Rosco Platypus = Joe's Custom

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Doug H.

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Dec 30, 2021, 5:02:27 PM12/30/21
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To my eye the new Rosco Platypus resembles Joe B.'s custom bike and both look excellent!
Dougunnamed.jpg

Joe Bernard

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Dec 30, 2021, 5:32:27 PM12/30/21
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That's my bike! Stouter tubing, drop the lugs and fancy paint and you're there. I dig it! 

Joe Bernard

Pancake

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Dec 30, 2021, 8:31:54 PM12/30/21
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FFE75BBA-C1CD-43D3-A68A-0EE834D94A86.png
Fun with a photo overlay with Joe’s custom. 

iamkeith

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Dec 30, 2021, 11:13:39 PM12/30/21
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Funny that people have been saying "that's the way a bike should ride."  To me, that's the way a bike should LOOK.

Bicycle Belle Ding Ding!

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Dec 31, 2021, 9:10:55 AM12/31/21
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I totally see it - Joe, weren’t you saying “My bike is so good it should be a production bike”? Well, here it is! A budget version, admittedly. Did anyone else look at the images and wonder what possessed Riv to do such wild, fun colors? Maybe they feel they can let loose with the Rosco models? They are always such careful color choosers but this time they really went for it. Fun!

Joe Bernard

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Dec 31, 2021, 2:03:20 PM12/31/21
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I love the red one. The world needs more red Rivs! 

Ray Varella

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Dec 31, 2021, 10:47:05 PM12/31/21
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If anyone was having trouble deciding between a Clem and a Platypus, this is your bike. 
55mm tires plus fenders, these are going to be super.

Ray

Bicycle Belle Ding Ding!

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Dec 31, 2021, 11:06:16 PM12/31/21
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I'm so excited for the people who will get one. I can never decide which is more comfortable and wonderful - Platypus or Clem? And now the two of them went and got married and maybe this is the perfect bike. How many Rosco Plats are there? Maybe 50? I wonder if a production run could ever happen if the demand is there...

It is more fun to think of Rosco Plats than to be online shopping for CURTAINS. Yuck. Back to it. Happy New Year, Rivsters. May 2022 be plumb full of Platypuses and Rosco Plats.

Leah

Pancake

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Jan 1, 2022, 2:52:48 AM1/1/22
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60026667-BBE4-4894-9B68-7351C00A6B5B.jpeg5B4687A4-36C7-4E75-B039-924523758E08.gifMore overlay fun with a platypus and Rosco Platy. 
When can I have a Rosco Plat and a Charles H Gallop (to potentially replace my Cheviot and Sam Hillborne and even the Rosco Baby)? Looking forward to v-brakes (and eventually Silver v-brakes) for sure. 

That said, took the Cheviot on a wonderful ride today … still thinking of having v-brake posts brazed on.

Johnny Alien

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Jan 1, 2022, 9:20:16 AM1/1/22
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I am seriously considering picking one of these up when available. I was planning on maybe getting a Clem but am now leaning this way if I can make it happen.

Johnny Alien

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Jan 1, 2022, 9:28:56 AM1/1/22
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I'm intrigued by that seatpost clamp being on the front side.

lconley

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Jan 1, 2022, 2:40:40 PM1/1/22
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The seatpost clamp on the front is Grant's way of encouraging you to use V-brakes instead of cantilevers.

Laing
Delray Beach FL


Garth

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Jan 2, 2022, 6:22:06 AM1/2/22
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Regarding the backwards SP clamp and the exclusion of brake bridge cable stops, considering Riv is invested in their own brand of canti brake as well as v-brake it's self-defeating to exclude one brake type or the other from any of their frames.

Eric Daume

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Jan 2, 2022, 6:37:05 AM1/2/22
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It would be very difficult to run a rear canti on this type of frame.

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Garth

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Jan 2, 2022, 9:51:05 AM1/2/22
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Eric, Rivendell as well as countless buyers have assembled even lower TT Clem-L's, and similar TT height Gus/Susie frames with canti brakes.

Dictates in the name "saving people/things from themselves" are empty promises as they have no intention of saving anyone/anything except the dictates themselves from being challenged on their validity. 

Bill Lindsay

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Jan 2, 2022, 12:33:13 PM1/2/22
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Garth said: " Dictates in the name "saving people/things from themselves" are empty promises...."

Be that as it may, I'm not convinced that a backwards seat clamp on a prototype bicycle frame that is currently not available for purchase qualifies as a "dictate".  But that's just me.  I don't even know whether the production version of that frameset will have a reversed seat clamp.  

It is a fact that the investment-cast R05C0 8U883 seat clamp is reversible.  It being reversible, the motivation I ascribe to Rivendell is "hey, it's reversible, lets try it reversed on these prototypes"  

For fun, here is a link to a flickr photo of my R05C0 8U883 "medium mountain mixte*" showing that same seat clamp in the normal direction, allowing me to run cantilever brakes.  
https://www.flickr.com/photos/45758191@N04/36650803254

For what it's worth, any tig-welded Rivendell without a liftatube is an opportunity lost.  I'd buy back my former "medium mountain mixte" for the price I sold it.  

Bill Lindsay
El Cerrito, CA

*I know that it was not really a mixte.  I know that inaccurately referring to it as a mixte makes some people crazy.  In the arm wrestling match between "alliteration" and "placating the handwringers", I usually choose alliteration.  

Joe Bernard

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Jan 2, 2022, 2:07:37 PM1/2/22
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I have not heard anyone from Riv say the front-facing clamp bolt is to discourage cantis. I'm also unaware of a Riv canti being worked on although it's possible I've forgotten, they're planning a v-brake. 

One nice thing about this positioning is the bolt is easier to get to with a saddlebag in place. I'm a notorious saddle height fiddler and am constantly fighting bags to squeeze my wrench in there. 

Joe Bernard

On Friday, December 31, 2021 at 11:03:20 AM UTC-8 Joe Bernard wrote:

Jason Fuller

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Jan 2, 2022, 3:46:27 PM1/2/22
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It looks so plainly utilitarian, and basically a run-of-the-mill bike to the untrained eye, but yet the details and the geometry are anything but ordinary to the trained eye - I love that about it. I can't justify one at the moment but it's fun to think about as a daily run-about bike! 

Kainalu V. -Brooklyn NY

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Jan 2, 2022, 5:32:09 PM1/2/22
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"any tig-welded Rivendell without a liftatube is an opportunity lost" 
Well said Bill. 
-Kai (hoarder of Massive Mountain Mixtes)

Garth

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Jan 2, 2022, 5:57:22 PM1/2/22
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Yes it's likely the sp clamp is for the protos only as they do odd things with protos sometimes. The canti was mentioned in the Dec 10 blahg. Here it is in all it's brevity. 

Here are some things we're working on. You may be familiar with some, but probably not all:

4. Two V-brakes. We need only one, but in the interest of more than one iron in the fire, we're working on two, with two different people and places. Discs are taking over, but we're all firm V-brake fans, except for Mark, who can't give up his cantilevers for his personal bikes, but admits that V-brakes are really good.

4. One cantilever brake. Started it along time ago. It's easy enough to keep going. I wish we had control over it, but we don't.


Joe Bernard

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Jan 2, 2022, 6:20:05 PM1/2/22
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Well there ya go. I have a very vague memory that they considered a Silver brand canti ages ago, I didn't realize it was still on the table. 

Paul Clifton

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Jan 2, 2022, 10:53:21 PM1/2/22
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FWIW - The seat post clamp is reversed on the baby bikes.

The seat tube angle on the baby bike is 68 degrees though, so I thought it had something to do with taking the metal out of the seat tube on the side that doesn't have all that pressure on it.

Paul in AR

Joe Bernard

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Jan 3, 2022, 12:04:49 AM1/3/22
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There's something going on with the seatstays, too, they attach significantly lower than the top of the seatlug. All kinds of choices there that are different from the Platypus, it's really not a Platy except for the donated fork. 

lconley

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Jan 3, 2022, 8:52:35 AM1/3/22
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I have a Hubbuhubbuh, a Medium Mountain Mixte, and a Rosco Baby, all with the reversed clamp. I could swear that I read something from Rivendell once that it was done to encourage V-brake use, but I could be wrong. I think it was about the Hubbuhubbuh way back when.
Rivendell does sell these to allow cantilevers to be used.
Hanger.JPG

Laing

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