samkl 

repechage

nesteel 

If I don't like the brand, the bike won't live at my house. I don't care how well if fits/is built. And yes, riding a Riv will put you in a certain category and there's not a thing you can do about it no matter how you build it.

samkl 

RobbieTunes

Drink $1 McDonald's coffee, keep your nose down, and smile at total strangers.
Practice saying "it's just a bike," and wear T-shirts. Tell people you went to "state."

Wipes you right out of that Rivendell crowd.

If they still think you belong, get a MAGA hat. That'll definitely do it.

jon c. 

you can always repaint

corn on the cog 

samkl 

Reynolds 531 

Put disc brakes on it.

RALEIGH_COMP 

A classic tale, love the girl but not care so much for her family... Do what's best for you, to heck with what people think! Looks like a pretty sweet frame for sure.

crank_addict

Haha-
Or wear a MEGA hat while riding an Asian made carbon Raleigh and you 'breaxit'.

corn on the cog 

Hummer

Bumper sticker: "My other bike is a Cinelli".

Chris Chicago

Put super skinny tires on a set of mag wheels, and get a carbon fork. Only wear spandex ....everyone will fear you.

gugie 

Chr0m0ly 

No one will notice.

bikingshearer 

Or care. Grant Petersen certainly won't.

Yeah, he has his own (decidedly quirky) views on bikes and things, but what gets lost is what his core message is: ride what you like because you like it, not because someone else says it's cool.

Look, my favorite ride is a c.1965 Cinelli SC with a Campy 10sp triple drivetrain, Tektro dual pivot brakes, and SPDs. I love it. It is the best riding bike I have ever been on. That is far and away the most important thing.

Trick that Riv out the way you want and brevet the hell out of it. It was meant to be ridden. That's what you want to do. Frankly, I think Grant would be delighted.

And if not, who cares?

scarlson 

Just put proper VO or Honjo fenders on it paying attention to a proper fenderline instead of zip-tying plastic ones on and you'll be all set. Everybody who cares enough to judge you knows the REAL Rivendell way is to have a loosely-attached $35 pair SKS fenders rattling against a $1500 Joe Bell paintjob. It's on Grant's blog and in the old RR issues enough anyway!

In all seriousness it will make an excellent rando bike. Rerake the fork for low trail (better for a handlebar bag but not strictly necessary by any means) and you'll really not look Riv-ish (I hear Grant refuses to do low-trail geometry even on custom bikes).

canklecat

Steering wheel.
Banana seat.
Sissy bar.
IGH. With belt drive.
Stick shifter on the top tube.
Ah-ooga horn, with chromed bullet eye-gouge button activator in the center of the steering wheel.
Feet shaped pedals.

That'll teach those danged hippies.

nervgs

I have a sort of similar dilemma......

I'd normally keep this to myself as it's not professional to talk like this, but I have to say something.

Back a few years ago I worked for KTM B ike Industries, or actually the company that held of the distribution rights to the KTM's bikes out here in the US. I lasted about 3 months there. They were having growing pains despite being here for a year or so (I discovered whomever last held the rights a couple of years before didn't do a great job or something), but that was no excuse for how they were pricing product (it was waaaaay too much for a brand not known to cyclists despite their motorsport background and being everywhere around Europe), and how they basically lied to their dealers and customers about being "made in Austria" as I was even led to believe......

Personal thoughts & feelings aside about management (or lack thereof) and how I was treated my last 2 or so weeks there, I was told from the first day that the bikes were actually made in Austria to the point where the marketing manager said he personally visited the factory, saw their production line, and even had a custom sized bike there (he was a sponsored racer), and not from Taiwan and/or China like most modern bikes nowadays. I have *almost* no problem with bikes made there (I own a carbon Giant) as long as companies are up front about it (Specialized seems proud about it), but this was blatant lying by the manager to employees that worked there, customers and dealers by saying the bikes were 100% made in Austria. Hell, I remember the sales reps constantly telling potential dealers and customers that the "bikes were not made in Taiwan or China like the other companies" and the few that signed on during my short time there were very proud of that fact....

I guess legally speaking, KTM is to fine advertise the bikes were made in Austria due to them being engineered, painted, and assembled there, but hard production is still handled in Taiwan and China depending on which of their frames we are talking about. It still doesn't make it right by telling dealers and customers that the bikes were 100% made in Austria and no Asian hands ever touched production of them..... My final weeks there I was trying to write some of their advertising material and was stumbled when I couldn't find any marketing jargon or actual type of carbon they used - I was told it was some "exotic Austrian sourced and made carbon fiber" or some kind of crap, which was funny because I can count on one hand the amount of carbon producers in the world. I don't know why I wasn't just told it was most likely Toray, or "I don't know." I asked the guys in the Florida office (where they did everything there including communication to Austria) and they said they would get back to me, but never did. This is what ultimately started my downhill opinion of the company I worked for and I started to do some digging if I was working for some good people or not.

I remember about a month or so after I started working there I was kind of interested in a CX frame and if they had any. This should had been the first sign it was not going to be a great experience as they kept on trying to sell me one of their aluminum frames that they couldn't sell despite my lack of interest in aluminum as I was only interested in carbon. This went on for a while at least once or twice a week until I finally bought a frame on my own..... I found an older steel frame, made around 1985, and had it shipped from SERBIA or somewhere of all places. It's a road frame, made from 531, internal cable routing, with a aero downtube friction setup. Since no one in the Florida office could help me with any information about this (despite their "Austrian connections"), I had to contact an enthusiast on my own to get some. He confirmed to me that it's a relatively rare frame as it was their top of the line model at the time, and I was lucky to get it in such great condition as not many were available, though it might not have been made by KTM as they contracted work out to other builders back then when they were having money problems (CBT Italia is one of them as my research proved), so who knows who made my frame.

The bike came with a Shimano AX group from the factory, but since it was just a bare frameset when I bought it, I planned to go full C-Record. I got as far as getting almost everything but the front and rear derailleurs (for some reason I got 2 cranks and 2 sets of Delta calipers though) and then got canned and totally stopped caring about the thing. The bare frame hangs on my rack nowadays with just a headset (strange mix of French cups and English threading) & fork installed, along with the C-Record crankset (English BB if I recall). I never got the bike far enough to ride, but just to lightly install parts for a picture opportunity here.

http s://i.imgur.com/ub6tj0u.jpg
http s://i.imgur.com/ISp9ipM.jpg
http s://i.imgur.com/e6IcfOc.jpg
http s://i.imgur.com/2mohRUN.jpg

Don't get me wrong, the frame I think is very pretty with it's "aero" profiling, lack of external cables, a 3T pantographed KTM stem that I had to modify to fit, nice shade of white paint, and the polished lugs & bits, but because of my experience of working there and that rather large (in my opinion) bit of lying by telling dealers and customers the bikes were 100% made in Austria broke the straw on the camel's back for me, and destroyed my association with this bike now. You can tell I hate liars, especially when they have absolutely nothing to be ashamed about like in this case and when they are trying to make a sale or two by deceiving others.... It really made me feel sick.

My plans since have been to try to make the bike into some bastard of a Time Trial bike using whatever junk parts I have sitting around doing nothing (I think I have Shimano 600 derailleurs and cranks somewhere), the Delta setup (since they're horrible at actually doing their job), and because I'm trying to keep costs as low as possible for this thing, the only parts I lack and need to buy is a Nitto pursuit bar of some kind, and probably some TT bars with it. I'll get to it when I have some interest and cash to burn. Also, if you're wondering, the headtube and downtube came to me without branded logos of any kind from the seller - which is funny because I hate it when bikes have their logo on the frame like 10 times on whatever tube is available, and have taped over them on a bike or two of my own. I think the only visible one is on the seat stay cap which is polished, so it is hard to even tell what it says.

Anyway, that's my story. I like how the frame looks (don't know how it rides), couldn't careless about the brand.

-glenn

Poguemahone

When was England great? asking for a friend, Ireland.

nomadmax 

This one is too easy.

Paint & decal it up like a Masi and call it good

clubman 

Decal it as a Mordor,

Wileyone 

wwii

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