A few months ago, my friend Leah Peterson was chatting online with a biking acquaintance, Michael Downs, and noticed a frame in the background of a photo he sent her. When asked about it, he said he might be interested in selling it. She sent me a photo and I immediately bit the hook.
It's a Rivendell Yves Gomez with a limited edition paint job. It was the first run of factory made mixte bikes after the Wilbury/Glorious became too expensive. I got it in late fall and spent the winter getting parts together.
It came together beautifully, the cream colored fenders were raided from my Sam Hillborne and look much better with the dark green. I added Baby Bosco bars, VO Gran Cru brake levers (which are as sensitive as the Paul levers I put on my Hunq), Soma interupter levers and Brooks leather tape to finish them off.
I had a Sugino crank which I converted with a chain guard into 1x9 drive train with a Shimano Deore derailer and pulled a Sunrace thumb shifter out of the parts bin which works perfectly. The saddle is a VO leather saddle which wasn't being used and I may change later after some longer rides and a different seat post.
I ordered wheels from Velocity and Schwalbe Kojak tires. Tektro brake calipers and MKS pedals from the parts bin finished that off.
To make it practical, I added a light Tubus rack and a HUGE Wald basket. The basket weighs next to nothing and is a great convenience
since I have a bag that was designed with that basket in mind. After a few hours of riding with the empty basket it held $75 worth of groceries with no problem on the way home.
I'm really surprised at how spritely and light this bike is. The Kojak tires are extremely fast slicks and the only 35mm 650b tire I could find. There are several 38mm and larger tires out there for 650b wheels, but I've used these before and liked them. I'm looking forward to a lot of time on this bike
and even found a helmet to match.
No comments:
Post a Comment