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The Spring 2010 Rivendell catalog can now be viewed online:
A sneak preview of our Spring bike catalog. We’re waiting on some new models before printing. Two-color printing based on a 1940 Sun Bicycles catalog we have lying around the shop.
View the catalog [7.4mb PDF] →
Related posts:
22 Responses to “Spring 2010 Rivendell Catalog”
Page two – nothing like using fear to sell things, right? Right?
@Mr.CrankyPants
Naw, just speaking the truth about a questionable material for everyday bicycles. Carbon is fine if you’re racing and you plan on retiring a bike in a few years, but commuting, touring, and hauling require greater toughness and long-term durability.
Alan
Alan – It’s not about frame material choice , but about Rivendells’ holier than thou attitude. Yes, they make fine bikes, but their corporate personality seems to be 50/50 mix of arrogance for their own products and contempt for everything that’s not just like them.
Note: I am aware of the retro-grouch dogma of Rivendell and the market niche Riv occupies.
Page 23 PERFORMANCE – could use some updating. Para 2, disregards the cool Roadeo Clubster that has Ergo brifters and at least a 10 spd rear cassette.
Feeling nitpicky today! :-)
Rick
@Mr. CrankyPants
Everybody’s just trying to make a living, the nice guys at Rivendell included.
Sure, Grant Petersen has strong opinions, but he’s had to work against an overwhelming cacophony of companies promoting carbon/alu frames, skinny tires, ever-increasing complexity, and generally impractical bikes. It’s only through speaking clearly and strongly about his approach and products that Rivendell has remained so visible over the years. I, for one, am grateful for his influence on the market. You have to wonder if bike brands like Surly, Soma, et al, would even be in existence if it weren’t for Rivendell keeping alive the interest in steel bike frames, wider tires, etc. here in the U.S.
You should drop in to meet them or give them a call sometime – they’re just a bunch of passionate and friendly bike geeks like you and I (but with an incredible pool of shared bike knowledge between them).
Alan
First, long-time viewer, first-time caller…love the site, and Riv, for all of their quirkiness, which is of course at least partly a marketing strategy. I just wish cyclists would stop the infighting, and become more like hikers. Manufacturers shouldn’t be our spokespeople, even if we (as I often do with Peterson) agree with them. More Alan, less Grant.
Anyway, my primary reason for writing was a bit snarky: has anyone told Rivendell that their catalogue says “2009″? Otherwise, nice design!
I don’t think the Riv folks are disdainful. (Compare their marketing language with that of, say, Apple Computers.) They extol the value of steel for specific types of riding and are reaching out to a specific type of rider. It’s not like they disregard the utility of carbon for racing or, say, aluminum/welded steel for budgetary reasons. They’re just proud, which they deserve to be.
alan, the link seems broken now.
got another?
I love RIV stuff and I like the counterculture approach to the big bike industry companies like RIV maintain.
What I don’t understand is almost every RIV cycling photo is of a road bike with drop bars struggling on dirt paths in the mountains? Or even being pushed up a dirt hill? Odd……..
Alan, Grant is very much in need of your photographic guidance.
@Lickle
Thanks for the heads up; they changed the URL on me. It’s fixed now… :-)
I started to look at the catalog with kind interest, but became gradually uncomfortable about the language, and when it arrived at the mountain bike (don’t remember the name or the page, and have already shut the window), they came with that:
“(…) copied
shamelessly from Third World workhorses, and which allows
them to survive years of hard use despite questionable
craftsmanship.”
and before:
“45 percent of the cost—
because it’s made in Taiwan
where labor costs less.”
I am from Brazil and found this “Thirld World” justification frankly disrespectful. And it makes one believe that riding a bike on most of “these” countries automatically means riding roads as rough as if they carpet bombed twice a year, or if the bike carried a twelve child family altogether every day, something like “a bike must be indestructible in order to be ridden out there…”
Other interesting phrases:
“They’re made in Taiwan, where labor is cheaper,
but still excellent. (…) Japanese
and American labor costs are higher. Their details are more delicate—a more difficult curve in the fork, a smoother dropout-to-chainstay transition, and so on.”
Seriously, the arguments are not convinceing at all and I must say that my will to own a Riv (which significantly existed) is seriously damaged.
If this company think that fancy marketing doesn’t go well with serious bike building, they should urgently review this just as fancy “tough-guy knowitall be-like-me spend-as-much-as-you-can” talk, at least in the catalog.
I’ve read other comments and it seems other guys disliked the language of the catalog, too.
Best regards
Helton
Grant has had a knack for stirring controversy for over two decades; I’m glad to see he’s still as good at it as ever… LOL.
When I ordered my Santana triplet I was offered a carbon fiber fork for $300 with a $300 instant rebate. Wow a free carbon fiber fork.
What kind of fool would turn down such an offer? Me. I did.
I went with a steel fork.
7 years later with a team weight approaching the 500 lb range and a rolling mass including the weight of the bike with 4 panniers full of groceries, we are approaching 600 + lb range.
I’m glad I turned down the “free” fork.
Just a note, there catalog language is better then their normal e-mail language. I ordered one part from them and got on their e-mail list. After an e-mail that used completely un-readable slang and random phrases that I had never heard; this catalog looks great. Either way their lack of caring for producing decent quality marketing has turned me off from purchasing from them again.
At first I thought “Oh here we go again – more silly Rivendell drool from Alan”…then the comments regarding the “controversial” catalog….I spent the next 30 minutes and read the catalog from cover to cover…transformation. Poor marketing? Dissing the underdeveloped nations? What I read was just a very clearly stated and refreshingly straightforward viewpoint regarding manufacturing bikes and riding them. In viewing Ecovelo daily, I never caught the Riv fever. I thought the bikes were no doubt well made, but the designs just didn’t appeal to me and certainly were not my type of “eye candy”. I loved this catalog – from Attention to Accessories – particularly the statement regarding a bikes “performance” – not from the bike, but from the rider’s legs and lungs. I simply love the philosophical foundation of the company AND I now have a greater appreciation for their products as well.
Though I don’t own a Rivendale bike I do have a fondness of anything Tolkien.
I had a cat named Bombadil who lived his whole life with me.
Perhaps for that reason alone I would be moved to buy a Bombadil mountain bike.
While lusting after Michael’s Betty Foy mixte, I went in to Riv a couple weeks ago, trying to decide between the Betty or one of their last 50 cm Rambouillet made in Japan. Met Grant and he actually steered me AWAY from the more expensive Ram to the Betty. It’s the first time anybody actually tried to down-sell me, but hey, he does put his honest opinion out there. In the end, I agreed with him that I would probably enjoy riding the Betty more and have one on order.
I was also surprised/pleased to see what the Riv folks wrote about the Sam Hillborne and Surly LHT on their site:
“It’s only competition is the Surly LHT. They’re similar bike functionally, and the LHT is an incredible value. It’s not the enemy, it’s a friend. If your budget is $1,100 and you don’t need lugs, get the LHT.”
I guess what I’m trying to say is that it’s nice that Grant and the Riv folks are giving their honest opinions despite the controversy it always seems to generate (both here and on other bike forums). I don’t always agree with their opinions, but I do respect them.
P.S. Michael and Alan – I am taking your advice and getting the Col de la vie’s ;)
@Karen
We’re excited for you – the Betty is a sweet ride. And good choice on the Col de la Vie’s… ;-)
Regards,
Alan & Michael
Frankly, I think that Grant’s views towards carbon are largely unfounded, and may well stem from a misunderstanding of how the material works. The truth is, failures of carbon frames are not at all common these days. In fact, the replacement period for a high-end carbon frame is the same or longer as a high-end steel racing frame – the reason Reynolds 835 or True Temper OX Platinum are so light is because the tubesets are incredibly thin. If you’re actually racing a bike, you replace them regularly, regardless of material.
Carbon has no fixed fatigue life. If it fails, it is because of damage. But chances are if you get into an accident bad enough to damage your carbon frame, you’re going to crumple the tubes on an exotic-alloy steel bike as well.
While it’s true that you need to look at what you’re doing and choose your bike accordingly, his fear-mongering about carbon comes is absolutely coming from a marketing perspective, not an engineering one.
Alan the link still doesn’t work for me . Maybe it’s at my end . I remember thier catalogs and being less then impressed with all the new improved bikes everyone else seems to think we need and still found some of thier opinions silly and dogmatic . Using as an example , wool is a great material but many people can’t wear it and many modern fabrics are far better . Sheep are terrible for over grazing and denuding grass lands , they have damaged the middle east and now are screwing up large areas of china . They , do have beautiful bicycles and have considered them .
@Andrew
“Carbon has no fixed fatigue life. If it fails, it is because of damage. But chances are if you get into an accident bad enough to damage your carbon frame, you’re going to crumple the tubes on an exotic-alloy steel bike as well.”
I’ll say it again; carbon fiber is a wonderful material for race bikes. The issue with carbon fiber in the context of our discussion is that it has limited resistance to the everyday abuse many commuter, touring, and utility bikes are subjected to. Surface damage that would be of little consequence on a robust steel frame (I’m not talking Reynolds 835 or True Temper OX Platinum, more like garden-variety Reynolds 520), may possibly lead to a sudden, catastrophic failure on a carbon frame or fork. Even though failures may be less common now than they were in the past, I believe it’s carbon’s not-so-great track record, the sudden nature of the failures, and the fact that the failures can start from relatively minor surface damage, that concerns people, not carbon’s strength in a major accident. This is why you see so few touring and utility bikes made from carbon.
Alan
I don’t necessarily disagree, Alan – I ride a Reynolds 520 hybrid. I do, however, think it’s interesting the way that the same arguments were leveled at aluminum when it was in its infancy, and it is now a totally mature technology. I think the big manufacturers have really come into their stride with CF recently, and I suspect in the future you’ll start seeing a lot more used carbon warhorses filling in the market.
This is a bit of a digression, but in terms of robust composite frames, there are some really fascinating technologies coming down the pipe for ‘self-healing’ carbon fiber. One in particular that’s being research for yacht hulls incorporated shape-memory alloy wires and bubbles of a liquid monomer into the composite structure. When there’s damage, the SMA wires flex the delaminated structure into place and the bubbles burst, repairing the section’s structure. Really fascinating stuff…whether it will ever end up trickling down to bikes, who knows.
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