Got my new bike today!

[Veronica]

Got home from work and there was a message saying it was ready. Yippeee! I ordered it three weeks ago and they told me it would be 4 - 6 weeks so I'm wicked happy. Didn't get to take it for a spin yet (other than around the parking lot.) Tomorrow night I have Open House at school, so time will be tight - but I'm going to take it out anyway. It's a Rivendell Rambouillet, orange and white. It's a steel frame with hand brazed lugs. The head badge is metal and is amazingly detailed. The bar tape is green and I put a Brooks Finesse on it in British Racing Green. It has bar end shifters, and I put platform pedals on it for now. They kind of go with Riv philosophy. I may change my mind later, but Thom said we could trade out the pedals on his trainer if I wanted to switch back to SPDs. I went for the fancy fillet brazed bottle cages too. They look really nice on the bike.

I plan to take it up Diablo this weekend and Thom will follow in the car to take some pics of me actually riding.

Here are links to some pics we took when we got it home.

http://tvdyson.home.attbi.com/bike/ram.jpg

http://tvdyson.home.attbi.com/bike/bike.jpg

http://tvdyson.home.attbi.com/bike/water-bottle.jpg




Veronica

[Karen London]

Veronica, I looked at your pictures. If you find drool marks on them, that was me..... I LOVE your bike!! great orange colour.

[Joycily]

Wow - what a beauty! Have you thought up of a name yet?

-j

[waterlilli]

Have fun at Open house and enjoy your new ride!!!

[Veronica]

Fluffy is the name of the bike. When Thom asked me how it felt to ride when I was testing the bikes, I told him it was light and fluffy. Compared to the tandem and my mountain bike it is. Besides when I was litttle my grandparents had an orange dog named Fluffy.

I took about a minute off my time on each of my laps on my loop course. Time to get ready for Open House.

Veronica

[pedalfaster]

Wow, beautiful bike. Love the orange! Many happy miles

[Nancy]

Veronica-
She's a beauty! You must be having a blast! Sequeing into a fit question (since I'm bike shopping and have wondered about Rivendell), how do you think the Rivendells compare fitwise in comparison to the WSDs like Terry and Roriguez? I'd love to hear your comments on your new acquisition.
Nancy

[Veronica]

I can't really comment on the WSD since I've never ridden one. My Rivendell experience has been fantastic. I'm just under 5'5" and they speced that I should ride a 55. Rambouillets come in even sizes so I tried both a 54 and 56. I ended up going with the 54. They don't really have a store front. It's more like a warehouse. It's very laidback - but they really want you to be happy with your bike. They'll take as much time as you want in getting the fit just right. Their big emphasis is that a bike should be comfortable, beautiful and fun to ride. They're not the lightest bikes on the market. Although lighter than my tandem and mountain bike. But amazingly quick to bring up to speed. Zero to 18 in what feels like just a few pedal strokes. I felt like I was flying.

I'm going to start riding mine to work on Monday - it's a two mile commute so no big shakes. My hair is finally long enough for a pony tail so I no longer need to worry about helmet head. Although my students about freaked out the first time I pulled it back. I got one of Rivendell's huge saddlebags to carry my work stuff. I took in my biggest testbook before I bought it to make sure it would fit. Fluffy isn't quite so nimble with twenty pounds worth of books on him.

Veronica

[MM_QFC!]

Hey Nancy,
You asked about fit and I can speak to Rodriguez, since I have one. I have a couple of bulging discs in my cervical spine (neck area), so when I went bike shopping, I made an appt for a bike fit at the bike shop in Seattle that makes Rodriguez bikes. I had learned that the owner was a cyclist and had designed a frame for women. That, along with seeing the support for local cyclists and area events by her shop, convinced me to ask for her help in getting off my big heavy hybrid starter bike into one that fit me. I was leery of drop bars because of my neck pain, and the owner, Estelle patiently measured and explained the 'why' of her questions to me re: what felt good, why this or that measurement was important. I learned tons during that 1.5 hours and decided to invest in myself and my enjoyment of cycling by ordering a frame fit to me. I've logged thousands of miles on my bike since picking it up almost 5 years ago: on trails, Seattle area backroads, across Alaska, across Montana, in the 4x Seattle to Portland double century in 1 day and last year, Seattle to San Francisco...this bike is awesome! Never hurts to check out all your options and consider how you'll ride it...also, I know 2 women who have Terry bikes and they've complained about having 2 different tire sizes on the same bike. Guess they didn't realize what they'd have to carry around or keep as backup when they were ordering it.
It's sure fun shopping too, so enjoy and I'm sure you'll find exactly what's right for you!
Happy Trails

[Asa]

Fluffy, I like that, and the orange has me craving, well, an orange!Speaking of custom bikes, Independent Fabrication out of Boston is definately worth a look. I have owned at least 15 different bikes, and loved every one of them, but never before had I ridden a frame made just for me. I just got my custom IF Ti Deluxe, and I am blown away! I swear, before they packed and shipped my frame, someone must have waved a magic wand over it. If you can afford custom, do it. You will never want to ride anything else.
Asa

[marianne]

hi american girls, this is marianne from belgium, i also got my new bike since 10 days, i had to wait for my 'precious' for 3 months, because he came from your country! it's a trek 5200 t and it's in the newest us postal colors!i have already 900km in 10 days! do you know the belgian 'tour of flanders'? it was yesterday and the day before all the bikers like us can ride it, there were about 15000 people riding it, so it was great fun! so i did it with my new bike, and a lot of male cyclists were very very jealous! haha!! there are 19 hills to climb, on very bad roads, but now that i have a triple it was a piece of cake! next week there's Paris -Roubaix, and Lance riding it too, it's a very hard contest because there are a lot of very bad roads, and if it rains , it's a hell! that's how they call it too: the hell of the north!!well i just want to say: i love my new bike and i think i'm going to ride more now!!more? is it possible??

[goddess1222]

hey Asa, may i ask, how much did your new Ti frame cost?

[Asa]

Sure, actually, I was lucky enough to be chosen to receive my frame at wholesale, and now I am on their grassroots mtb team. It's a long story. Anyway, I got my frame for $1750, retail is about $2700 I believe, and honestly, I would have paid that for it (if I had that kind of cash) IT IS THAT GOOD! You can get the Reynolds 853 version for about $1400, still totally custom. Talk to Matt Bracken at IF, tell him Asa sent you, and he will treat you like a queen.
Asa

[MightyMitre]

Hey Marianne - I was at the Ronde van Vlaanderen at the weekend and rode the 75km cylo route. I had an excellent day! My boyfriend did the 140km ride and had great time as well.
What an excellent occasion to ride your new bike! Did you do the full 255km? If so - many congratulations - that's a tough ride. I met a guy the next day who did the full route and it took him 10 hours. He looked totally exhausted. The short distance was enough for me as I'm a bit of a new comer and I don't have a triple on my bike so I didn't make it up the Muur ( maybe next year ) Just think - we could have ridden right past each other!

Will you be at Paris-Roubaix this weekend? I'm going over to watch the race with some people from my club. Should be another good day - but I'll be backing Museeuw!

[goddess1222]

hey mightmitre, i am so jealous that you can just "take a ferry" and go to france to watch a race. i am so jealous.