Frame - Charlie Gallop

Rivendell CHARLIE H. GALLOP

BUILT FOR: Road riding of all kinds. Fitness rides, club rides, solo local loops, riding with friends who are also riding road bikes. 

ALL WEATHER: Easily fendered, so you can ride it all year long.

Like all Rivendells, it fits racks, too, but it's not a touring bike. YES you can tour on it, but we designed it for road riding with minimal loads—say, up to ten pounds. 

FRAME: It's a light-4-us, long-wheelbase road frame. Our-designed SILVER (brand) CrMo tubing in dimensions we see fit. Geometry is dialed, it rides like all Rivendells. 

Frame Specification:

• 650b wheels in size 49cm
• 700c wheels in sizes 53cm and up
• Long reach sidepulls
• 26.8mm seat post, included. If you want to upgrade to a NITTO, OK!
• 130mm rear spacing
• 28.6 front derailer clamp 
• 1" threaded fork - FSA Duron headset included
  
• kickstand plate
• Geometry chart here.

Recommended PBHs and STANDOVER HEIGHTS at mid-top tube with 45mm tire:

-49cm: 72cm standover | 74 to 83cm PBHs
-53cm: 76.5cm standover | 78 to 87cm PBHs
-57cm: 78.2cm standover | 82 to 91cm PBHs
-61cm: 82.7cm standover | 86 to 96.5cm PBHs

Note the slight inconsistencies—since the 61’s standover is 82.7cm, you could easily clear the top tube with an 84.5cm PBH, but we suggest a minimum of 86cm, because it seems like it’s a big bike, so don’t get it if you’re a medium rider.

Most riders can fit two sizes. Nobody is “in-between.” That’s the main benefit of low standover heights and tall head tubes. All sizes have longish top tubes, because we designed them for swept-back handlebars; and with high, swept-back bars there’s a huge window of comfort. If you opt for the smaller of two sizes that fit, consider a bar with more height to it, like the Bosco or Tosco. If you go for the bigger of two, you’ll do fine with a lower-height bar like the Albatross, Losco, Choco, or Billie, but don’t rule out a Bosco or Tosco—you could get one and slam the stem or ride even higher. It is easy to find a great position on this bike with any of these swept-back bars, but they’re good with drops and stubby (5cm to 6cm) stems, too. If you like the look of a longer stem and still want drops, this is not your bike. Personally, most of us here who ride drops at all, now ride them with stubby stems. It works great, and it’s a winning look, too.

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Background, concept, intent, details. Not necessary to read.

This bike has been in various stages of riding prototypes for three years, and will come out in the fourth year, 2024. It’s gone from mostly TIG-welded to mostly lugged, and the top tube went from curved to straight. The final is geometrically nearly identical to the earlies, because we know how to design frames, so didn’t start with pile of willy-nilly & goofy dimensions to fix.

The tubes are "Homer-weight or a bit lighter." We lightened the tubes a little for the final version, and so changed it from an all-purpose bike for any-weight riders to a lightish road bike for riders who weigh less than 207 pounds. We have enough of the other bikes.

We’ve had the Charlie tested  to internationally agreed-upon road bike standards, and it passes. It's a solid, excellent frame and fork. A 57cm frame weights about 4.8lb. That's plenty light.

It’s not a trail bike, hillibike, touring-camping bike. It's a super versatile road bike or Country Bike. Of course you can carry light loads with it, but if your plan is to put the biggest racks and panniers and loads wherever the bike seems to allow it, then get a  Clem, Atlantis, or Appaloosa. Maybe a Sam.

The CHG’s sloping, not-quite-mixte top tube lets you ride up a size and get the bars higher without bonking your crotch. This bicycle is ideal for upright handlebars, usable with drops if you ride a 5-7cm stem and are already used to drops, but we still recommend Albatross-and-other uprights. In its best form, it’s an upright-bar light bike for day rides, shopping, commuting with reasonable commute loads, and so-on.  Amazing bike, zippy, roadishlike, but super versatile, comfortable. That sum-up doesn't differentiate it a ton from our other bicycles, so--just think of it as useful bicycle with a lowish top tube that lets you ride a bigger size and still get the bars high enough.

If you weigh over 207 pounds, get a Roadini, Sam, or Homer. They’re plenty zippy, too. It’s doubtful that a 240 pounder would break the Charlie, but it’s just not the right bike.

The CHG weighs more than a Roadeo, our raciest road bike, but is more versatile. It’s a practical, fun, all around, commuting, shopping, group-riding, road bike for upright handlebars.

FRAME SIZES: 49cm (650B), 53-57-61 (all 700C)

TIRE CAPACITY: 45mm with fender, so a hair bigger without fenders. BUT it’s still a road bike, so don’t put fat knobbies on it and thrash it on trails. Bad roads, smooth trails, careful riding, OK.

LUGS: We developed new ones, unique to this bike, and fancy. Actually, we developed them for a special run of 12 custom frames we did for Blue Lug in Tokyo. The CHG isn’t identical in geometry or details, but is similar, and more important, since it’s made and painted in Taiwan, you can actually get one.

TUBING: A notch lighter than Sam tubes, a lot like Homer’s. But the 49cm and 53cm have an inch-and-an-eighth (28.6mm) downtubes. The 57cm and 61cm downtubes are our standard inch-and-a-quarter (31.8mm).

LONGISH CHAINSTAYS: They make the bike ride better and scare off racers. This is an all-around ROAD bike, though. Not a trail bike. Long chainstays improve the ride, add stability, safety, smoothness on any surface, a any speed.

BRAKES: Sidepulls. To drive home that it’s a road bike. Brake reach rules out racing sidepulls. The reach requirement is 65mm. (If “reach requirement” means beans to you, all you need to know is that we designed it to fit UP TO a 45mm tire, with fenders. And the brakes we recommend allow the brake pads to be 65mm below the brake bolt. Get our Tektro R559s or Yokozuna LR-75s, or a longish reach centerpull, like Paul’s.

REAR WHEEL SPACING: 130mm. Again, to emphasize that it’s a road bike.

BRAZE-ONS: Two bottles, pump peg, racks front and rear (but it’s not for loaded touring. Some people like a rear rack only, some like front racks only).

Note to guys, with no disrespect intended to anybody: Don’t get a CHG for your female partner and spec it out for her with drops because you think drops look cool and she’ll have an easier time going fast with drops. This happens, but we prefer to communicate directly with the rider, to assure a good match.

If you want a Wavy bar or any other mountain bikey, non-swept-back bar, we suggest the smaller of two sizes with a tall stem. For drop bars, hard to say. Probably the smaller of two sizes that fit, with a tall 5cm stem.

COMPONENT SUGGESTIONS:

WHEELS: Any 130mm road hub with road rims. On the light side, Velocity A23, for tires up to about 40mm. On the more versatile and tougher end of things, the Velocity Dyad or Alex DM21 for tires up to 46mm. There will be other options.

TIRES: Minimum 32mm, and that skinny only if you’re on them now and know they work for you. But an all-aroundy bike like the Charlie is at its most versatile with tires 40mm and up. You might think, what’s the point in getting a light bike, then adding bigger tires? But the Charlie rides light with any tire, so unless you’re hauling it up stairs and concerned about ounces, we recommend 40mm+.

GEARING THOUGHTS: The CHG is a road bike, so reasonable chainring options might be 42 x 28, 38 x 24 (both with chainguards), or the always-good 44x34x24 triple (no chainguard). With cassettes to suit your legs, lungs, and terrain. We imagine most riders wil want a 28t to 36t large cog in back. We’ll be ready for you.

OTHER PARTS: Not many limitations—shifters and derailers anything you like, and so on. It takes a 1-inch threaded headset like most of our bikes, The BB shell is our normal 68mm threaded. Seat post is 26.8mm. Front derailer clamp size is 28.6mm, easy to get. A lot of our “normal” dimensions are also historically normal, but are less common on modern bikes that have wild (by our standard) dimensions. But we’re a good source for any part you could ever dream about putting on the Charlie H. Gallop. It’s a solid, smart, versatile mechanical bicycle with no built-in planned obsolescence.

LOAD CAPACITY: Try to keep it at less than 10lbs. It's a road bike. 

BEAUTY: The dropped top tube makes CHARLIE an odd duck among road bikes, but it is key to its comfort and fitting, and when you get over any insistence on straight top tubes, it's genius. It lets you ride a bigger bike without crotch concerns.  The seat tube lug is gorgeous, the crown is a knockout, the fork blades are slender and bent in low-small radius curves. The tubing is round and with classical proportions that always look better than fat, non-round tubes. 

 Last words: The Charlie H. Gallop is probably the most comfortable road bike you'll ever ride. No more so than the Roadini, but with the lower top tube, a given size fits more people. It's an "advanced, genius-funky" design that will shoo-away snobs but absolutely delight anybody who rides it. The perfect road bike for those who don't have one, aren't sure they'll like road riding, but really want to.