Yesterday I discussed I had a brand new bike coming, and late within the day it lastly confirmed up:
It’s a Rivendell Roaduno full, within the mustard coloration (round right here we are saying COLOR, not “COLORWAY,” goddamn it!), ant it arrived not a second to quickly, as a result of a one-speed bike with a lugged metal body was precisely what I wanted to floor myself after all of the Y-Foolery during which I’ve been participating these days:
The Roaduno is mainly the Anti-Foil, proper right down to the colour; each are mainly yellow, however one yellow is meant to seem like gold, and the opposite’s alleged to seem like a condiment.
So excited was I to lastly obtain the Roaduno that I intercepted the UPS man on the nook and carried the field all the best way down the road to my chateau, whereupon I dragged it into the basement and put it collectively in nice haste so I might be the primary particular person on the Web to indicate one off–and to that finish I’ll now bore you with just about the identical photographs you may see on the Rivendell web site, solely taken by an fool in a darkish basement with an affordable smartphone:
That is precisely how the whole Roaduno arrives within the field, besides I added saddle, grips, and pedals because it doesn’t include these issues. The saddle and the grips had been merely the primary ones I used to be in a position to seize from my dangerously cluttered storage cage with out inflicting an avalanche, so don’t ascribe any particular significance to them, and the pedals are the Grip Monarch within the Panda colorway:
Other than the colour they’re the identical pedals I’ve on the Homer, and so they’ve been nice.
In any other case, the bike comes with a Nitto cockpit, together with a four-bolt open-face stem:
Inexperienced-and-silver IRD brake levers for slightly singlespeed aptitude:
The brand new Silver3 crank, which is a bit more sculpted than the unique:
These gravel tires which can be so scorching with the children proper now:
And massive-ass calipers that match round them with room to spare:
Rear spacing is 120mm, presumably to commit you to singledom…
…and but there’s a derailleur hanger:
You may additionally have observed the bike comes with a further chainring on the crank, and there’s even a shifter boss on the non-drive aspect:
It’s because the thought is you may add a entrance derailleur and a sequence tensioner and set it up as a frontal dinglespeed and even tringlespeed, which is a phrase I simply made up:
[Photo: Rivendell]
There are some singlespeeders who’re offended by provisions for gears as they spoil the bike’s “clear strains” or no matter (the phrase “clear strains” is nearly as annoying because the time period “colorway”), however so far as I’m involved it’s all the time good to have choices, and the rear spacing ensures the bike will all the time stay rudimentary and subsequently true to the spirit of simplicity and/or inconvenience, which is what singlespeeding is all about. (Plus, if you happen to like singlespeeds you most likely additionally like tinkering, and this bike begs to be tinkered with.) Anyway, even if you happen to by no means use the shifter boss, it looks as if place for a bell.
And naturally being a Rivendell the body will take racks, and fenders, and a body pump, and a kickstand, and it additionally has stylish decals:
And a spiffy head badge:
I’d have appreciated nothing greater than to scamper off on the bike indefinitely, however with night time falling and home duties beckoning I used to be solely in a position to take it across the neighborhood for a fast take a look at trip:
First impressions had been extremely encouraging:
I’ll trip it inventory to start out with then let the tinkering muse take me the place it’s going to, and I’ll hold you posted whether or not you prefer it or not.
