My Betty Foy after 10 years

[Pam Bikes]

I wanted to share pictures of a Riv after 10 years with lots of beausage.  

I'm terrible at Wordpress and not sure how to format it so it's cobbled together but I did put all the pictures there and some fun facts.  I love my bike.  It's the one thing I use everyday and enjoy riding it still.

http://cltspokespeople.org/my-betty-foy-after-10-years/

[Eric Floden]

That is so very cool, thanks!

EricF

Vancouver BC

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[Jon Dukeman]

What size wheels do you have?

Jon

[Roberta]

It looks beautiful. You are an inspiration, getting the most joy out of your bikes. 

[Pam Bikes]

My Betty is a 47 cm and has 26 in wheels, the 50 cm has 650B, the 55 and 60 have 700.  I may be wrong on the 55 but I'm guessing.

[Bicycle Belle Ding Ding!]

This is going down as my all-time favorite post on this forum ever. To ride a Riv to this extent for a decade, while being an example and an encourager to others along the way…well, hats off to our Pam. I have enjoyed the article and photos immensely. Grant would be thrilled - Pam, have you sent this to him?!

Leah

[dougP]

Pam:

That's a great story & the documentation is interesting.  I wonder how many others ride their bikes a lot but don't track mileage or parts useage.  I'll bet there's a whole group out there that have no idea, and that most of them only have one bike & use it daily, as you do.  You are an inspiration. 

dougP

[Jeffrey Arita]

Pam,

Only one word comes to my mind after reading this: R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Carry on!

Jeff

Claremont, CA

On Saturday, May 15, 2021 at 6:11:15 PM UTC-7 Pam Bikes wrote:

[Joe Bernard]

9000 miles in one year. I don't drive my car that far! 

Joe Bernard

On Saturday, May 15, 2021 at 6:11:15 PM UTC-7 Pam Bikes wrote:

[ascpgh]

Wow! That's my first reaction. Second is what great aforethought you've had to keep up your documentation so as to look at it from a ten year retrospective. I don't even keep my miles tallied but your bike's decade inspires me to post in response "My Rambouillet after 20 years". I'm going to have to work on it to meet the quality of your post! I've got beausage times two, I once wrote that mine had exceeded definition and moved to "beausavage". 

Andy Cheatham

Pittsburgh

On Saturday, May 15, 2021 at 9:11:15 PM UTC-4 Pam Bikes wrote:

[John A. Bennett]

It's just getting good! 

John in Portland, Ore.

On Saturday, May 15, 2021 at 6:11:15 PM UTC-7 Pam Bikes wrote:

[Joel S]

You use your bike the way we all should (if weather permitted).  Good to remember the nicks and scratches.  A well used bike.  

On Saturday, May 15, 2021 at 9:11:15 PM UTC-4 Pam Bikes wrote:

[Pam Bikes]

I was afraid people would give me a hard time for thinking I mistreated my bike.  I'd love to see other bikes in similar condition.  I used to stress over the paint chips but have enjoyed all the rides and have come to realize that bikes are for riding.  If it gets chipped, that's part of the journey.  

I'm sure more people have ridden lots more than me.  I just ride mine everyday, everywhere literally.  We're all lucky we have our Rivs before Ultraromancer, Bike Snob and Russ of The Path Less Pedaled got theirs.  Rivs may be more hard to come by.  

[Benjamin Park]

Great write up!

On Saturday, May 15, 2021 at 9:11:15 PM UTC-4 Pam Bikes wrote:

[Leah Peterson]

Your bike mistreated because of its beausage? Never. It is my unvarnished opinion that the mistreated bike is the pristine one. A pristine bike is a parked bike, and Rivs are meant to be ridden. I have one scuff in my raspberry Platypus paint and I don’t even care. More to come, I figure.

Andy - yes, delight us with your 20 year Ram write-up and beausage. Who else has had a bike for a long time and can contribute? Like Pam, I’d really enjoy those stories and photos.

As for me, my Betty Foy was 8 years old when I traded it in for the longer chain-stayed, raspberry Platypus. I learned a lot in those 8 years and you could see it on the frame. I didn’t even know how to raise the handlebars when I got my Betty. I stripped a bolt or two. Mashed the brake cable into the top tube paint job. I used it to pull my kids and haul my dog, and as such, it was tipped over by said kids and dog more than once. Wish I had done a similar write-up!

Leah

Sent from my iPad

On May 16, 2021, at 7:21 AM, Pam Bikes <pamlike...@gmail.com> wrote:

I was afraid people would give me a hard time for thinking I mistreated my bike.  I'd love to see other bikes in similar condition.  I used to stress over the paint chips but have enjoyed all the rides and have come to realize that bikes are for riding.  If it gets chipped, that's part of the journey.  

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[Jason Fuller]

I draw a lot of inspiration from you and your Betty, Pam! Thanks for chronicling its journey. 

[Philip Barrett]

Really awesome & inspiring! 

[Christine Justice]

I enjoyed this so much Pam. You and your Betty sure have a special relationship. It's a joy seeing such a well loved bicycle. That is some truly awe inspiring milage you do. And oh the places you've been together! 😻 You say you don't use a phone. How do you track all that milage? 

[Patrick Moore]

I admire your moral fiber for happily riding your bike without fretting about the paint. I do have a 22-year-old Rivendell, but I've babied it, and only used it very occasionally for errands or commuting (it's the 1999 Joe Starck custom). It had a few minor scuffs, but the Joe Bell paint was largely intact when I had it slightly modified and powdercoated (nice powdercoat) in 2018. It does sport a wee dent in the right chainstay where another eejit cyclist, playing paceline with me last year, slammed into me from behind -- bent the wheel but left the frame almost unscathed.

OTOH, I did commute on another Riv custom with Joe Bell paint for many years, including carriage on bus bike racks -- more but again minor scuffs and scrapes.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Patrick Moore

Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum

[David Person]

Grant would be so proud of you.

[Leah Peterson]

In the spirit of our Pam I’m going out and trashing my dream bike in the rain! Right now.

Leah 

Sent from my iPhone

On May 16, 2021, at 5:38 PM, David Person <cycli...@gmail.com> wrote:

Grant would be so proud of you.

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[David Person]

I have to confess to pampering my Hillborne.  Any nicks to the paint get touched up pretty quickly and I avoid riding it in the rain, thought that is pretty easy to do in SoCal.

[lucky...@gmail.com]

I loved reading this. My early-ish Atlantis has an amputated rack braze-on from a mishap we don’t discuss, and plenty of nicks and scratches. There’s something about it being an “all rounder” that leads me to just use it without being to concerned about damaging the finish. I love seeing hard used bikes and pampered bikes, as long as there are butts on bikes! 

On May 16, 2021, at 18:24, David Person <cycli...@gmail.com> wrote:

I have to confess to pampering my Hillborne.  Any nicks to the paint get touched up pretty quickly and I avoid riding it in the rain, thought that is pretty easy to do in SoCal.

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[Jason Fuller]

My thought is:  if you have more than one bike, it's reasonable to have a pampered and immaculate one.  But everyone should have one bike that, even if a beautiful bike, is ultimately about utility - and is treated as such!

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[Pam Bikes]

To keep track of miles I have a cyclometer.  This is my 3rd.  The first one came off my beginner bike which I had for about 4 1/2 years.  I rode it for 5855 miles then when I got the Betty Foy I wondered if I'd ever ride it as much.  And now I ride more than than yearly.  My first cyclometer was a Blackburn then I got another one off ebay so I wouldn't need to change the mount but the wiring went bad - intermittantly stopping.  So I took the one off my daughter's bike.  It was given to me from someone who didn't use it anymore.  It's a Cateye Enduro.  The mount was broken in a crash but I fashioned a new one out of an old bike tube and a zip tie.  It's doing ok from 2 yrs ago.  These are the wired ones with the spoke magnet and CR2032 battery.  When the display dims and I know I need to replace it, I write down the mileage and reprogram it.  

I've hauled all kinds of stuff on my Betty.  Just tonight I brought home a 5 lb can of oyster sauce, some sesame oil, cooking wine and found a 5 gallon soy sauce bucket at the dumpster.  The bucket was strapped to the rack with a John's Irish strap.  Then on the way home from my friends house, I found a floor lamp that I strapped on with a Voile strap.  

[ascpgh]

Au contraire!

Riding in the rain is why you have fenders! Dyno hub and LED lights for the dark of night. 

Out in the falling rain is one of the top bicycling moments for me. I have picked parts over the years to become more impervious to riding in the wet, component by component. Tubeless wheels finished my list, solving the problem of wet tubes and rim tape from centrifugal entry at the spoke holes. 

We're pretty average here, our wet is just spread more evenly than other places where big storms with significant downpours concentrate rainfall.

Andy Cheatham

Pittsburgh

[upyou...@yahoo.com]

Thank you for this wonderful article and photos of a well loved bike.  I just love seeing people on their bikes. The more the better. 

Pam, I too use the Cateye Enduro on my bike to track mileage and I will be moving it and resetting it for my new platypus.  

Ride on!

Kate-Trenton, NJ

anxiously awaiting her first Riv

[Johnny Burrell]

Beautiful bike and I disagree about your wordpress skills. Fun stuff.

[Pam Bikes]

I wanted the picture of the sticker with Grant's quote small and centered so you could read it but couldn't figure out how to do that and make the pictures smaller so you wouldn't need to scroll so much but who has time for that.  I just want to ride my bike.

[JAS]

Pam, you are an inspiration!  Thank you for sharing your trusty Betty Foy and all of her beauty marks. She is definitely a work of art.  I'm impressed with your mileage, daily riding, hauling ability and dedication to helping others learn skills and confidence so they, too, can enjoy cycling.   Cheers to you!

RivSisters,

--Joyce

[brendonoid]

That is the best looking Riv I have ever seen.

[Paul Richardson]

i don't have much new to add here other than to echo others' comments that this bike, and this post, are premium content that i'm very grateful for.  thank you for posting it!  i wish charlotte weren't so far away or i'd be down next month for that meet-up, you betcha.

paul

takoma park, md.

[Pam Bikes]

If anyone is passing through, I am on Warmshowers and you could ride one of my Cheviots if you want.  Please come visit.  Charlotte is a great place to ride.  Here's a route where I pieced together many of our greenways.  https://ridewithgps.com/routes/36054960

[ascpgh]

In response to what Leah wrote: 

"Andy - yes, delight us with your 20 year Ram write-up and beausage. Who else has had a bike for a long time and can contribute? Like Pam, I’d really enjoy those stories and photos."

I got my 2002 Rambouillet just in time (4pm, afternoon prior to departure) to ride across the country with three others on a trip so light I didn't have a weather resistant camera small enough to take. Grant said this bike would fit me without going custom, so I put on a Nelson Longflap with a Bagman support, three cages, a pump, some spare tubes, headed to Yorktown to ride across the country with three folks, one I nominally knew as my wife's (who demurred from this activity) friend from college. 

I had a slight detour from plans in Colorado when the fresh granite and tar chip top road popped my back tire on a winding descent. I couldn't hold a line on the flat, had a 35 mph high side dismount, left measurable amounts of myself on the road and a separated my left shoulder. After getting up, fixing my flat and one of the other's (I was the riding mechanic), finding no cell service on three carriers' phones, not a passing car in hours and a dark storm across the western sky, I looked at the others who exited their wordless shock at my condition observing "Andy, your shoulder's messed up". Yes, and help is 48 more miles from here.

What stood out on that evening was how I was able to ride my bike those miles into the next town as such. It's been a dependable bike since then with all sorts of adventures, iterations, friendships and a few sufferfests. At the Nor'Easter curtailed April 2012 Riv Rally East the prudent either detoured the rest of the ride at Ohiopyle or hunkered down and camped through the storm (Kalamazoo Marc). I stood on  the porch of the outfitter providing shuttle for most back to Cumberland, MD trying to reach my wife until they closed at 5. I wanted to redirect her to a nearer pick up location but was visiting frineds in an equally challenging cell service location, so I headed out into the snow on the GAP headed for our predetermined pick up site. A long couple of hours on a desolate snow covered path on the trusty Ram. 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/9fP8TaUxETEBTgdQ8

I have gotten through many of the pictures to add some context but pictures do tell a thousand words...before writing any. I'm still scouring storage platforms for other pictures from eras and riding not covered. Work in progress. Learned a lot on this bike and from this bike. Grant was right, this bike will work for me. 

Andy Cheatham