RivATB sighting

[Ted Durant]

My Apple News feed had a Bicycling item that caught my eye. An article by Matt Phillips, "After 30 Years in the Field, This is the Gear I Deem Worth Splurging On", is accompanied by this photo. You can read the article, if you like, and try to figure out why they chose this photo for that topic.

That bike is almost an exact duplicate of the Riv ATB that I had. Same color, very close to the same size, same brakes, brake levers, shift levers, rear derailer. Same color Brooks saddle, though that appears to be a B17 and mine had a Conquest. Many bonus points for the Willow chainrings. I never used toe clips, though.

Ted Durant

Milwaukee WI USA

[Eric Daume]

Somewhere I have that magazine article, they compare a Riv AR to a Cannondale full suspension mountain bike.

Eric

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[Shannon Menkveld]

Please to share article?

--Shannon

[Patrick Moore]

Eric: yes please, if you can find it.

The photo shows why there’s been a love/hate attitude toward drop bars on mountain bikes, at least before the advent of very shallow flared bars that let you sit pretty upright while using the hooks. I know that 30-35 years ago I could never get drops positioned so that I felt safe on steep downhills. Bar ends were a makeshift and unsatisfying alternative.

But a Riv ATB with drops would make a lovely all-rounder or dirt road cruiser.

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Patrick Moore

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

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[Eric Daume]

This has taken a few tries, but here's the article (from Mountain Bike magazine, Jul of 1997.

I really kinda miss MB magazine. 

Eric

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[Ted Durant]

On Apr 5, 2025, at 8:36 AM, Eric Daume <eric...@gmail.com> wrote:

This has taken a few tries, but here's the article (from Mountain Bike magazine, Jul of 1997.

I really kinda miss MB magazine. 

Wow, that was a blast from the past. Mark Riedy, where are you now?

Ted Durant

Milwaukee, WI USA

[Eric Marth]

Super thanks for sharing this article! 

[Patrick Moore]

Thank you!

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[Patrick Moore]

I am surprised at the prices. $60 for a rain suit but the Rivendell frame was already $1050 and the Cannondale was already pushing $5K for the full bike.

[Eric Daume]

$1050 for a MUSA Riv frameset would be a bargain today, so in 25 years, I'll probably look back on $1750 Taiwan framesets and think, I shoulda got one then.

Eric

On Sat, Apr 5, 2025 at 6:26 PM Patrick Moore <bert...@gmail.com> wrote:

I am surprised at the prices. $60 for a rain suit but the Rivendell frame was already $1050 and the Cannondale was already pushing $5K for the full bike.

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[Patrick Moore]

$1050 today would be darned cheap for anything Rivendell, let alone MUSA. With the Clem frameset at $1,400 and doubtless the Yello … a bit cheaper — leaving out tariffs -- $1050 is high for the time, about $1K more in today’s inflated US fun tickets, as BSNYC calls them — $2,105 per the DoL’s inflation calculator; the comparable Clem frameset price per same calculator would have been $701 in 1997.

Of course, MUSA and not yet partaking of production efficiencies Riv has very probably learned since 1997.

And just shy of $5K 1997 dollars for the Cannondale; that’s almost $10K today, and I think this was before dentist pricing.

The Rivendell would have made a wonderful “gravel bike” avant la lettre, tho’ I prefer fat 700C tires on my Riv-inspired dirt road road bike. 

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[Menos Joven]

Thanks so much for the effort of sharing this article. It’s a bit of a history lesson informing me of where Riv was at when big C was producing these technically impressive machines. At the time, I was in a trail not road riding phase on my Bontrager hardtail so perhaps in the middle of the spectrum.

[Tom Goodmann]

Adding my thanks for finding and sharing the article, Eric, and sharing what I assume is a common thought: it'd be great to have an AR like that. One pops up now and then; one was recently sold here, I recall. 

I appreciated too the fairly long read offered by this review article, prompting nostalgia for cycling journalism of yore.  Fine bicycles we still have among us!

Tom

Atlanta, GA

[Ted Durant]

On Apr 6, 2025, at 5:57 PM, Tom Goodmann <tgoo...@gmail.com> wrote:

I appreciated too the fairly long read offered by this review article, prompting nostalgia for cycling journalism of yore.  Fine bicycles we still have among us!

Mark Riedy was a great, open-minded reviewer of bikes. Gary Boulanger was working at that time in marketing for Rivendell. He was the one who persuaded Mark to do a review of the A/R.

[R. Alexis]

I think I have this article stashed away along with other early Rivendell mag articles. I remember this price increase to $1050 from $900 or so was what prompted me to get my Rivendell Mountain. Gary Boulanger prompted me on my color selection. I was doing the payment plan thing to pay for it and I think this was when Rivendell was wrapping up production at Waterford and my color choice was the last bit they needed to finish that run before the move away (then) from Waterford. 

Thanks,

Reginald Alexis