The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (56cm, Build Thread and Musings)

[Isaak Oliansky]

Photos here. Perhaps this will get a proper shoot someday and I'll update.

Sometimes there’s a bike…well, it’s the bike for its time and place. Shortly after my 2nd was born last summer, I saw this beauty on the Facebook Rivendell group just after it was posted. I messaged the seller with my phone number, and he called me later in the day stating that he’d had something like 50, 60 messages about the bike. Somehow I had made it to the top of the heap. The phone number is key folks. 

Fast forward two impatient weeks, and this beauty arrived at my door immaculately boxed after a cross continental journey from humid NC to dry Southern Oregon. Although the albstache build was not gonna stick, I knew in minutes that this bike was the one. I gutted it, keeping only the shifters, and began anew.

I ended up selling my ‘89 Ritchey Ultra ‘xibike’ build (with noisy dt hugi hubs and fun swoopy bars), my perfect ‘79 Bruce Gordon road bike (ouch, I hate bending over), and my blue 58cm Black Mountain Cycles Monstercross. With a tidy pile of cash in hand (this purge inspired a further purge of everything that wasn’t bolted to a bike), I decided to simply splurge completely for the first go around, instead of doing the usual strange parts bin builds and then overspending on miscellany as I slowly upgraded them, my usual recipe.

No more of that! Tom Bombadillo has arrived! Boy, he has not disappointed. His new home turf is the Mt. Ashland watershed- steep decomposed granitic slopes with Magic Dirt blissfully mud-free all winter turning into a hot dry grind in the summer. He met my #1 bicycle requirement which is to not break traction in a grueling seated singletrack climb in a tiny gear. I wished to do a robust and portly build for old Tom, yet he still has a spryness that surprises me on every ride, while still feeling confident and planted. 

I swap between 50mm Soma Cazaderos and 2.2” Continental Race Kings depending on the ride. I had some gold Paul skewers on there but they felt too flashy. Finally, the DaVinci cranks are stunning however they might get passed onto a different build in favor of the 170mm fc-6206 xt cranks that came off of my uncle’s cook bros with a microadaptor…to be determined. Otherwise, I ain’t changing a thing! 

Frame/Fork- 56cm Waterford Bombadil

Headset- Black Chris King Sotto Voce 2Nut (nerds, note the brass spacer...could Tom Bombadil wield the one ring after all?!)

Stem- Discord Fingerling 5cm

Handlebars- Ritchey Corralitos 50cm 

Bar ends- mismatched rubber Velox, light and dark green

Tape- Campandgoslow (in Great Horned Owl)

Brake Levers- TRP RRL 

Seatpost- Nitto S83

Saddle- WTB Pure V 

Brakes- Paul Touring, polished

Shifters- Kelly Take offs/Shimano Dura Ace 10s

Front Derailleur- Campagnolo Record 10s Double

Rear Derailleur- XTR Medium Cage

Cranks- DaVinci 110/58bcd (White Industries made I believe), 172.5mm, 38/20 rings 

Pedals- Wolf Tooth Waveform (in Espresso)

Chain- SRAM or KMC 10s

Cassette- XT 10s 11-36 

Cable Housing- Sim Works (in Clear Brown)

Doodads- Forager cable cherries, 6 of them

Rims- Velo Orange Voyageur 650b 36h

Hubs- Son 28/White Industries MI5

Spokes- Sapim Race, brass nipples

Tires- Soma Cazadero 50mm or Continental Race King 2.2in. Tubes. 

Valve caps- MUSA from eBay

Rear Bag- Bags by Bird Goldback 11w Tall Black/Green Canvas

Stem Bag- Makeshifter Snackhole

Rear Rack- Nitto M1

Lights- Sinewave Beacon 2 front and B&M rear 

Pump- Zefal

Bell- Spurcycle

Thanks for reading. Drop a line if you ever pass through Ashland and want to take a spin.

-IO at the base of the Siskiyou Mountains

[Addison Wilhite]

Beautiful bike!  One of the best Riv models in my book and a great build.  I rode my Riv Allrounder through Ashland some years ago on a bike tour with friends when I used to live in Reno.  We stopped to watch Hamlet, treated ourselves to a stay at the Stratford Inn and rode out over the mountain the next day.  Quite a beautiful trip.  I'm sure the Bombadil will serve you well.

Cheers,

Addison

Tirana, Albania

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bun...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/e14fd4c2-99b0-4d4b-954d-4b455a810f59n%40googlegroups.com.

[WilletM]

That's a good way of putting it-- "Sometimes there's a bike...".  I daresay I'm not the only other Bombadil owner who nodded his head and said "yep" under his breath when he read that.  I lucked into a Protovelo/Bombadil frame on ebay back in 2019.  It arrived moderately nicked up and with some alignment/spacing issues that took quite a bit of work to remedy.  Even more worrying was that I had never owned a Rivendell and had no idea whether my short legs/long torso proportions would even be able to ride a 59/60cm (since I typically ride a 57-ish road bike).   But...well, sometimes there's a bike.  So I splurged, pretty much strictly on faith, and literally added one part at a time over 6-8 months, usually with great deliberation.  Finally finished it months later and then spent months more fine tuning the cockpit dimensions and every little nut and bolt of the build.  And like Isaac, once I found the magic combination, I ain't changing a thing!

 

Thanks for the pics and story, Isaac.  Will you be keeping it "naked" or eventually doing a repaint?  

Willet M.

Carbondale, CO