Tag Archives: Bombadil

Hunqa Builder

08 Tuesday May 2012

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It was time for a new bike for 2012.  This one is for the mountains!  It’s a wooly mammoth bike!  I rode one last summer at Rivendell World HQ and was smitten.  I just love Rivendell bikes.  Their design and execution is unlike any other, and Grant runs a great business. I decided to snarf up a Rivendell Hunqapillar.  It’s a 54cm frame, and will be set up as a mountain/camping/commuting bike with a front rack, fenders, and lights (like any proper bike for the NW).  This was in the original color scheme that is being discontinued.

The Rivendell folks are well known for their expertise in packing a bike – they even add doodle art to the packages – great personalized funk!

top face

stuck and safe

wrapped up tight

Here it is all uncloaked.  I love the color scheme on this model.  There is something about the kidney bean and gray combination that really classes out.  I felt lucky getting one of the last of the original runs.

profile

front quarter

love

tusks

 

The build out will be a moustache cockpit, brooks saddle, and marathon dureme tires (700×50).  This will be a working bike, and I want to take it anywhere.  I also want to be comfortable on the bumps.

kit

I’m adding a custom rack made by a local builder “Haulin’ Colin” Stevens.  This was originally designed and made for the Rawland rSogn, but I saw it on his site modeled on a Hunqapillar that a friend had lent him, and the image stuck.  The rack fits the bike perfectly.

haulin’

mounts were perfect

I have a few more parts to get or scavenge before this one is ready, but I’m anticipating a great new ride.  The frame and fork with headset weighed in the neighborhood of 7 lbs on my Wii scale (accurate??).  This is a stout tube bike, but it felt surprisingly light.  I recalled it being much lighter than I expected on the test ride, as well.  This model is a more robust touring bike than the well-loved Atlantis, and has similar gauge tubing to the Bombadil.  I can’t wait to do some exploring this summer!

Grant Petersen in Seattle on May 11th

05 Saturday May 2012

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From Momentum Magazine Article

One of the big influences in the modern bike renaissance of steel frames, leather saddles, 650b wheels, fatter road tires, and all around comfortable fun biking is coming to Seattle on Friday, May 11th to talk about his new book “Just Ride – A Radically Practical Guide to Riding Your Bike”.  I have one of his bikes and can attest to the well thought out design, beauty, comfort, and detailed execution of a Rivendell bicycle.  He designed and marketed bikes for Bridgestone in the US from 1984-1994, introducing much loved iconic bicycles such as the RB-1, MB-0, and the thoroughly offbeat and cult status XO-1.  His writing and design of the Bridgestone catalogs and Rivendell Readers has drawn a good-sized following of serious bikers who didn’t (and don’t) follow the mainstream race fork of bicycle marketing and industry.  Jan Heine of Bicycle Quarterly did a great write up on him a few months ago on his blog: http://janheine.wordpress.com/2011/12/28/people-who-have-inspired-us-grant-petersen/.

I’ve met Grant a couple times at his humble company headquarters in Walnut Creek, and he is the kind of personality who exemplifies the caring, leader of a modern American small business that treats its employees and customers well, and seems to make it through rough economic times (as well as good times) without trying to sell and appease towards only short term profits.  Dude’s got it going on!  He finds and markets products that are higher quality, longer-lasting, and may not be available if it were not for Rivendell’s market pull.  The variety of things you can find on the Rivendell site boggles and really shows the unique mind that is Grant.

He will be talking about his latest book and answering questions on Friday, and I would love to give him a warm welcome to Seattle.  I will be leading a ride after his discussion that will be a flat and casual tool down to the locks and Golden Garden Park.  Specific details are below:

Where:  Free Range Cycles

When: Friday May 11th, 5pm

What: He will do a book presentation from 5-5:30pm, a question and answer session from 5:30-6pm and a bike ride from 6-7pm.  They will have books to sell.

Proposed route:

http://runkeeper.com/user/Stonehog/activity/86076095

A Stop at Rivendell Headquarters

23 Thursday Jun 2011

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I was on a tech conference trip in Santa Clara last week, and decided to make the trek up to Rivendell headquarters since I was in the area.  This was my second visit since getting my A. Homer Hilsen in 2009.  A co-worker tagged along for the ride, and we had an enjoyable morning in Walnut Creek.  After I found my way up to the garage that is HQ, we walked into the first bay, and true to the last time I visited, nobody was there.  We were browsing around for only a short time, when who else but Grant Peterson himself came in and asked if anyone was helping us.

I asked him if I could take a couple bikes out for a spin, and he asked me my PBH.  Within about 5 minutes, he had set up 4 different bikes for me to ride.  They were all different in a big way:

  • 58cm Hunqapiller (with diagonal tube) with drops bars
  • 54cm Hunqapiller (no diagatube) with moustache bars
  • 58cm SimpleOne in single speed mode with Grip Kings and albatross bars
  • 60cm Bombadil (with diagatube) and bullmoose bars
My observations were that the Hunqas felt very similar from a frame perspective – they both felt like a nice solid steel frame mountain bike.  The cockpits were different, and I found that I really like the moustache setup.  I think it felt familiar to me since I’ve ridden the VO Porteur bars quite a lot.  The smaller frame was also a comfy setup for a mtb for me.  It was probably my favorite ride!  I found the Bombadil to be a bit large for me, but only when I stopped and moved up towards the bars – that tube slopes up quite a bit.  I didn’t really dig the bullmoose bars, but these were the very long reach versions, and since it was a big bike, it was just sized wrong for me.  Besides the sizing, I was in love with the frame, and I felt that the weight was not noticeably worse than a simple diamond frame.  Same observation on the Hunqa.  The SimpleOne was great, but I didn’t like Albas on it, and the Grip Kings weren’t better than my RMX Sneaker pedals (at half the cost), so it sort of fell down my list of bikes to eventually get.  I think I like gears too much.
I picked up some shifters, pedals, wool, and various other items, and vowed that I’d be ordering something soon.  Everyone we talked to there was helpful.  Grant’s got a great business, and his customer service model is to be envied.