Update - 9/06 - this bicycle is now built up and appears here.

This bike was built at the match bicycle co. in Woodinville WA. in 2000 and is one of the Longlow models.

73 deg. HT, 72 deg ST, 80mm of drop. 55 cm ST and 56 cm TT. Clearances are for 32mm tire with fenders.

It was built by Martin Tweedy, Kirk Pacenti and Curt Goodrich, three talented fellows who went on to do good things in the cycling world after match closed it's doors in the summer of 2000. I was an apprentice at match and did some of the braze on's and the finish work of this frameset originally.

I have had this bike set up as a road bike, randonneuse albatross barred cruiser and a fixed wheel.

I had been thinking about building a dedicated porteur frameset after making a Trek MTB porteur that I have been riding for a few months now.

I happened to be looking at the spec. sheet for my Longlow when I noticed that it was already pretty close to the frame I was thinking about making, save the low trail geometry and the 650b wheels.

All I had to do was move the cant studs 19mm closer to the dropouts to account for the smaller rim size of the 650b wheels and then rake the fork from 45mm offset to 60, yielding about 35mm of trail. A good number according to what I had been reading.

I canabilized the rack from my Trek porteur and used it as the basis for a new and slightly improved rack for the Riv. I added a few details while I had the chance, pump peg, chain hanger and a re-designed cable stop for the rear brake.

I've been riding it unpainted for now, just to see how I like it and make sure there's no more surgery to perform braze on wise.

I really like it. Loaded handling is definiltely improved over the higher trail Trek I was riding before. Toe clip overlap is barely eliminated for my size 13 shoes whis is a nice by product of the 650b wheels. The ride of the col de la vie tires is very cushy, which works well with this bike. This is now my daily rider, I like it a lot.

Cheers, Alistair.

alspence67@hotmail.com