DH's new bike is ready!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Hah! I knew somebody would remember Andy and Froggy!

Juju, I have changed my signature quote to properly honor Froggie & Andy.

And I think you are right about the French stuff.

[Triskeliongirl]

I too bought a bike at Harris and they let me swap the bars, stem, and front derailleur, and would have swapped the casette if I desired. Their attitude is they take the build kit that is shipped with the bike, but since the parts are new they can also sell them to other customers so they'll customize the bike as you like, usually for no extra charge assuming you are substituting parts that are comparably priced. In my case I didn't need the ultegra crankset since I had a custom one, so they credited me for that. Most good bikes shops work this way on a $2000 plus bike.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Anyway...on mine we put a 24t 74bcd ring on one of the 3 rings up front, and we put a different cassette on the back: 9speed 13-34 Cyclotouriste. This was the lowest gearing we could put on without having to make chain/derailleur changes.

A small correction- we did change the rear derailleur to accomodate the new rear cassette: we had Harris put on a (mountain bike typical) Deore LX SGS instead of the "stock" Ultegra road derailleur. We left the standard front derailleur (Shimano 105) alone.

[divingbiker]

Hope this answers your questions?

Yes, thanks very much. I looked for a place on their web site where they list dealers, but couldn't find it. I guess I'll have to call if I ever get serious about a new bike. Thanks again.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Well, here are some photos of my darling DH all proud and happy with his new bike today!:
http://harmonias.com/Bikes.html
We went on a lovely 2 1/2 hour ride this morning at 30 degrees (got to be 45 at the end)...it was sunny and wonderful, riding on our two trusty Rambouillets past fields and woods where we ended at an organic food shop we like. I had some hot miso soup to feed my lingering cold.
What a great day!

[uforgot]

Lisa,
All I can say is wow! The bikes are absolutely beautiful! I am currently plunged into serious bike lust! I went to the Rivendell site and read their theories about bike fit. Very interesting and I noted that your seat sits even or slightly lower than your handlebars. Correct? I always thought mine were too low, it sits above the bars so I'm going to look into raising them. How did they initially fit you? Did they do measurements? Seems that they don't think that top tube length is all that, so I'm just curious. Thanks for the pics, terrific!

[Bad JuJu]

Oh, Lisa, what a gorgeous bike your DH has! I mean, yours is pretty in that cheerful blue, but that green just makes me swoon. There's just something about a green bike....
Enjoy your rides!

[mimitabby]

Lisa,
All I can say is wow! The bikes are absolutely beautiful! I am currently plunged into serious bike lust! I went to the Rivendell site and read their theories about bike fit. Very interesting and I noted that your seat sits even or slightly lower than your handlebars. Correct? I always thought mine were too low, it sits above the bars so I'm going to look into raising them. How did they initially fit you? Did they do measurements? Seems that they don't think that top tube length is all that, so I'm just curious. Thanks for the pics, terrific!

yeah, me too. And it's going to be even harder when MY dh gets HIS new custom bike.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Oh, Lisa, what a gorgeous bike your DH has! I mean, yours is pretty in that cheerful blue, but that green just makes me swoon. There's just something about a green bike....
Enjoy your rides!

I know, that green with the cream is to die for. I truly love my blue bike, but it's not a particular color I would have picked if I had decided to specially painted. I had a choice of A) waiting (weeks,months?) for Rivendell to paint a custom color on a frame, or B) taking the blue one sitting there in just my size right off the floor at Harris with no waiting (except to swap out a few parts for others I wanted). Since I had NO other bike to ride at the time (my loaner had to get returned in 2 more weeks)- I nabbed the blue one and never looked back! I like the bright blue well enough- it IS cheerful after all! At least my DH had his nice old Trek to ride all these months while he's been waiting for this green bike.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Lisa,
I went to the Rivendell site and read their theories about bike fit. Very interesting and I noted that your seat sits even or slightly lower than your handlebars. Correct? I always thought mine were too low, it sits above the bars so I'm going to look into raising them. How did they initially fit you? Did they do measurements? Seems that they don't think that top tube length is all that, so I'm just curious. Thanks for the pics, terrific!

Hi Claudia,
They first go by standover height (all their top tubes are straight horizontal, no "girl/boy" toptube bikes, and no women-specific frames.). According to Rivendell, you should get the largest frame that you can stand over, so you measure your pubic bone height. That put me on the 54cm Rambouillet. INcidentally, the Rambs of 52cm and smaller get 650B size wheels to avoid toe clip overlap. My 54 frame is the smallest Ramb size they typically put 700c wheels on. I probably would have fit the 52cm Ramb just fine too, but would have then had 650 wheels.
The only issue I had with fit on my bike was that after riding it a couple of months I felt the 9cm stem reach was just too long a reach for me, so we replaced the stem with a very short 5cm one. I am very comfortable with my bike fit now, despite the bad rap that short stems always seem to get.
Yes, the saddle-at-same-height-as-bars thing is something Riv emphasizes, because they don't believe people will be very comfortable or will enjoy riding around on a daily basis in an extreme Tour de France racing position. I guess plenty of folks like it and that's fine with me. But DH and I just like to ride through the countryside together having a good time, 2-5 hour rides, maybe a little light touring. We're not racing, we're riding just for pleasure and fitness. We also like to run errands on our bikes whenever we can instead of using our cars. We don't want heavy cruiser bikes or even hybrid upright bikes, however, because we hope to put in a lot of miles and we encounter a LOT of hills around here no matter what direction we head in.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

yeah, me too. And it's going to be even harder when MY dh gets HIS new custom bike.

So what's he getting Mimi? And when??