pullup

Hello what follows is a short report of my first build.

Some time ago i bought the beautiful babyblue Rih frame from Elev12k

Details of the frame can be found in this thread:
https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...?highlight=rih

I have always loved this brand, myself coming from Amsterdam but in my teens I opted for buying a Zieleman frame because that was a little bit more what you bought if you were young and wanted to get into roadracing the geometry being somewhat more agressive.

A Rih would have been what your older and wiser brother or, even worse, your father would buy but seeing this beautiful frame i decided I now was wise and old enough to pUrchase a RIH for myself.

For the last couple of weeks I have been quietly building the frame up to a nice rider, I tried to be as period correct (70,s) as possible and opted to create a babyblue/silver white combo with lots of nuovo record stuff. ( details can follow if people like to hear about this)
I must say I had a blast the last couple of weeks searching for certain items cheaply, and then rebuilding my first real bike.

Anyway I would like to present a couple of pics of the bike semifinished and a last one of the finished stage (the last one is not very clear due to the bad lighting)


First pics after a short 10 km try-out ride






Today I corrected the apparently slightly loose fitting saddle and went with it for a spin to see if his younger friends wanted to come out and play



Yes the shop is still open and mister vder Kaay is still making frames. The last couple of weeks it was even closed half of the week because of framebuilding commitements ( at least that was what the sign on the entry door said)

It appears that he and his frames are becoming more popular once more and I hope he will be around for a couple of years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyCYMEomx5I


And today I added the waterbottleholder and some Christophe white straps after which the bike is more or less finished.


Since it is my first build so if you see anything silly or funny please feel free to inform me of my possible mistakes.

thinktubes 

Nice work!!!!!

ultraman6970

I want one of those so bad Specially one of his track bikes

non-fixie 

Congratulations, pullup, on a very nice bike! Great build. And I like the paintjob too. Love the lug lining. You might want to route the brake cables behind the bar and cross them too, if you want to follow general conventions, but that is really a matter of personal taste.

BTW, nice to see another RIH thread. I got two, nrs 4749 and 217T.

Chombi

Nice RIH, Not too familiar with the brand, but I've seen a few for sale at eBay, I think with Supervitus tubing. What kind of tubing does this frame have?
Did RIH build many frames? how rare are they?
BTW, Do consider routing your cables behind the bars. Looks like they're bending quite a bit to much forward at the front caliper stop and the right brake lever.

Chombi

Capecodder

Absolutly magnificent... This has to be one of my all time favorites.

pullup

Ok thanks for the kind words and yes now i can see i have been driving with aero types brakes for to long to remember just how exactly the routing of the cables should be .
I was aiming for the same height and smooth lines in the cables and yes i was puzzled why these bends occurred but couldnt figure out how to resolve it but i can see the lines the cables should follow now.

The frame has Reynolds 531 tubing
I don't exactly know how many RIH frames vderKaay makes a year and suppose since it is definitly not a mass product it is somewhat limited, but do know that at least in the Amsterdam area you can still see them regularly.

Elev12k

That looks very good, Pullup! Nice touch with the 'driekleur' end tape. On the tape itself: very comfortable, but if you ever want to try white cotton tape: it can still be had. Already got used to the seat a bit?

Elev12k

Chombi,

It is good to realize there are 4 RIHs:
- Austrian RIH: I think this are nice bikes, but they have nothing to do with Dutch RIH.
- RIH (Amsterdam): since 1921, one offs, raced to 63 World and Olympic titles and hundreds of National titles on both road and track. This is Pullup's frame.
- Fongers-RIH: cooperation between the best Dutch bike builder, Fongers, and RIH. Fongers build light weights in small series under RIH name. Openened oppertunities for both: for RIH, as they were now available to a wider audience and for Fongers, as they didn't want to market light weights under their own name. Fongers was for the upper class, while bicycle sports was for the people. Fongers-RIHs are still very nice bikes >> example 041H (1968)
- RIH Covee: Covee purchased the RIH brand rights and markets not particularly interesting bikes under the name. A bit the same construction as with the Japanese Gios bikes.

Both the Amsterdam as the Fongers (Groningen) RIH can be considered (very) rare. Most RIHs you see are the Covee ones.

Italuminium

Fantastic bike. I'm saving up my pennies to have my early RIH restoredat the shop, hopefully before the old master retires.

repechage

I missed the offer of this frame completely. I would have tried to coax it across the Atlantic. A very handsome bike.

Reroute the brake cables behind the bars and maybe shorten them just a bit. A handsome bike.
There were a very few RIH's around here in Souther California, a few track and a few road, all the road bikes has the extended chrome blade and stay treatment.

pullup

Elev12k,
It took me less than 20 meters and I realized this very comfortable saddle would never come off and I have to admit I had my doubts when I first felt its weight.
I even have bought a roll of white Tressostar already but I admit I used to hate that stuff back then for being filthy after just a few outings and decided to give this modern tape a first go to see if I liked it with the bike

Some more details of the stuff used for this build:

The wheels I used have period correct Gran sport Campy hubs with Wolber Gentleman 81 (bought in 79) rims.
Tires: are probably from the eighties (Wolber rallye 22 invulnerable) I had those tucked away somewhere and liked the canvas sides for this bike, and the fact that they really appear to be invulerable also helps. (i think they were fitted with a sort of steel layer which made them punctureproof but rather heavy)
The Crank,brakes, pedals, bracket and frontderailleur are nuovo record early 70's, rearmech is pat 79 and the headset is of similar age.

Seatpost nuovo record ( with flutes )
Brookes saddle b17 narrow ?

Chain: KMC ( I have no idea if people can still use period correct chains because mine always would be toast after a few years)
Freewheel: Shimano Dura-ace, (got those because I used to ride with them.)

Straps: Christophe white and I am searching for Alfredo Binda straps but already found out that those are pretty expensive nowadays
Toe clips: Campagnolo (short) which i happened to get when i was looking for the straps. The owner opened a drawer and there was this campy box with new clips which he gave me for a few euros otherwise I would have used Christophe clips.

Bar:Cinelli Champione del mondo (I remember that those even came off a little RIH trackbike in 75)
Stem: was a little dissapointment because I had this nice Cinelli A1 stem with an oval cinelli milano marking on it which I intended to remove from my old Zieleman frame. It turned out to have a alan wrench nut size 7. I bought that wrench but should have done that 35 years ago because I totally rounded all the corners and now it is stuck in the old frame and I had to use a newer cinelli a1 stem
Pumppeg Campagnolo
Primus pump ( not sure if that is period correct)

I have to say I had some small trouble fitting the fork and with the bracket threading but luckily I got someone to help me with it and at the moment everything is running ('als een zonnetje') very smoothly.

pullup

I am afraid you will have to hurry a little bit.

Italuminium

well, it's pretty shot. apparently it has seen a front end crash, because the fork is bent and the headtube ovalised, so the ht has to be reamed. I'm also pretty sure the frame is out of alignment. To top it all off there's a seat post rammed way deep into the seat tube. Such a shame. It has been through 2 re-coats (rattlecan), one lime green, and one black (I did that...), but I encountered some paint underneath the green layer that gives me an idea what the bike once looked like. Burgundy coloured tubes, fading to black at the lugs and BB, with gold pinstriping. On one chainstay it said "Model Campagnolo". Probably not a cheap paint job to reproduce, but hey, I want it perfect. I'm probably looking at a E 1000+ restoration, impossible for my funds at the moment.