Originally Posted by
Ozonation
I coveted a Bridgestone for almost 20 years - I was infatuated with them when I was in university, and only last year discovered Grant Petersen moved onto Rivendell.
Your idea of a cross between the Hunqapillar and the XO-1 is neat. I think the closest you might come is the Sam Hillborne of Rivendell's current frames. I have one, and with the mustache bars, it rides fast. A very comfortable ride; a GREAT bike. It's probably their closest to a gravel grinder/cyclocross style bike. If I had any criticisms, it's that it doesn't handle quite as securely on rough road surfaces, or gravel trails that get too pitted; mind you, I'm no expert cyclist. I'm a fairly strong, reasonably athletic person who rides his bikes fairly assertively, so eventhough the bike is really, really stable, it almost seems I'm a bit too "high up" sometimes and that the bike should be a little heavier (for lack of a better term). I recently picked up a Hunqapillar on sale from Rivendell, and eventhough this size one doesn't have the double top tube, it handles very securely.
So, yes, I can see why you might want a cross between the two!
I communicated with Grant a year or so ago and he said based on my weight the Hunqapillar is the only Rivendell he would recommend for me. I coveted a Hunq for quite some time but came to realize there were three major strikes against it: 1) Chainstays are too long, 2) Standover is too high and 3) Top tube is way too long. Plus, my interests have moved primarily to 26" wheels and a 51cm Hunq still has longer chainstays than I want.
My thinking, based on how I ride, is that I need an XO-1 on steroids. Sheldon Brown described the XO-1 as a "fast, urban street machine" or something to that effect. Given my size, I'm not going to have a bike with road bike thin tubes but I can have a bike with geometry that is closer to a road bike. I also have some aspirations to off-road riding, primarily gravel & hard dirt, so that will need to be taken into consideration on the geometry.
So, take the stout tubing and all-terrain aspect of the Hunqapillar and combine that with the 26" wheels of the XO-1 and a slightly modified XO-1 geometry, and you've got my current idea for a custom bike. There are a lot of little details I want as well along with the fact that I'm thinking I want it to look like a classic mountain bike! I'm stuck squarely in the middle between a nearly level top-tube (ie, 80's MTB's) and a sloping top-tube (ie, mid-90's to present MTB's).
Of course, I could change my mind tomorrow and want a custom 700c road bike.
