Last whatever-it-was I mentioned that the “Path Less Pedaled” YouTube channel was evaluating a Rivendell, which was of interest to me since my own Rivendell is occupying an increasingly large portion of my consciousness. Well, yesterday I noticed that he’d uploaded a more thorough review, and I’m sharing it herewith:
One thing in particular I’m glad he’s picked up on, which I’ve also pointed out, is that these bikes (particularly the cockpits) have some built-in flex, which is no doubt a large part of the reason why they ride so smoothly. As he puts it:
Most modern bikes have gotten super stiff and are reverse-engineering compliance, I think Riv does it right the first time having all the compliance built into the frame.
Yes, it’s almost like aluminum bars with 25.4 diameter clamp sizes, one-inch head tubes, and quill stems make a lot of sense on bicycles that will see a variety of terrain. Or of course you could always build everything in large-as-fuck diameter measure-twice-cut-once crabon and then add some goofy-ass suspension system so when the going gets rough your bike bobs its handlebars like a cat that’s about to cough up a hairball, whatever works for you:
Speaking of technology, I was watching the Touring of France recently, and got really excited when a rider with disc brakes needed a wheel change:
I was all psyched for it to take a really long time so I could gloat about how discs are a liability over rim brakes in the heat of competition, but then the mechanic busted out some drill-type thing like a one-man Formula One pit crew and swapped the wheel in like two seconds.
Oh well, so much for that.
As for the race itself, I haven’t really followed it for the last few years, and so I failed to anticipate how just how good the Tour’s return would make me feel. For a couple days I watched, savoring the soothing voices of Phil and Bob, and all was right with the world…until I realized why I haven’t been following it, which is that I simply don’t have the time. So here we are, six stages in, and I’m already off the back.
Maybe I’ll be able to make my way through the team cars over the weekend.