Originally Posted by
MKahrl
There have been articles in the Rivendell Reader on how to adapt older bikes to suit the needs of the current owners, usually involving getting the handlebars positioned where they want them and giving them a useful gear range. There have also been articles about what to look for in an older frame to make it a good candidate for 650B conversion. Grant encourages people to build up bikes using whatever ideas they might find useful. He's even up front telling us they aren't even his ideas and he gives credit where it is due.
That is sort of my point - at the highest stage of adherence to Riv's philosophy of old school practicality, durability, self-sufficiency, resistance to marketing hype, and economy, one doesn't buy any of their stuff, just goes out and finds serviceable and cheap old school bike stuff except where Riv clearly is a price beater or has unobtainium.
I'm writing somewhat in jest - I'm a big Riv fan more or less and, accordingly, at my high level of enlightenment, I agree with them so much (except for those darned high handlebars...), I almost never buy their stuff. But sometimes you gotta wonder whether that isn't one of Grant's big aims, since it seems like they certainly don't take the easy way all the time.
It's been written about Harvard, that with their huge mega billions endowment, the university has become, in effect, a marketing arm for a hedge fund. Sometimes I wonder whether Rivendell is similarly just the marketing arm of a bicycling philosophy (Grant's)
.