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 19:43:22 +0000

The Reader is nearly full now and nearly ready to go to the printer. "Nearly" doesn't mean "imminently" or "just around the corner," but I think it means in the mail by Feb 23. All the pages are full, the page count is right, it just needs proofreading and then all the photos have to be dealt with--collected for output to the printer, in some cases resized, and a few other things boring to anybody who's not involved in the final output or printing. The proofreading will take the most time. Every time we send an issue out, I get emails volunteering proofreading services, but I don't take anybody up on it. For one thing, it's laid out in Quark, and if you don't know Quark, I'd have to print it out and do the changes myself, and if I'm going to do that, I may as well have locals proof it. Rich is pretty good.

For another thing, no matter who proofreads it, it's going to have some typos. No proofreader has guaranteed no typos, so I figure it's just a matter of my eight or your seven. Not a big difference there. Finally, there are some words that I intentionally misspell. I don't do it a lot, but deep in the nooks (and this time even in the headline) there are intentional misspellings that I can't easily defend, but I don't want fixed, either. Anyway, look for RR-40 sometime around late 'bruary, early 'arch.

----

We got early samples of the Bombadil badge, and on the site there under Bombadil, you can see what it looks like. It's bigger than I'd expected, and thicker, too. The radius is wrong for the head tube, but that's being fixed, and it's not a problem now because the bikes aren't due for a few months.

I think we're going with a double top-tube on the Bombadil, instead of the curvy thing we'd planned on. The curvy thing, basically a brace btw the downtube and head tube, is a pain to make and complicated carrying a frame pump. I'm not sure the extra top tube (like the 69cm and 72cm A.Homer Hilsen have) is necessary, but it strengthens the triangulation, if that's the way to put it. It firms up the front end by effectively shrinking the head tube--something not important on a normal bike, but helpful on a bike like the Bombadil.

----

Our site is being refined, and we'll soon have captions on the photos of the parts, which will let us have some instructional 'fo up there. How to rig bags, racks, and so on.

Grant

Rebates Calculated

Rivendell Bicycle Works — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 12:33:54 +0000

We just calculated the rebates for the 2007 sales. There is now a 5% merchandise credit on your account if you bought anything from us last year. We will automatically use it the next time you order, so you don't even need to remember that you have it. It's good until December 31, 2008.