Before I owned a Rivendell, I turned my 2000 Jamis Aurora into a poor man's Rivendell. I could get 32s on it with a set of fenders, canti brakes, mustache bar with dirt drop stem, brooks saddle, I used downtube silver shifters. All in all, it was a very nice riding bike but the wheels I was using (the original sora hub some cheap rimmed wheels that came with the Aurora) started breaking spokes and developed cracks. I still have the frame and have often thought of turning it into a nice commuter...maybe in the future.


I decided to buy a Riv and waited until the right deal came by. At this time Riv had "memberships," not sure if they do that anymore, but I would get emails with member deals in them and along came an 650b orange 48cm Sam Hillborne frameset with canti brake bosses for 800 bucks. I jumped at the deal and am glad I did.

The bike is awesome. Here is a recent picture, soon to be changed to a set of albatross bars. I used it for two years as a sort of "go fast" bike but now it permanently has racks and bags.