Thanks for pointing that out. After a paragraph of ranting a la Bek...my eyes glaze over.

I may buy a Rivendell just to piss him off

It's funny, I used to be a backpacker, and had a love/hate thing going with
the somewhat snobby premium brands. I guess irony ain't dead...

Grant has seriously tapped into the Small is Beautiful crowd. I am not at all sure how much actual riding a lot of them do; but at least they are on nice bikes when they go. My experience with this is quite limited, there is only one Rivendell
rider in the area; you only see him once or twice a year. His bike is always spotless, but the giveaway was the day I saw it at the bike shop. No wear on the tires...

I am still looking for a tire that will last a season.

Oh well...

Hey Bek! I got my wife a Rivendell Bleriot for Xmas! It's at the shop waiting
for rims to show up so we can turn it into a bike. I am pretty proud about the whole thing. I finally found a nice frame that my wife liked the looks of. That only took several years....

I spent the winter scoring parts. Got some NOS XTR hubs cheap $150 for both, some R600 brifters off ebay. A bike shop had a demo bike fall, the end caps got scraped a bit, but functionally they are basically new. I keep meaning to see if I can get new caps. I had a very cool titanium bottom bracket in the cellar. I had been hoping for years to find a place to put it. Now my wife's Rivendell has an Ultimax Ti BB. The tires I got from Vintage Bike Quarterly.

Hope she likes it once it's done.