Just in time for my 45th birthday (this coming Friday, if anyone wants to send me cake and flowers :D), I caught an ad on the Rivendell bike list for a used custom Riv for sale.
I looked at the measurements, I looked at the pictures, I looked at the asking price, and within about 30 seconds decided This Must Be Mine !!!
So I fired off an email to the seller, waited a couple of days, and around the time I assumed it was already spoken for, I heard back from the seller. We set up a test ride for Sunday.
My husband chuckled on the way home that as soon as I saw the bike he knew I was going to take it - he said my eyes lit up and I was practically drooling :D
Here's the ad that appeared on the Riv site (it'll probably be taken down very soon. I really need to get my own website to post photos...).
http://rivendellbicycles.com/webalog/frames/50541.html
and here's a link to the photos in case the ad disappears:
http://www.rivendellbicycles.com/graphic/Law_Bike/
The bike in person is simply stunning - the color is more of a dusty rose / mauve than the pink it appears in the photo (but colors like this are very hard to reproduce photographically). I happen to love this particular color so you could imagine my delight, I was originally thinking I could always repaint it if I wasn't too keen on the color, but this color is staying ! It looks particularly gorgeous with the cream head tube and the cream & deep blue decals. (As an aside, I don't know what they were talking about in the ad regarding rose/magenta/pink rims, they're basically a gunmetal gray. Whatever, it probably scared away prospective buyers. Fine by me!)
The frame itself is in very good shape - a few nicks in the paint here and there but considering it was built in 1996 it's in very good shape! I won't bore you with the history, but it was made in the early days of Rivendell Bicycle Works, designed by Grant Petersen & built at Waterford. I think it's kind of special that it's a Riv Road from the early days.
I've already started messin' with it :D - I took off the rack & fenders for the time being, but I'll probably put them back on later. Eggbeater pedals went on first thing, along with a narrower set of handlebars (Nitto Dream Bars, since we had them, but I might get a set of 41 cm Nitto Noodles) and a shorter top stem - my one quibble is that the top tube was much longer than advertised, but a shorter stem pretty much takes care of that. And of course it's now sporting a black Brooks saddle.
My big quandry right now is whether to stick with the STI shifting or go to old reliable barcons. At first I thought the STIs simply had to go since I never used STIs and I just wasn't comfortable with them. But after I swapped out the stem & handlebars and I toodled around the neighborhood this morning for a bit, I'm now thinking maybe they're not so bad ... jury's still out. I think these particular brifters are pretty ugly (although in person they don't seem as bad as in the photos) but if I stick with the STIs I might get newer, less klunky-looking levers.
I'm probably going to change the crank - it came with 52-42-30 chainrings and 175 mm crankarms and I'll probably change that to something like 48-36-26 rings with 170 mm arms. I needs my climbing gears!! No big rush, though. The rear casette is a 7-speed 12-28 which will suit me fine I thing, esp. with the smaller rings in front.
I haven't gone out for a real ride on this yet (it was pouring rain most of yesterday) but toodling around the neighborhood people couldn't help but notice the big grin on my face ... it feels great, and as I fine-tune it, it'll only get better.
So there you have it. If I ever get any good photos I'll post them.
Oh, almost forgot - of course she has a name! I shall call her "Dusty" (for her dusty rose color, of course).
