Here's the top of an email I got from Rivendell recently:
Grant and I were talking the other day and we both agreed that if the only bikes out there were modern road bikes, we'd never get on a bike again. I'd take the bus to work, or maybe even drive a car.
So, if they could only ride, say, an OPEN U.P. they'd never get on a bike again? If they were only allowed to ride a Di2 Madone SLR with 700x28 tires, no more bike riding?
For a lot of people, the idea of a Rivendell bike is appealing. Twine, leather, steel, platform pedals, California sand roads, seersucker shirt, picnic basket, cork in the wine and on the bars. It's nice. But if I were to ever buy a Rivendell, it would be my fifth or sixth bike -- it's just not my regular life as a rider; not every day is a rambling picnic day.
Yes, if the only bikes available were Rivendell bikes, I would wash my beard in pine tar soap and saddle up. But that's not the world we live in. In the real world, modern bikes do everything a Rivendell bike does, just way better. And in the real world, you can buy a cool used steel framed bike that fits wide tires on eBay or your local swap for less than $200. That leaves about $2,000 for cork, chrome, leather, etc.
My advice for Rivendell would be to keep selling a vision, an aesthetic. But don't pretend the real world isn't out there; it is -- at best, they can offer an escape from it, not a whole substitution.