Road Test/Bike Review (1989) BRUCE GORDON Rock 'n Road
 

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I thought about buying one of these when they came out. I'm pretty sure I'd buy one now if I found one in my size at a price I liked, :)

As...would...I...

I didn't remember Gordon doing production-level bicycles, but that was a long time ago to remember!

I did a cross country bike trip in the late 90s. I saw someone riding one of these and thought it was a cool (and sensible) bike.

One of the first gravel bikes! So freaking cool.

Agreed. There were a number of different bikes that came out during this era that pushed the design envelope by combining road bikes and mountain bikes in different ways: the 1989 Specialized RockCombo, the 700d GT Tachyon, the Bianchi Project bikes, and the Bridgestone XO series.

This is my 1993 Bridgestone XO 2:

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Yep, definitely an early gravel bike, or maybe just a tougher CX bike? Or a touring bike with an annoyingly high bottom bracket? Can't imagine riding a bike with an 11 3/8" high bottom bracket in traffic.

Too bad that Jan Heine hadn't gotten light fat tires onto the market back then. That would certainly make it a lot more fun to ride.

Steve in Peoria

Thanks, SpeedofLite , for posting these articles. I really appreciate it. :thumb:

But while I love the word Hakkapeliita, there's no way I am going to put tires on a bike weighing 875g a piece.

Did BG sell many of these?
 

I don’t think have ever seen one of these in person. I wonder if many were sold. At the time I was interested in this and the Rockcombo since I didn’t own a mountain bike and thought of myself as a roadie. Then I got a Bridgestone MB3 which had a more road bike feeling (to me at least). I quickly realized mountain biking with flat bars was challenging enough and lost any desire for drop bars for off roading

Come to the Frankfurt area and I’ll let you ride mine 😎

Pics or it didn't happen, ;)

Because it got new wheels today


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Nice! The fact that the R&R rides even better than it looks is irrelevant-

I had asked Bruce and he said he didn't remember how many were produced. I've heard about 200 and about 400. Given how few I've seen since I bought mine in 1989, I suspect the number is somewhere between the two.

According to the folks at Cupertino Bike Shop, where I bought mine in Aug 1989, mine was the first Japan-made Rock and Road sold in the US. I don't have any actual proof of this, just that that is what I was told when I made the purchase. Given the article was published in June before I bought mine, maybe it is the first one Cupertino sold? I had gone in to buy one earlier that year (as soon as I learned about the Hakkapeliitta tires), put down a deposit, and I was the first in line to get one when they arrived. Serial # is 89F2305. Guessing that 89 is the year and 2 is the month. If 305 is the 305th frame made, then it being among the first sold doesn't seem realistic. Not that it really matters. It's just that I've been xurious all these years. Thoughts and/or decipher help?

The components on the bike were not an exact match to those listed in the article. I'll do a new post to my IG (haffassa.tempt) with more information. There are about a dozen posts going back to 6/9/19 that include pics of the bike. Better pics are probably 6/8/20, 4/25/20, and 6/9/19.

Though the bike has undergone only a few changes over the 34+ years (tubeless tires/wheels most recently), I've kept the original parts in storage. It spent most of its years wearing Scott AT4 bars. The flat bars were great on the trail, especially with more powerful MTB levers and cables. And the bends on the ends and the loop/point fronts were nice on the road for commuting and touring.
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Really good looking!
Do you happen to know the rake of the forks? I'm curious, since it's a 72-degree head tube angle (according to the article).

It was right around the time this article came out that Bruce introduced his 43mm wide Rock 'n Road tires, designed by Joe Murray and made by Panaracer. If my recollection is correct the first version was under 600 grams. The current version, still available, is around 550g.
Brent

Very interesting thanks for sharing:thumb:Indeed one of the first gravel bikes

Thank you. I don't know for sure, but I'm assuming it is 50mm based on the tables I've seen.

if that's not a perfect bike, I don't know what is. Thanks for posting article.

I believe you are correct regarding the tire weights. 550g is pretty good by modern standards for a knobby tire that size. A Rene Herse Hurricane Ridge (700x42) Endurance casing tips the scales at nearly the same weight.


The bike I posted originally came with the Panaracer-made Rock 'n Road tires you mentioned. There were a number of other differences when I received it as well. Most notably was the Araya CT-19 rims instead of the Mavic MA40s in the article. The rims were quite narrow and the RnR casings seemed a tad loose, with some difficulty getting the beads to seat properly. I usually inflated them to around 55-60psi though, the sidewall said they could take more. Unfortunately, the front tire blew off the rim on a steep downhill at about 30mph and I rode it out on the rim, with both feet as outriggers and riding the top tube (ouch!). The rim was darn near useless. I got out a quarter and used the edge to file all the burrs on the rim, installed a fresh tube, inflated with the frame pump, and slowly limped home. These are things we did before the advent of cell phones. Wheelsmith tossed the CT-19s and laced up a set of Mavic T217 on the Deore XT hubs. They've been bullet-proof ever since and have worn several different pairs of Rock 'n Road tires over the years, both blackwall and gumwall. They were never as fast or supple as modern tubeless on firm surfaces (you could hear the paddles squirming as you rode), but boy do they hook up in the loose stuff. The DT wheels on CK Classic hubs on there now were recently acquired from a cycling buddy, and the "second originals" are in storage. I may eventually switch over to brifters, but the nostalgic look and feel of the bar-ends have a grip on my sensibilities.