Christmas Rivendells

[Bicycle Belle Ding Ding!]

Is anyone is getting a new bike or getting a loved one a new bike for Christmas? This will be a really fun thread if there are a lot of people planning for new bikes under their trees, or it could be really quiet here (I know winter is not peak bike-purchasing season for most of the country), but let’s see.

I got a Clem a couple of months earlier, so I can’t contribute, but I’ll include a short Christmas bike story anyway. My favorite gift as a kid was the Huffy purple/black/gray mountain bike I got for Christmas in 5th or 6th grade. The problem was that I was born and raised in North Dakota, where the winters are long and fierce. I Could. Not. Wait. for spring that year. I would walk out into the garage and stare at my new bike all that winter. It had GEARS. It came with a WATER BOTTLE (that was cracked, but oh well) and it had a small handlebar bag! Sometimes it got the best of me and I’d wheel it out onto the street in front of the house and just pedal it a little bit. The tires were perpetually flat, and I usually gave up and went back inside quickly. But I was so content knowing that new bike - the first new bike I’d ever had - was waiting for me in that garage. I could not wait for spring to come.

My very best friend got the same bike (both sets of parents favored shopping at Target), and on some lucky Fridays, after school let out, we’d pedal home to her farm where I’d stay and ride her horses with her all weekend until church on Sunday. It was gravel roads the entire ride, and a good 5 miles. We were just kids (11?12?) in the 90s and it was a real adventure. I don’t know how we weren’t killed by gravel trucks as they crested the hills; they’d never be expecting kids riding bikes on those twisty gravel roads. Also, what were our parents thinking?!? But the only thing I loved to ride more than my purple mountain bike was my friend’s big old quarter horse, Bud - so away we went. We were big stuff.

That Huffy was probably the nicest bike I ever had until I was 31 years old and got a Betty Foy. I think Mom and Dad still have the Huffy in their storage unit in my hometown. I’ll look for it this summer and take a selfie with it. Now I’m completely bike-rich and marvel at my humble bike beginnings. My first bike was a garage sale bike I got when I was 7, and that is another tale. It’s so fun to look back at that Christmas and remember how excited I was to taste the freedom that a new bike was going to bring me.

I hope someone is getting a new bike for Christmas this year. Christmas bikes are the most sacred of bikes.

Leah

[Kent Peterson -- Eugene, Oregon]

Well, this isn't exactly what you asked about, but here's a "getting a new bike for Christmas" story, that I wrote up a few years back:

https://kentsbike.blogspot.com/2011/12/santa-is-just-as-real-as-bigfoot.html

'Tis the season.

Kent Peterson

Eugene, OR USA

[Keith Weaver]

Kent,

That's a great story! I hadn't realized you were posting on your blog again, It was a great treat to get to read some of your other new posts. I'd guess most folks on this list are familiar with your blog, but if not, I'd highlight recommend all of it.

Leah, I don't have any Christmas bike stories this year, but I can definitely relate to your tale of the joy and anticipation that new Huffy brought to you!

Happy holidays to all,

Keith

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[Bicycle Belle Ding Ding!]

Yes, Kent, this story more than qualifies. Thanks for sharing it. ❤️

[ascpgh]

Gift of the the Magi here, selling a bike to help a young student pay tuition. She objectifies a Rivendell, so sometime. For now she has to get through school and I opted to part with a bike for the cause.

Andy Cheatham

Pittsburgh 

[Leah Peterson]

I remember you mentioning this woman, maybe back when my son got his Clem in 2018? You work together, right? How is she doing?

I’m sure she is so appreciative , knowing how much your bikes mean to you and all. She sounds like a good candidate for a new Clem when the next batch arrives. 

Sent from my iPhone

On Dec 13, 2019, at 6:17 PM, ascpgh <asc...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[masmojo]

Well, I don't have a new bike for Chistmas story. 😥 That may help to explain why I am a bike obsessed adult.
When I was about 4 my sister & I got tricycles for Christmas. I spent hours on that thing, we lived in a big house in a small Texas town. It was situated on a large corner lot so I could haul ass across the front hit the corner get it up on two wheels & down the side of the house. Back & forth for hours.
When I finally did get my own bike it was a used 16" wheeled bike with solid rubber tires; the previous owners apparently painted it with brush on Rustoleum. Ironically BOTH my sisters got brand new stingray type bikes they never rode, so I typically commandeered one of those for the local "jumping" sessions.
Fast forward some years to me getting my first job washing dishes @ 15 years old in Austin. After a couple months of riding my skateboard to work I saved up enough to buy a brand new Graco BMX bike. It's been a sorted saga since then.
Probably the best thing about having a crappy bike is I quickly learned how to fix bikes!
I finished building my new Crust Scapegoat a couple weeks ago so I don't think it counts as a "Christmas" bike.

[Joe Bernard]

Let's see the Crust!

[Paul Choi]

Just got a new bike but it's not a Riv. 20" bmx from Kink. 

[Bicycle Belle Ding Ding!]

Ok, ok, these trips down memory lane of Christmases past are just too fun. Mas, I can *picture* this. I’ll bet your sisters’ bikes were 3 sizes too big for you and somehow it didn’t matter. Let this be a lesson to us all before we fixate on “fit.” Hahaha.

My turn. (Are we allowed to do this if it’s not in reference to Rivendell bikes? If not, a mod can correct me here and I shall respectfully submit. But until then, here’s my tale.)

I didn’t learn to ride a bike until I was 7. Why? Because I didn’t have one. My parents had no idea how much I’d love a bicycle (and neither did I), and I was the oldest of 4 kids, so there was enough chaos that I can see how nobody was sitting around thinking “Hmmm...you know what Leah would absolutely adore?” No! They were shooing us out the door and hoping we’d get lost at the park or possibly kidnapped so they’d have some peace.

One day, my parents came home with a secondhand bicycle they had gotten from a neighbor’s garage sale. For ME. It was a Huffy Desert Rose with the tall bars and a banana seat. I think my parents were rolling footage of my first ride on one of those giant camcorders that sat on one’s shoulder. I’m also fairly certain I taught myself to ride that bike (there were no such thing as training wheels) and barefoot, which was my default setting. The family who owned the bike had run it over with their family station wagon*. The dad - handy guy, that one - had welded things back together and made the bike functional again. Then he sold it to my clueless parents. Having no other experience with bikes, I did’t know that the thing was nearly impossible to pedal. I just rode it. Not until the day that my neighbor friend got her Rainbow Brite bike with streamers coming out of the handlebars did I know that anything was amiss. Pedaling her bike was like a hot knife through BUTTER, and I was instantly a green-eyed monster. I was always asked her to trade bikes, and after one ride on my Huffy, she was smart enough to say no. The adults were clueless. The girl’s mother chastised her and made her trade bikes with me for portions of our play time. And so went most of my childhood, mashing the pedals, expending max effort jut to go at a leisurely speed. My brother got a gleaming new Schwinn racer that he would “ghost ride” - ride at high speed and bail just to watch the bike wheel off and crash. It was showy and fast and fabulous. We still have it; it’s the grand kid bike when visiting my parents.

One day Mom and Dad came home with two adult-sized bikes. They were cast-offs from my aunt and uncle, and I was enthralled. I had never seen such bikes. We were finally going to ride places together! One was a yellow 10 speed with skinny tires and handlebars like a ram’s horns - completely new to me. The other was a white mixte with upright bars and, best of all, a BABY SEAT on the back. We could all go on family rides down by the dam and through the campgrounds just like Rainbow Brite and her family, I just knew it.

But...no such luck. My parents never took to those bikes and there they sat, parked in the garage. Undaunted, I learned how to ride my mom’s big white bike. It was scary every time as I was a wisp of a girl who had no business riding (barefoot, no doubt) around on an adult bicycle. What really drove me was that that bike had a baby seat...and I had a baby sister.

Convincing my baby sister was no trouble, and my parents didn’t object either (peace and quiet was hard to come by). I’d have to lay the bike on its side in the grass, situate my sister in the seat sideways, and then heave the bike upright and mount it. We crashed all the time. All.The.Time. At all different speeds, doing all kinds of riding (racing?) But I never broke any of her bones (only her finger this one time, but not on a bike ride) so I think we can call these good memories. Or maybe she doesn’t have these memories because she had a concussion. I don’t know; I’ll call her today and ask.

My sons rode bikes on 2 wheels at ages 3 and 4, respectively. They have always been bike-rich and have missed that fact completely. I feel a little sorry for them that they can’t ever appreciate good bikes like I can. However, Baby Bear is anxiously awaiting The Clem Rider’s future growth spurt that will render his little Clem too small. Then it will be Baby Bear’s. “I’m the only one who doesn’t have a Rivendell. I’m like the Hobbit,” he says. But I am completely immune to his guilt trips because of the paragraphs preceding this one.

Merry Christmas!
Leah
*I don’t actually know it was a station wagon, but I feel like it SHOULD be, because it’s funnier.

[Joe Bernard]

That's a spectacular story 😂 *

* It's definitely funnier as a station wagon.

[masmojo]

Leah, your story parallels my own fairly closely. Actually my sisters bikes fit me pretty well, because the women in our family typically are not tall.
It's funny you said that though, because 2 days after I learned to ride a bike I was in the garage putting air in the tires of my mom's Raleigh 3 speed (which I never ever saw her actually ride). It was a ladies bike so I could step through and straddle it. Anywayz, I was emboldened to ride it, so I did! all over McGregor Texas! My ass wouldn't reach the seat so I just stood the whole time & the handlebars were about shoulder high. The next day my mom said " were you riding a bike down by main street?" "The neighbor saw you, don't do it again!"
A few years later the fork on that little second hand bike broke while I was going down the hill on our street & I did a wicked face plant.

Scapegoat picture? OK
https://photos.app.goo.gl/KGN96We4zJ9NN2vJA

Not sure who the fat guy is. 😉

[Joe Bernard]

That Scapegoat is rad. Dig the early-'90s splatter!

[masmojo]

Yes, Rad is a good word. Esthetically in my mind it's nearly perfect. Sparkly crimson pearl with black crackle over the top.
The only downside is that I really don't typically have tons of use for a fat bike in Dallas, TX. It's a little slow around town, but fine if I have time.

The moto bars give it a real clunkery sort of Flat track vibe.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/AQp9ZxsPLFBd72EA9

To my mind Crust is really crushing it right now.

[Matt C.]

My only Christmas bike memory was when I was about 7 or 8. I had no expectation of getting a bike that Christmas, but I guess it made sense since I was constantly borrowing the neighbors bikes to ride around. So it was of great surprise to me when I walked out to the living room on Christmas Eve night (there is something magical about seeing all the presents illuminated by Christmas tree lights that just must be examined once you're parents have gone to bed) to see two green and black huffy bikes parked by the tree. I found the one with my name taped on it and promptly assumed the saddle to ensure proper fit. It was a great few seconds until the kickstand gave in and I fell over onto the Christmas tree. After causing what I thought to be a great disturbance and being worried my parents would catch me, I quickly freed myself from the lights and limbs of the tree, replaced as many ornaments as I could find on the floor in the dark, and rushed back to bed.

The next morning I pretended as if I had never seen the bikes, and honestly those bikes looked way better in the light so the surprise was mostly true.

The best part of this story is that later on that day my brother told me almost the exact same story of him waking up in the night, mounting the bike and falling over on the tree only to scurry off the bed thinking he had caused a disturbance and ruined Christmas.

Related riv content, I have now evolved to ride a Bleriot since that one Huffy Christmas.

Matt Cook in CT

[Bill Rhea]

Nice meeting you on Caltrain yesterday, Paul!  That is a sweet BMXer!

-Bill Rhea

[Bill Rhea]

Ok, my most memorable Christmas bike memory was when I was maybe 6 or 7.  I found a beautiful, red Schwinn Stingray under the tree!  I was SO excited, could barely believe it....

Little did I know that my pop had bought it second hand, repainted it, put a few new parts on (banana seat, grips).  There was love put into that bike....

Later, when I was 12 years old Dad took my brother and I to the old Schwinn factory in Chicago for the Schwinn service school, where I learned to assemble a Varsity out of the box and build wheels.  We later ran a family Schwinn business from '75 to '83, where I worked every day after school and on Saturdays. Still have a bunch of "Schwinn Approved" Snap-on tools in my box from those days.

Miss you, Dad, RIP

-br

On Friday, December 13, 2019 at 10:15:15 AM UTC-8, Bicycle Belle Ding Ding! wrote:

[Patrick Moore]

My bikes were all birthday gifts; I got all sorts of things for Christmas, but never a bicycle.

After learning to ride 2 wheels at age 4 or 5 on a tiny, red solid-tire bike, taught by the sophisticated, older blondes next door (they must have been, what, 9 or 10? I do remember the red and the solid, all-black tires; and I seem to recall that the drivetrain was fixed) my first personally owned bike was a 20" wheel, blue cruiser my father bought from the family next door for $5 or $15 or whatever it was back circa 1961, when I was around age 6. But for birthday 7, 1962, he bought be a new JC Higgins 24" wheel cruiser, probably from the auto parts store in nearby Clinton, MD -- that part of Prince George's County was, back then, still semi-rural, with corn and tobacco fields and strange, shoebox-on-end clapboard houses near our immediately-post-WWII development (where my father later learned that he should hot have commissioned a house twice as expensive -- still modest -- as the others nearby).

The JC Higgins was obviously a low end model, without fake gas tank on the curved top tube, and with white enameled rims instead of chromed ones, but I loved it, and rode it to minor adventures around our neighborhood, which is still there and still largely intact 60 years later, per Google Maps once you get away from Woodyard Road and Branch Avenue. I recall The Swamp, with nearby tottering "mansion", site of the wasp swarm tragedy (still have memory of 1st best friend Ricky Heinbuck, and 2nd best friend Larry Wilson hauling past me, howing in pain from stings, while I managed to escape Scott free); of the truly derelict, and much larger and probably real mansion, in an aftergrowth pine forest across Woodyard Road (then a quiet 2-lane); and of escaping the neighborhood bully named (at least by us) Buster Brown by sprinting, feinting left and then jerking right, while Ricky rode trustingly right into his malicious arms. The obligations of friendship didn't make me pause; I poured on the gas and took off for home. I was still practicing rear wheel drifts around the groomed path, covered with slippery Jacaranda blossoms, on our property in Nairobi, age 14-17, after spray painting it with my mother's leftover gold Xmas decoration paint.

But back at birthday 11, just a month or so after arrival in Bangalore, my father presented me with a new, stock Hero, 28" wheel, rod-braked roadster, with the full rear-wheel stand but only half a chaincase -- it covered the entire drivetrain, but only on the outside. For birthday 12, he took it away and had it sprayed scarlet and a AW 3-speed hub added --these were as exotic in 1967 Bangalore as Maseratis. I later added my own hotrodding touches.

That was it for birthday gift bicycles. I rode all around Delhi after moving back to the capital for 7th grade, but after graduating, and shortly before the transfer to Nairobi, I was offered and fell in love with a glitter gold Raleigh Sport, and sold the Hero to finance the purchase -- starting another flip cycle.

[Bicycle Belle Ding Ding!]

I’m LOVING the stories, and I nearly tipped over in hilarity reading Matt and his brother’s tale. Both of you boys crashed your parked bikes into the family Christmas tree? And neither time did your folks wake up and see “what the blankety-blank-blank was going on down there???” They must have had a little something in their egg nog 😂😉. Have you ever told your parents about that night? If not, and you are together at Christmas, I think you ought to, and then let us know what they say.

Childhood bike stories are the sweetest stories. I love them.
Leah

[WETH]

A good friend spent the last year and a half improving his fitness. It was inspirational to watch. I accompanied him on a few 10+ mile hikes as he worked toward a fitness goal. This summer he mentioned a desire to add cycling to his routine. I began searching for Riv frames in his size. After finding a Canti-Romulus in rough shape, I had it powder coated in red, and I hand painted the headtube off white. (My friend is a proud NC State graduate.) The handlebars/stem were sourced from Ana (purpleriv), a few other parts, including wheelset, were sourced from this list, while the drivetrain was purchased from Rivendell. My friend’s wife is picking it up today, and he will find it “under” his tree on Christmas. Then the best part will be helping him dial it in, while we ride together!

[Fullylugged]

Weth;

What a great Christmas story. Bless you for your gracious care for your friend.

[David Bivins]

Wow, what a thoughtful gift! :) This made me so happy - it made my day!

On Sat, Dec 21, 2019 at 12:35 PM Fullylugged <bruce.h...@gmail.com> wrote:

Weth;

 What a great Christmas story. Bless you for your gracious care for your friend.

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[tc]

Cool! This is a great story - you’re a great friend! Tell your friend that he and his bike will have me and my custom NC
State red Roadini to ride along with on the greenway if he’s up for it :-) My son and I are headed to an NCSU basketball game at PNC Arena tomorrow as a matter of fact - Go ‘Pack!

Tom

[Garth]

While I surely don't have any wondrous stories about receiving a shiny new bicycle for Christmas ...... growing up in Minnesota I do wonder what I would have done even if I did.  Seeing that outside was frozen solid ...... "Hey Mom and Dad ..... thanks for the new bicycle .... long pause  ..... I'll let you know how I like it in April ."     Ahahahaahahahaaaa !!!! 

A ride on Santa's sleigh in winter  ..... now THAT would be fun !!!!  Up up and away we go .....  any and every where with ease and grace ...... oh what smiles upon everyone's Face !   

[ascpgh]

Sorry for my delayed reply, Leah. Yes, she's the same. 

Have you read Educated by Tara Westover?  An unbelievably similar story and challenges posed by that background and doing well, a semester remaining. The number of things we take for granted that are not is humbling. Her reaction to a bicycle was both fright and joy. She'd never had "fun" in her life until riding her bike. Learning the city began with following my rear wheel's path and signal like I did to overcome any hesitance to riding in the city where she lives. She rides in such a straight path now, others view her as a veteran cyclist and ask her for directions and advice. It happened so much one spring morning on a ride down to the Point that she kept riding for hours, repeatedly recognized and approached by other cyclists. A bike high for sure

It's hard to step back and appreciate how much you can help others when in a topic of your interest, we all do it here within our hive of knowledge. I've benefitted for sure and I hope my relation of experiences has helped others in some way, if but for the reading. 

It's humbling to see just how deeply you can affect another with what comes very naturally to you. We forget how into bikes we are compared to the other people on the street. I lose track of exactly how fortunate I have been despite what problems I've faced. Insight of the path and troubles of another sure reinforces that. 

Why folks smile when out in the rain, in the mud, far from destination, on a bike.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/3SVEwyvgPenhmWuD6

Andy Cheatham

Pittsburgh

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[Mark Roland]

On Sunday, December 22, 2019 at 3:52:45 AM UTC-5, Garth wrote: A ride on Santa's sleigh in winter  ..... now THAT would be fun !!!!  Up up and away we go .....  any and every where with ease and grace ...... oh what smiles upon everyone's Face !  

Just as there are magical sleighs, of course there are also magical bicycles. Not sure if this was a Riv, but here is Messenger 29 delivering some important packages back in the day.

A holiday cover from my old magazine covering the NYC metro area.

[Roberta]

So many great stories here!  Sharing these is a fabulous holiday gift.

Matt--I wonder if your parents knew what went on that fantastic night.

Leah--We both share the love of cycling with loved ones.  Having a baby sister myself, I can totally see you trying to include her in your play.

Erl--you are a super friend to share your knowledge, time, and gift of that bike to your friend. 

My story is about me giving myself a gift, not necessarily a Christmas gift, but it was one of the most exciting gifts I ever got. I was a freshman or sophomore in high school, mid 70’s, years before I got my driver’s license. 

 

Literally, I saved my babysitting money.  I walked to our main street and bought myself a brand new bike--white with drop bars and skinny tires, the kind of bike a grown up, not a child, would ride.    I gave them $105 for the bike and tax in cash and I rode my way home.  I remember riding that to friends’ homes, school, library, grocery store, and to my college jobs.   

 

I rode the bike for the next 15 years, through high school, college and my move to Philadelphia, until it got stolen at a well-traveled, well-lit, and “safe” place.

 

It wasn’t exactly a “just ride” type of bike, but I rode it that way, and that was just fine for me.

Roberta

[Joe Bernard]

Roberta, I love that story! 🙂

[Leah Peterson]

I have thoroughly enjoyed all these tales! I’m in MN surrounded by my very large family and have been slow to read and respond to any of these stories, but wow!

Roberta, I love your story. My absolute favorite stories are the ones where someone sets a goal, works to it, accomplishes it, and then cherishes the outcome. I think that we are often looking for the next best thing instead of enjoying what we’ve got/been blessed with, so stories like Roberta’s are so refreshing.

I’m so sorry the white bike got stolen after you earned it and had a 15 year relationship with it. And I’m REALLY glad you’ve got a lovely Joe App and a Homer that you now get to ride to your heart’s content. 

Here is a 51 second clip of an elderly lady treasuring and riding her trusty, creaky old bicycle in her 90s. To be out riding in my 90s and having a mixte that I treasure and trust and ride exclusively - I aspire to be her! 

https://youtu.be/1Kk0weQwG8M

Sent from my iPad

On Dec 24, 2019, at 7:06 PM, Roberta <rcha...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Abcyclehank]

Merry Xmas to all. Regardless of the particular bike I believe we can all hopefully agree what true gifts bikes are for any who see their value and potential (young or old).
May everyone have many happy healthy safe rides ahead in 2020.

Sincerely,
Ryan Hankinson
West Michigan

[bruce.h...@gmail.com]

Praying and working for peace on Earth and good will towards all people.  Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and etc.

What better way to spend some of Christmas day than a ride on my Rambouillet?

Tailwinds!

OSG (Old Slow Guy)

central AL (where it's delightful riding weather today)

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[Joe Bernard]

I can't hit it today so I'm doing my Christmas ride tomorrow on my trusty Copenhagen Clem L. Merry whatever this day is for you, even if it's just Wednesday. Merry Wednesday!!!

[Pancake]

Made my brother-in-law a wanna be Riv out of spare parts from my riv builds and most the other parts from members on this list. He was very excited to find a Velo Orange Campeur next to our tree today! Just the right size from him (after 19 years on a bike two sizes too small a 10 speed with a tiny road bike gear range). He jumped on for a ride today and was thrilled. Huge gear range on a 46/30t double by 11-36 cassette. Wide, flared dropbars raised up nice and high - he was surprused by a bike that was comfortable! “Narrow” 32mm Pasela Gravelking tires were a big step up from his 25mm tires on his only bike ever since high school. Building it was a fun project for me and should net me a riding partner once the sky’s are clear a bit more often ... and once we’re both setup to ride with our toddler daughters.

Thanks to this list for most the parts, loads of advice, and a very happy Festivus this year!

[Joe Bernard]

That looks awesome, I think I sold you some of those parts! I'm thrilled to see them on such a nice bike instead of in parts boxes. Those Campeurs are sweet!

[WETH]

Pancake, great work! Those campeurs are good bikes.

[masmojo]

Pancake, Good job! Looks like your Brother-in-law is too big for the common sizes available out there. The friend I ride with most and with whom I've been riding with occasionally for over 20 years is too tall for most bike and he's been riding bikes that are too small for all that time. After years of me telling him his bikes were too small, 8 months ago with gentle prodding from me he picked up a used Kogswell PR frame off Ebay and enlisted me to build it up for him.

The Kog is a 62 (& he could likely fit a 63 or 64, but it's a step in the right direction) it's the closest thing to a properly sized bike he's ever had. Between the frame & the super wide Cowchipper handlebars I scored off a buddy's Gorilla Monsoon he's totally over the moon with it.

I've been getting into his head over the years with my bike esthetic. His first bikes were aluminum now he rides steel, after years of conventional saddles he now rides Brooks. I still haven't quite sold him on racks & baskets, but as he gets older I think he'll come around to that as well.

VOs are great, I rode my Polyvalent to work today & on Tuesday.🤙🏼

[Pancake]

Joe Bernard wrote:

That looks awesome, I think I sold you some of those parts! I'm thrilled to see them on such a nice bike instead of in parts boxes. Those Campeurs are sweet!

Several of your part Joe, thanks!

WETH wrote:

Pancake, great work! Those campeurs are good bikes.

I'm impressed with the Campeur - it was used and modified, but I found it familiar to work on. Though this was my first time with Canti brakes so definitely learned a bit.

masmojo wrote:

Pancake, Good job! Looks like your Brother-in-law is too big for the common sizes available out there.

He's about 6'2" with long legs - was riding a 56cm Palo Alto with a short stem ... he was most impressed with the new bike having SPACE to sit and reach in.  

VOs are great, I rode my Polyvalent to work today & on Tuesday.🤙🏼

It really does feel like a quality bike, not a Riv but an economical and similar option. Above all in a much better fit! Had to ask his wife several measurements and then get him to measure his height on a wall "to show your kids" and ask about his bikes growing up ... got all the details then built it to his specs without him knowing. He didn't even consider that the bike by the tree was his when he saw it! Actually, he was really just in desperate need of coffee and bacon so after that he started to wander toward it and I told him "it's yours!" 

  

[Joe Bernard]

"It really does feel like a quality bike, not a Riv but an economical and similar option."

They're comparable to welded Rivs like Clem and Roadini, or more accurately the run of Rosco Bubbes which didn't have a seat lug. Different design philosophy of course, but V-O produces some excellent MIT frames..I have a particular soft spot for those Campeurs. You guys did a great job on this one.

[Kurt Henry]

I'm not getting my son a new bike for Christmas, as he got a new Woom 6 last year.  But I'm buying him some accessories.  I hope that counts!  Woom now offers frame bags made of denim, sized for their frames.  My son is always reluctant to bring his phone, no wanting to drop or lose it.  Now he will have a nice place to put his phone, a few dollars (Duck donuts is on the back side of the park behind our house and a common destination for him and his friends), and a lock.  Woom is sold out of their locks so will have to get a regular one. Maybe one of the folding locks from Riv?  I'm also adding lights. It's that time of year!  Rechargeables are perfect, no more than he will ride in the dark and just up and down our alley to go see friends.

Kurt Henry

Lancaster, PA

[Kurt Henry]

I tried posting a response a few days ago but I think it got caught in the moderator queue. So let's try this again!

No new bikes this year.  My son got a new Woom 6 for Christmas last year, which still fits him fine.  I have had trouble convincing him to take his phone with him when he rides.  He's worried he will drop it somewhere, but I like to be able to find him and it never hurts for him to be able to reach me if he gets stuck.  So for Christmas this year I bought him a frame bag, a lock (the ribbon-like Otto lock), and lights for his bike.  Fun accessories!!  The bags are made by the same company as the bike and the fit on the frame bag is perfect, though it required moving the water bottle cage to the mounts under the downtube.  I'm glad they had the forethought to put that second cage on a kids bike!  So now he's pretty well set for riding with his friends to the donut shop on the other side of the park behind our house, even in the short days of winter.

Merry Christmas!

Kurt Henry

Lancaster, PA

[Bicycle Belle Ding Ding!]

Kurt, I love that your son is adventuring with his friends on their bikes. I think he will find those upgrades so very useful. It was such a thrill for me to finally have a way to portage my things - and that didn’t occur until adulthood. He will love this new bag. You will spy on him and his friends because he will finally carry his phone. Life will be sublime. 😂😂😂