recent Atlantis changes

[Jim Thill - Hiawatha Cyclery]

For Atlantis frames made between, say 2003 and 2008-ish, I usually have a pretty good eye for estimating the approximate vintage because of my experience selling them and working on them during those years. Earlier this week, we got a new 61cm Atlantis in for a customer. I noticed that it has some different dropouts and rack braze-ons on the fork and seat stays, not to mention lug detail variations compared to older examples. But above all that, when we tried to put a standard SRAM chain on, the chain was very close to being too short. I wondered about chainstay length, which turns out to be a long 47 cm. I recall the older models having 43.5-44.5 cm chainstays. Just thought this might be worth a mention for academic purposes.

[dougP]

Could you post some photos when you get the bike built up? More rack
mounts is a plus. My '03 Atlantis came with nothing on the fork, a
situation I've since remedied. I seem to recall a while back there
were going to be hourglass mounts on the fork for a Nitto mini-rack.
Have low rider mounts been added?

dougP

On Feb 23, 12:01 pm, Jim Thill - Hiawatha Cyclery

[Peter Pesce]

I used to think the lack of consistency along models years was frustrating, but now I think it's sort of charming. The variation over time reminds me that real people are responsible for Rivs, not robots.
However, chain stays that are are so long that a standard chain won't wrap a 48/32 ( or whatever) is problematic! I guess the super long-n-low Rosco will be a single speed, or you'll just buy 2 chains?

Pete

[Jim Thill - Hiawatha Cyclery]

No low rider mounts. That would be nice. The Tubus Duo is a favorite rack of mine. There are threaded holes in the top of the crown. I have a few ideas for that, but maybe there's a devoted rack? The front dropouts are like little satan heads with horns sticking out.

The seat stays have three hourglass braze-ons in each side - top, middle, and bottom - in addition to the double eyelets on the dropouts.

The chainstay length with an XT long cage rder and a 46/32(or 34) combo maxed out a 114L SRAM chain. I don't think it would have worked with a 48t big ring and/or a 36t big cog. But the heel clearance with panniers must be amazing!

Sorry. No pics, and the Atlantis has left the building.

[dougP]

Three hourglass braze-ons on the seat stays sounds like a couple of
them got mis-placed. And haven't there been other models with the
threaded holes in the fork crown?

For tours where the bike gets shipped & assembled at the start,
bolting on front racks when the fork has dedicated mounts is a snap.
I've also got hourglass mounts for the little Nitto front rack. Sure
beats all the futzing around with clamps when you're sticking a bike
together far from home.

About those long chainstays, think about the foot size of the rider of
a 61 cm. On my 58, my size 11s clear panniers but I've got the Nitto
Big Back rack which lets the bags stay well back. A shorter rack or
bigger bags like some of the Ortleibs could be close.

dougP

On Feb 23, 7:02 pm, Jim Thill - Hiawatha Cyclery <thill....@gmail.com>
wrote:

[Tom Harrop]

The Bombadil has threaded holes in the top of the fork, although I'm not quite sure what the threading is. I couldn't get an M4 screw in there, but it could just be full of paint.

[EastBayGuy]

I am the Proud owner of one of these. I wanted to chime in and say that these can fit 60mm Big Apples with No fenders. It is tight but works superbly. 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/54527498@N06/6218031752/in/photostream 

According to Keven the Fork crown threads are for mounting a rear rack on the front of the bike easily. Have not tried it yet.

Dustin G

Walnut Creek 

[C.J. Filip]

When trying to judge the approximate age of an Atlantis my eyes go
straight to the lugs adorning the head tube. There seem to be at
least three different lug styles used in production models. The fork
lugs and braze-on additions seem to have been changed at a different
"pace" than the main lug set.

As my RR collection gets more complete, I'd like to make a timeline.
This will show and prove absolutely nothing but hopefully will be
appreciated by Atlantis fan-boys and girls.

To add and perhaps vindicate those responsible for the now several
batches of Atlanti, perhaps Grant or whoever just got bored with the
lug style at the time and had it changed (I would). Perhaps a run of
a batch lugs was discontinued. The Atlantis is the longest running
model after all. Do other models show lug differences over time? The
AHH is getting to be a mature model in the line-up and if any of my/
our theories are true a difference in lug style ought to show up
eventually.

[Cyclofiend Jim]

A number of variants here - http://cyclofiend.com/rbw/atlantis/

and quite a few in the queue. 

As I get things fired back up in the Galleries, if anyone has specific model year changes they are aware of, please let me know and I'll be happy to help document the differences.

- Jim

cyclofiend at gmail.com
cyclofiend.com

[dougP]

Do lug molds wear out? If they need to be changed anyway, maybe
different lug styles happen then. When you think about it, lugs have
an element of whimsy anyway & may reflect the mood of the designer.

Of course, you can always check the serial number on the BB shell. It
won't tell you the year delivered but there's a running number
system.

60 mm? You realize that voids the warranty :). I've stuffed a 50
onto the back & it looks pretty full.

dougP

On Feb 24, 9:28 am, Cyclofiend Jim <cyclofi...@earthlink.net> wrote:
> A number of variants here -http://cyclofiend.com/rbw/atlantis/

[Darin G.]

My wife's new LHT has mounts on the fork crown, but on the side of the
crown. We were wondering what they were for. I thought I saw photos
of some of the Hunqapillars with these mounts, as well, but have yet
to see a rack mounted in that fashion.

D.G.

[Jim Thill - Hiawatha Cyclery]

Darin: My Curt Goodrich, which warrants a post of its own in a few minutes, has the side-crown eyelets. Originally they were for a custom rack that Curt was going to make, but I ran short on cash and couldn't justify a $300+ front rack, so I held off. Instead, we hacked a Surly front rack with Surly rear rack hardware for a rock solid mount:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/twowheelflight/3277224049/

I see Surly sells a lot of these parts individually now, so you don't need to buy the entire $60 hardware kit.

[EastBayGuy]

Yep those be 60's. Its tight but works on the New Atlantis..

Dustin G

Walnut Creek

[Johan Larsson]

What, no front low rider mounts? That's remarkably strange. As for the three mounts on the seat stays, I can't really guess  what the lowest ones are for (an extra set of low mounts on the stays would be very useful on a bike with disc brakes though), but aren't the top ones just for a regular back rack? and I've brazed mounts in the middle of the seat stays on my bike for custom low rider racks, inspired by such bikes as you can see on http://www.cycles-alex-singer.fr/catalogue/cyclo-camping.html for example.

The threads on top of the fork crown are surely for a "porteur" rack.

/Johan

[Matthew Hoult]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2000-Rivendell-Atlantis-64cm-touring-complete-bike-lugged-steel-lugs-/300670820009?pt=Road_Bikes&hash=item4601609ea9

[Jim Thill - Hiawatha Cyclery]

Johan: the Atlantis has never had mid-fork lowrider mounts. Of course, Riv has always promoted and sold Nitto racks of the non-lowrider variety.

I can envision a number of possibilities for the fork crown mounts. A porteur rack is a possibility, but it may also provide a solid mounting point for any number of front and rear rack designs. Or for a headlight. The general theme of this Atlantis seemed to be "more threaded holes is better". Can't say that I disagree.

[René Sterental]

If by the 3 mounts on the seat stays you mean these http://tinyurl.com/3v28e6l then the purpose is to be able to mount the shorter/smaller version of the Nitto Big Rear Rack on the larger 700c models (my photo shows the smaller rack model mounted on the 58 Hunqapillar). The greatest advantage of the smaller Nitto rear rack over the larger one, is that the smaller one fits much closer to the seat stays and thus goes under the saddle better. I prefer such a setup for the large saddle bags (Sackville or otherwise) as it prevents the top of the rack from interfering with the saddlebag and even allow the saddle bag to rest there instead of falling on top of it as you can see in the photo (showing an Acorn large saddlebag, which is much smaller than the Sackville or the Carradice Camper).

This is a recent modification/addition that I believe started in the last 12-18 months on some models. It's my preferred seat stay option now. I don't have it on my Atlantis, which is a bit older than that.

René