If you're curious, you could try what I did. I used a tall stem with a short extension. It works great for me. I'm in love. Last time I tried mustache bars, I hated them, and three are three reasons I can't tease apart: they were low, they were far out in front, and they were Nashbar (not Nitto) bars.

If you look, you'll see it's a nitto tec. and it is short reach. I probably could get it up a bit higher...but I have so many other bikes I just haven't devoted the time.

The other issue is I put those damn Panaracers on it, and, like every time I use those, I have flat issues. There's really no good looking commuting tire that doesn't flat.

What happens is I complete a build, ride it for a month, move on to something else shiney and it goes down into the dungeon. From there I'll rotate/take em' out every now and then. It's excessive and irrational, but we all have our flaws. I have these too...so there's just not a real reason to devote a whole lot of effort:

http://i936.photobucket.com/albums/a...psaynk1ruu.jpg

http://i936.photobucket.com/albums/a...psd0994b58.jpg

I have far too many bikes!

Yup. Time to sell a few.

I'm glad you don't have my wife's contact info ;)

I'd sell the Palo Alto for a good offer...the Cinelli and the Matthews...no. I'm planning on having the orange Cinelli restored to match the fenders on the other one...I'll move the fenders over and sell the other Cinelli. It doesn't fit as well.

I'm going to need cash in a couple of years, So I probably will sell off a bunch of stuff at that point. You're right that I should get a head start.

I totally get this! Just happened randomly to spot this thread and this post, and thank you for making feel "not alone" in the world. :thumb:

I don't drink to excess...gamble...use drugs...vote for populists...

Everyone needs one irrational outlet!

Steel? Check
Lugs? Check
Slack angles? Check
Long chainstays? Check
Low bottom bracket? Check
Fat tires? Check
High handlebars? Check
Friction shifting? Check

This is my poor-man's Atlantis, which i consider the iconic Rivendell bike model. This bike has slacker angles, longer chainstays and a lower bottom bracket than a 56cm Atlantis. This bike is actually much closer to RBW's current bikes, including the new 650B Atlantis, 650B Hunqapillar and Appaloosa. Grant seems to have settled into 71.5/71 Seat/Head angles and 48+cm chainstays, both of which this bike has. The only things it really lacks are a fancy paintjob and tons of touring braze-ons, neither of which are relevant for my riding. I do plan on modernizing the drivetrain because I actually despise friction shifting and don't understand the appeal for any rider who doesn't spend significant amounts of time hundreds of miles from assistance in case of break down.


[IMG]http://i1288.photobucket.com/albums/...psoeq5tmcm.jpg[/IMG]

How about a 1993 Trek 520 (last year with lugged frame), hand built in the U.S.A.?

Here's one I found last week for $150 Cdn (about $115.00 USD) at my LBS. First photo on the ride home, second after replacing seatpost and stem.
Mustache bars and faux leather bar wrap later this week.

Five and a half years ago a very good answer was offered:

A short while later I presented an offensively ugly 1989 RockHopper (falling short in both the "nice" and "sport-touring" parts of the instructions). Since then I've stepped up my game. This, I think, is getting there:

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/689/3...511045d2_b.jpg

1972 Motobecane Grand Record with a few modifications


It has the beautiful lugs of a Rivendell. It has comfortable geometry. It has room from wide tires. I lifted the bars way up. I think the big thing it's lacking is a stunning head badge.

I may have gone a bit over a "poor man's" budget, but it ended up pretty close to the cost of a new Surly.

If it cost less than a Surly, then it was money well spent.

That is a sweet bike! Congrats!! :thumb:

Find an old Bridgestone. Specifically, a Bridgestone XO, which was the most idiosyncratic Grant bike of the time, and may have helped to bury Bridgestone as a brand.

Cool bikes but not for the "Poor Man" for sure.

More than a Cross Check, less than a Straggler... I'm very happy with it. :)

Speaking as the owner of two Riv's, I'll say you nailed it!

Two, you say? I just finished building my second Motobecane this weekend.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4310/...d20ca28e_c.jpg

This one is a Grand Jubilé with the original paint still intact. I re-raked the fork to lower the trail (because, you know, French forks need even more bend) and installed 650B wheels and a 10-speed Campy drivetrain.

Maybe it's the lack of fenders (a shortcoming that I'll eventually address), but this one doesn't look quite as Riv to me.

:thumb:

The 'stache bars didn't work out (nor did trekking/butterfly bars), so now its a Trek 520 "Tourist" (just need someone with airbrush skills to change the top tube decal).
Test ride today. Going to strip off the badly and easily chipped paint/anodizing? on the alloy Blackburn rack and polish it up.
Still waiting for Wald 137 Basket and deciding on brown bar wrap: leather look, cork or cloth -maybe Harlequin style?

:thumb:That's the way to do it.

Marc

Bought this Japanese made Bruno a while back after spotting it collecting dust in a cycle shop, the local bike fraternity only seem interested in carbon, so this gem had become a window piece, I got it discounted for $700....

It really is beautifully made, and has lugs for racks and mudguards... looks a peach as well.

Same.

I have about 14/15 now in various states, I will be selling a few. I have a tendency to pick up a beater and a nice version of bikes/frames that I like. Now to decide to loose the beaters I use all the time, or sell off the garage queens. Sigh...

I guess its a bit like most things in life, the older stuff just looks better after a certain time, and when speed is not so important..... the carbon clan talk in grams, but if (like me) you are 15kg overweight a 13kg bike makes little difference in the bigger scheme of things. In fact as exercise and weight loss is a big part of my cycling bike weight is a good thing.

The racing bikes of the 70's and 80's not make good touring bikes due to the quality of the materials used in the frames, and the geometry is not as extreme as modern road bikes.

Best of all, with a few exceptions of Italian exotica, these older steel framed bikes are cheap especially when comparing to carbon.

Long may it continue, and threads like this show them off.

Seven years and this thread is still going strong!

Here's my poor-man's Riv:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/8y...=w1252-h940-no
1983 Stumpjumper Sport with Rat Trap Pass tires. My friend calls it the "marshmallow bike" because it feels so comfortable riding it.

I've contemplated Albatross bars, but I'm nothing is motivating me right now, the Bullmoose bars seem to work well for me on rides up to 30 miles (as far as I've gone in one stretch on this bike so far).

just want to mention i saw a really high zoot riv at a bikes and brews run this summer. i was dying to get close to it. when i did i was just a touch disappointed. not because it wasn't beautiful. it was two tone and fully lugged. everything about it looked expensive but at the same time it was kind of ridiculous if you get my meaning. a little beyond pretentious. now all my bikes have fenders and inverted mustache bars as well as dynamos and lights so i am not saying i dont get into the whole deal and really i love the book "just ride", its just that somehow when confronted with the mack daddyness of a full on rivendell i was sort of taken aback. this from a guy who owns a bob jackson. it probably says something about me that is very unflatteing. anyway i prefer these poor mans versions. thanks for posting them.

With our poor mans rivs, are we trying to be pretensions specifically by NOT buying a Riv? The hipster equivalent of Riv owners?

“Your bike kind of looks like a Rivendell.”
“Nah, it’s a vintage bike, you’ve probably never heard of it.”

Yeah, on second thought, maybe that conversation will never happen after all... at least out here in BFE where I live.