wintermute

Well, got my first little piece of Rivendell under the tree (ephasize little) - my fiance got me a hobo bag. This thing is awesome. I can't wait to pack all sorts of stuff in it. I guess this means she's implicitly given me the go-ahead on the Volpe. And the banana bag (or maybe a nice Little Joe or Adam).

FarHorizon

Another one bites the dust!! Riv customers are always repeat offenders!

trmcgeehan

President Jimmy Carter rides a Rivendell around Plaines, Georgia quite frequently.

KrisPistofferson

I got a membership for Christmas. I guess my next few paychecks are spoken for.

FarHorizon

And in spite of that, Rivs are still good bikes!

Bekologist

I didn't know Rivendell made bicycle bags...they are manufactured by a Duluth canoe bag company.


If Rivee actually set up the shop to sew that stuff, instead of contracting with a century old pack manufacturer, that hobo bag would cost $300 and be lovingly hand assembled by Taiwanese nubian virgins that are blithering seamstresses in a 'boutique' sweatshop.

So people will soon be able to order some Riv's thru QBP- I think dilution of the brand cachet is going to occur....its all a bunch of hype anyways- Why I would pay Riv $50 to $100 for scratchy (look like $20 foreign surplus piece) wool sweaters WITHOUT any bicyclist accomodations is beyond my comprehension..... you Riv devotees, ya'alls a bunch of suckas! And why are they perpetually OUT-OF-STOCK on %75 of their stuff **********?

wintermute

Thanks for raining on my parade Mr. Negativity. Alright, let me rephrase my initial statement, because the incorrectness seems to have offended some: I just got a repurposed Duluth Thwart bag rebranded as a Baggins Bag from Rivendell - and love it. They're out of stock 75% of the time because they generally sell short run items. Are they overpriced? sure, but they generally have high quality stuff.

ink1373

okay, now i need to start spouting off phrases like:

"buy it nice, or buy it twice"
and
"price = cost / times used"

these are good reasons to buy riv. product. not to mention that they have the same aversion to high technology, synthetic products, and sweatshop labor that i do. but hey, if those things don't appeal to you, by all means, crap on rivendell all you like.

i feel that i've gotten my money's worth with rivendell every time. the same cannot be said for many companies.

my sweater is beautiful, and cut for a cyclist. my bags are as functional as they are pleasing to the eye. i wouldn't trade either of them for a crappy synthetic replacement and all of my money back.

roadfix

The Banana Bag is nice as I find myself using it quite often from bike to bike. I might just get another.....it's that getting inside the bag and doing the bucking and unbuckling thing......
I also prefer the canvas that Duluth use over what Carradice use for their saddlebags....

Bekologist

I just think there's a lot of artifice that goes along with Rivie's schtick....

I wear made in the USA bike specific woolies, not imports......and not-itchy merino wool sweaters cost about 5 bucks at the thrift store.....

KrisPistofferson

You're just mad 'cuz they don't make stuff for your car.

eastbaybob

I've had my Hobo Bag for about a year now. On my MTB it works fine as a handle bar bag, but on the Road bike it works best as a saddle bag. Either way its a nice bag.

And its funny, but every time Rivendell comes up, anywhere, theres always a nabob of negativism to bash them. I just don't understand why.

Bekologist

I'm not mad, I'm SMART. Pissedoff, you ever going to let it ride about a car I own? My car gets driven about six times a year for ski trips not possible on a bike.

You suck tailpipe for a job, can't say that's much more Rivendellish, oiler . You can buy a fifty dollar itchy wool sweater from Rivie if you want, I'll pass.

QBP, AEBike still sells friction thumb shifties, kickstands, and Nitto stuffs available all over too, its not like Grant has a lock on all wonderous things about cycling... Does he offer a Esge-Pfletcher, haven't seen it at Riv.....

ink1373

some of us just plain like rivendell. i know that i can get cheap sweaters from thrift stores. i have plenty of them. time comes that a person wants something a little nicer, and doesn't want to hit every thrift store every day until they find it. if i have to buy something new, it's the companies like rivendell that i want to give my money to.

i wouldn't trade my scratchy riv jersey for all the soft thrift store wool in the world.

my aversion to sweatshops does not stop at just NOT buying sweatshop labels, it extends to actively using my money to vote for the companies that share my beliefs.

KrisPistofferson

Not if you keep making puns like that.

Alekhine

While I don't extensively purchase from Rivendell (to date, I've bought only a stem and a handlebar, as well as RR membership), I'm the same way. This is where Rivendellites get accused of being cultish, but I do believe that what they sell is a lifestyle every bit as much as they sell a product, and it's an idea(l) that I happen to support heavily in my own daily outlook, so I let the karma of my dollars go in that direction too, and hope those bills make a few more rounds with like-minded individuals before reaching their final destination of circuitous pathways to various Wal-Marts. I'd hate for a company like Riv to go out of business, since they're an increasingly high-profile ward of the concept of biking as life rather than as sport.

Bekologist

Now, THAT seems a much better reason to support a company than overpriced, itchy wool sweaters and artifical mystique about 7 dollar friction shifters! Fortunately, I don't rely on a company to define my 'lifestyle' for me. I'm not much for 'groupthink' anyway...

ink1373

right. you're a real rebel, sir.

Alekhine

Between you and me (and whomever else cares to read), I don't buy or want to buy the clothes either, and I can respect the anti-groupthink idea. I'm not really like that myself, but again - they do have a philosophy on most things that I agree with. Groupthink is irrelevant in this regard as it is a natural affinity - and I view it like buying food at Wholefoods: The prices are higher, but the product is real, proven, and healthy, and the money tends to go to people I respect rather than abhor. Maybe I'm just a 'groupthinker' myself, but I know my constraints in that realm and I'm under no illusions about being either a complete flunky of whichever blueprint ethic is shoved my way or the opposite - where I feel that I'm so unique as to have no affiliation with anybody or any organization or any ideas that others have hit upon.

FWIW, I don't think your points are unreasonable at all - Riv does overcharge for almost everything, and your arguments are borne of completely valid complaints. When I wanted a new bike frame this year, I didn't give Rivendell a second thought: I went straight to Mercian and had them construct my dream frame under my own specs for less than a small-batch but still production-model Atlantis, and I'm 100% happy about the decision.

Bekologist

You don't hardly know me, ink..... you ever met someone who hitchiked across the country barefoot?

How about a guy with no culinary training cooking lunch for Julia Child?

I'm sure you know a bunch of mountain rescue volunteers that risk their lifes to save others....

Or a fella confident enough to throw a climbing festival without any organized backing, seduce the AAC and sundry comps and groups to donate beer and food and gear to a bunch of dirtbag climbers, and get the AAJ's editor to cook a bunch of dirtbag climber's breakfast?

Yeah, I'm toeing the line of normalcy in America.

I think rivendells message is a good one, mybe vital to keeping the stodgy in biking, and I like that. I'm a barcon, ride into the woods with a Trangia kind of biker myself....I didn't mean to offend, Alek, or anyone else, its just an odd cult of Rivendell....

ink1373

i don't see what any of that crap has to do with rivendell, or capitalism. your reasons for disliking rivendell consist of wanting to "define your lifestyle" without succumbing to "groupthink"

better watch out for those eight-person mail-order retailers, they're a tricky bunch. rivendell and grant, just talk about the things they like, sell the things they like, and bike a lot. they're a perfect model of a small business. i'd love to hear your list of wholesome bike industry companies.

i wear wool every day.
i wash my body with pine tar soap.
i ride my bike everywhere.

clearly i've been duped by these industry fat-cats. i've become such a follower.

Bekologist

hey, I wear wool everyday too! I'm wearing two layers of wool right now! And they're both made in the USA. My 'crap' bio has to do with you calling me a 'follow sheep'. Done something you're proud of that i'd call out of the norm, Ink? Love to hear it...

Alekhine

You two would probably get along famously if you tried to understand one another.

Bekologist

I took offense at being dissed for not being a 'rebel', I've been a rebel since I left school at fourteen to luge in Lake Placid, became homeless at 16, and ran a lodge with slot machines, booze, and a house hooker in Nevada before my buds were out of High School.....

I have my own reasons for disliking people who blindly pledge the rivendell mantra to buy overpriced itchy wool sweaters and bikes lovingly hand assembled by nubian virgins in Taiwian to sell via QBP. I don't dislike Rivendell, but rather its ardent toe the line supporters....

Alekhine

Yea, I know, but sometimes it's just not worth it to take offense, and just walk from it and let stuff like that vanish, like someone else's fart.