mongol777

TLR - what an awesome frame! Love it!

I had quite a few modern off the shelf road and roadish steel bikes. To name a few - All City Mr Pink and Space Horse, Soma Smoothies and the one with fancy chrome lugs, Surly Pacer, Crosschek. Only noting the ones with rim brakes.
All good riders and if I were to rate them - liked All City the most, Surly close second and Soma's were OK. Soma's rode good but the 3 I had - all had small but annoying QA issues like slipping seatposts

Riv Roadini always intrigued me - liked the design, threaded fork and quill stem but there was not a lot of reviews/feedback out there. And I always wanted to try Riv

2020 model has increased tire clearance to 38 and I pulled the trigger. Sold Mr Pink and my Roadini frame arrived last week.

Dealt with Will at Riv and he was awesome. My order came in right in the midst of very crazy time for them so took ~2-3 weeks to process it but once shipped - got to Canada in about 3 days.
Couple of cons, well only for one for me - Riv shipped to Canada using DHL. Shipping was ~$240-250 USD which is quite a bit hire compared to say Mike Varley @BMC. On the plus side - super fast, no damage to the box and I was able to prepay customs ($174CAD) online. So my total was $900USD for the frame + shipping and taxes. Is the frame worth it - riding draft build for couple of days now I can say that yes, it is totally worth it to me.

Now to the build - apologies for the pics quality, I will post better when bars are wrapped, etc.
- Riv ships Roadini with FSA headset (very nice), seat post and Shimano UN-55 BB, 110mm. Unfortunately spindle is too short for the crank/rings I am using - SunXCD arms and VO 46/30 rings. Inner bolts rub the chainstay on the drive side. Very minor rub but can't ride it like that. Luckily I had Token bb which is also stamped as 110 but spindle is may be 0.75-1mm longer and it is perfect
- Riv does not include BB cable guide. But as many on this forum I usually have enough parts in the parts bin to build several bikes so I had extra guide. Correction - Riv got back to me and they do include BB guides but were out of stock with no ETA from Shimano. So they chose to rush frame to me - which was absolutely right move for me!
- I went with VO dark green housing which matches green frame accents very nicely. Good stuff but I also wanted to use brass ferrules from Riv and they do fit on brake cable housing but on on shifter housing from VO. They do fit over regular Shimano though. Another con with VO housing - shifter ones are short and not enough to do full aero routing tucked under tape.
- I usually like to criss cross cables and route RD cable through non-drive side DT cable stop and FD through driveside. For this build I am using Shimano BB cable guide and in that combo and routing - cables were rubbing underside of DT. So I reverted to more common routing
- Saddle is what I had on hand but final version will have B17 copper green (dark green with copper riverts and rails)
- For the tape - originally thought about light blue or brown Newbaum but found Greentips (on recommendations from Analogcycles) in dark green and what Analogcycles say is true - feels much nicer and softer compared to somewhat rough Newbaum. Will see how it holds up
- Brakes - massive clearance thanks to improved 2020 frame clearance. Went with TRP RG941s (Thanks to Mike Varley's post where he compares clearance on his road frame between VO, TRP and Tektros)
- Wheelset - I laced H+Son TB14 to Ultegra hubs but decided to use them on Centurion I just got and using Shimano Ultegra wheelset I had as a spare for Roadini.
- Tires - Challenge Bianca Strada, 700x36, 260TPI and measure exactly at 36mm actual
- FD is Shimano CX70 and RD is 105 5700 long cage, cassette is shimano something mtb 11-36
- Rest of the build is pretty simple - Nitto Technomic 70mm, Noodles (46, heat treated), TRP levers

Future plans - B17 in dark green with copper rails as mentioned above and probably Honjo brass fenders. Just based on quick measurements - 45mm fenders will fit perfect in the back and may require slight crimping to fit the fork.

Ride is awesome - first day I rode with pretty high pressure for these tires, around 55 psi front and 60 psi in the back and frame just soaks up the chatter. Goes when I hammer and I can see going for miles and miles on it, very comfortable and sure footed. And not a boat anchor, no dead feeling - lively frame.

Weight - compared just by hand after taking out BB and seatpost, it felt lighter vs All Mr Pink (55cm with headset installed as well). If I recall correct - frameset (Roadini) with headset was hovering around 7 lbs mark (my Roadini is Rivs's size 54). Weight as pictured (still missing cable caps, tape) - just over 23 lbs. But on the road it feels much lighter, closest to Marinoni Ciclo which is around 21 lbs and 1993 Cannondale R400 which is just around 20 lbs, both on skinnier tires (700x28 and 700x25 respectively). Full disclosure - I am using simple luggage scales so your results may vary from mine.

mongol777

Nice touch :-) non DS chainstay

BB has nice drain hole

mongol777

Yes, I know - badge still has protective plastic over it :-)

mongol777

Rim brake clearance post by Mike mentioned above https://blackmtncycles.com/clearance-pt-ii-road-frames/

dddd

Good review, and nice bike!

One of the riders in our club rides a roadini, older model, and likes it.

mstateglfr 

Your brakes look like a silver version of the TRP 957s that I use on one of my road bikes.
The bike looks great, but your collection of modern steel frames was fantastic to read thru!

Kobe 

I came close to getting a Roadini before I got my Gunnar, they were very similar except the largest Roadini was one size too small for me. The Roadini is a terrific deal at $900.

Your build is is making me regret it. Looks Great.

himespau 

Nice. BB cable guide seems like a strange omission especially for a bike like this that is unlikely to be built up as SS.

mongol777

Thank you and everyone who liked the build!

Yes, I found it strange as well and will email Will sometime once I collect my thoughts. On the bright side - mounting BB hole is threaded so all good.

mongol777

Gunnar is on my list as is Waterford. My only reservation for Roadini were some opinions on the webs that it is heavy, blah, blah, blah. Yes, it is not uberlightweight but it is not heavy either. Definitely lighter then Mr Pink per my subjective weighing procedures :-). And difference is quite interesting - Mr Pink felt a bit overbuilt quite often vs Roadini has this let's go at whatever pace you are feeling today. I have another Columbus Zona bike (Marinoni Ciclo) and it 100% feels livelier and lighter the Mr Pink was (which is also Zona for main and cromoly for stays and blades). I still like All City frames a lot but I find them overbuilt as well - had Nature Boy in Reynolds 853, same story.
And the more bikes I ride the more I realize that while nice tubing is nice to have - geo, fit, right gearing for the job (SS or multi) and tires trump everything else for me.

mongol777

I made a mistake and you are correct - they are TRP 957s

And thank you for compliment!

mongol777

Was very close to getting old one at some point. Orange and increased tire clearance sealed the deal for me.
And thank you for your compliment!

tricky 

Great looking bike! I see they are mostly sold out. I am glad Riv is moving some product.

And yes, I've referenced that post a lot of times. There is surprisingly little on the web about tires clearances for different dual pivots.

mongol777

Yep, I usually used Tektro R539s, was tempted by VOs and could never find TRPs at reasonable price and/or in stock. But lucked out this time - got last set from bike24
And I like how Riv did the seatstay bridge height and fork crown drill - I could squeeze 35s actual in Mr Pink with R539s and it was tight, front caliper was actually rubbing without cable attached. Roadini tons of space.

And thank you for the compliment!

ofajen

Funny, my thought was I like absolutely everything about this frame except the vertical dropout because I would run it single speed and prefer a horizontal dropout.

Otto

mongol777

Long time SS fan here! I started adding geared bikes not that long ago and most of my fleet is either SS or FG. So I am OK with verticals on this one :-) and if I ever change my mind - I have couple of ENO hubs stashed in top secret drawer
Some day I want to get Mercian with track fork ends at the back (or dropouts as folks commonly call them)

noobinsf 

Stunning bike! Rivendell is my neighbor, and I'm hoping they are still alive and kicking when I have the gumption and funds to decide to buy one.

Salamandrine 

Very nice! Congratulations on your new bike. Looks great. Did GP use more fork rake than normal, or is that just the bend fulling me? Almost looks like Riv is exploring semi lower trail.

I am using the same RG 957 brakes on my Mercian Audax, and I managed to find them in silver too. One minor gripe I have about them is that the QR doesn't open up enough to let out a 28c tire, but since you are using the matching TRP RRL levers with their own QR, you should be fine.

nazcalines

Nice looking bike. Looks like you still have the plastic on the headbadge.

mongol777

Yes, realized after I took the picture Noted right under it

mongol777

Yes, checked and it opens up wide enough. My only gripe with them is somewhat cheap looking barrel adjuster. It is solid but looks plasticky.

mongol777

Just got a note from Will - amazing customer service! He will be sending me credit (I did not ask for it!)
"Generally we included BB guides, but we were out, and Shimano was out with no ETA, so I figured I'd just get it out to you."

So correction to my OP - BB guides are included!

squirtdad

interesting, and typical that is is a mix of lugs and tig construction......... rivendell does it's own thing looks like fun

mongol777

Yes, you gotta give it to Grant - he goes with his vision. I don't agree with everything he does but a lot of things resonate. I am actually quite excited for Platypus - mainly like the badge and the name but frame looks interesting as well.
And I really appreciate the options between reasonably priced MIT frames and if your wallet can afford it - MUSA option is there too.

The Golden Boy 

Sweet bike and congratulations!!!