This is the bike I'm planning to use to keep up with my dear (and fast) wife on some planned century rides next year.

Oh man is it nice. It's the standard Rivendell build: Dura-Ace bar-end shifters, 105 deraillers, cassette, wheels and headset, Sugino crank, Araya rims, Nitto bars, stem, seatpost. I added a honey Brooks saddle, previously broken in on my first road commuter, the bar tape (brown cloth) and the clipless pedals from my mountain bike (probably temporary, while i decide what to use long-term). The seat bag is a Jandd just big enough for a tool, spare tube and patches. It was a pleasure to assemble, particularly since i hadn't worked with so many brand-new bike parts at once in many years. The shifters needed only very minor tweaking on the first ride, aside from the usual saddle/bar fine-tuning.

I knew that the frame would be large, and it's just a shade bigger than my 25" Raleigh, with the top tube slope. When assembling, i'd started with the seat post and stem at the min insertion lines, and it was ridiculously large. Properly set up for me, there's barely a fistful of seatpost there, and a standard short-quill stem would probably work fine. A more reasonable person would have swapped stems with the Raleigh, which could use the taller quill, but how could i put a beat up old SR on this? Can't do it.

The frame is lugged steel, beautifully done. The lugs are their more plain style, but very well done; the bottom bracket has some nice details, and it's the same fork crown as on most of their other bikes, with the little wings and circle on the side. It's all one color, a nice brightish metallic green, sort of a chrysalis green. It's a metallic color, vaguely shimmery.

-- Bill

Further Ride Reports appear on Bill's site.

New photo below with a cyclocross setup, fall 2005. Avocet Cross II 35c in front, a Kenda Cross 40c in the rear, no fenders, and an old Avocet touring saddle. Worked great on the mostly dry dirt course. The black bar tape is old solid rubber tape, good grip.