Sam Hillbornes!!! (Sizing up the Nov 5 competition)

[Steve]

I'm hoping to make a Sage green 51cm Samuel Hillborne my second Rivendell. Curious who else might be considering one.

Steve in AVL  

[George Schick]

It has me salivating, but my retiree budget can't afford another one.  This redesigned Hillborne has some really nice improvments - kinda between an Atlantis and a Waterford Adventure Cycle.  Both colors are great.  I wonder if there is a breakpoint whereby the smaller frames are spec'd for 650B and the larger ones for 700C.

[Steve]

George - agreed, both colors are great and I'll settle for the Mustard if need be. 

According to RBW's geo chart only the 48 and 51s take 650b wheels - all of the larger sizes use 700c.

[Steve]

8 days now till the Hillborne presale. 

Is anyone else considering the addition of a Sam to their family?  

[Davey Two Shoes]

I'm having trouble understanding what they've changed about this iteration of the Sam vs the previous. Aside from the wider fork and color, anything?

[Danny]

From the last newsletter:

These new Sams have only slight changes from the last run. They have those newer hooded dropouts, they take a 27.2mm seatpost, and the forks now have our RC-04 crown, which is slightly wider than the older ones.

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[Steve]

Davey, in his recent email newsletter Will summarized the changes as "... only slight ... from the last run. They have those newer hooded dropouts, they take a 27.2mm seatpost, and the forks now have our RC-04 crown, which is slightly wider than the older ones."   Geometry is evidently unchanged. 

I'm a bit surprised at the lack of buzz over next week's presale. Knowing that the Sam has been around since 2009 without any major evolutionary changes (apart from side pull to canti brakes) I'm left to wonder if it's lost its luster. The only older models still in production - Atlantis and Homer - have both seen more dramatic changes.  

I'm hoping to discover that the Sam proves to be a capable all rounder for the type of riding I enjoy and could even serve as "the one" should I ever need to scale back to N+0.

[Davey Two Shoes]

The current generation (not the presale gen) has longer chainstays than previous years too. 

[George Schick]

And don't forget that they nixed the double top tube, too.

[Mike Rossi]

If I had known this past spring that the Sam’s would have a wider fork that could take a 50mm tire, I might, emphasis on might, have not gotten the Atlantis and waited on this. But, I have enough bikes for now. 

That Sage in 53 is what I would go for, too!

Mike

On Oct 29, 2025, at 12:26 PM, George Schick <bhi...@gmail.com> wrote:

And don't forget that they nixed the double top tube, too.

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[Bill Lindsay]

My pink RodeoRosa has the RC-04 fork crown.  The fun-fact that Will gave me is that the wider RC-04 is lighter weight than the narrower RC-03 that is on my Legolas.  The new Hillbornes will be FEATHERWEIGHTS!  LOL.  

My 2009 Hillborne takes a 27.2 seat post, has cantilever brakes, and a single top tube.  So it's come full circle!  Mine does not have a cream head tube.  I miss it, living in my Michigan office unridden for almost a year.  Gotta get it back...

Bill Lindsay

El Cerrito, CA

[Steve]

Bill, hearing that you miss your Hillborne - despite your impressive stable of bikes  - bolsters my confidence that I will be well pleased with mine.   When you finally rescue yours you'll owe it a bunch of miles to bring it up to date in your rotation.   

[dt...@pm.me]

There's also pump peg on the seat stays in the pictures in the 10/24 newsletter. That's not on my 2024 Sam.

Chuck

On Wednesday, October 29, 2025 at 9:44:41 AM UTC-4 Davey Two Shoes wrote:

[RichS]

It looks to me the like the Sage Green color on the forthcoming Sams looks identical to the color that was last used in 2014. I'm pretty sure that green has not made an appearance since then. If it is the same color, those of you who are contemplating ordering your Sam in Sage won't be disappointed. I've had mine since the color was introduced and it still gets its share of compliments. 

It might be worth noting the green on my Sam is a solid color, no subdued metallic to be seen. The pics shown in the newsletter look like the original color.

Best,

Rich in ATL

[Steve]

Rich, thanks for mentioning the sage color.  I've been vacillating between it and the mustard. Love the sage (though I don't recall having seen it in the real world). I have a Mermaid Platy and an eggshell guacamole green Ritchey Outback so I thought I might mix it up for some diversity. But I do like that soft, understated sage. Online it looks like it may have a bit of a blue-green hue (?)

[Brian Turner]

Can anyone tell if the mustard has metallic flakes in it? The photos from the last email update seemed to indicate some sparkles in there, but I’m just not sure if that’s the case or not.

Brian
Lexington KY

[Jonathan Carmack]

I find that sage agreeable it looks just like the sage Corvette which I fancy 

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[Bill Lindsay]

Looks like no flakes to me in the mustard.  I'd recommend you call them and talk to them about it.  

Bill Lindsay

El Cerrito, CA

[Brent Eastman]

My 57cm 2017 caliper brake sam fits a 700c 50mm tire on Velocity Atlas hoops.

[Mark V]

Yes - more than likely I will order up a Sam. I'm dithering between a drop bar Sam or a swept back bar Appaloosa. 

the Appaloosa seems to be sized a lot like my RoadUno. And a Sam might be kind of close to my GUNNAR CrossHairs. 

I'm considering either a Sam or Appa as a replacement for a recently failed Panasonic MountCat 3500, which was my camper/commuter/coffeeneuring bike. 

I've got most of my dithering narrowed down to going 54cm drop bar Sam, or maybe a wavy bar 57cm Sam. I think I'd prefer the short chainstays on the Sam over the Appaloosa..... I think. Right now. Today. 10PM at night. We'll see what happens on the drive to work tomorrow. . . need to get back to biking to work!

cheers. 

mark v

[Mike Rossi]

I should have written earlier that if I had known the fork was going to be ~61mm wide this past spring, then I might have waited on this round of Sam’s. A 51 in sage, not 53 ( my mind was on my Atlantis)
Mike

[Michael]

I bought a Sam last year as my first Rivendell and admit I am a bit jealous of the seat post being changed to the more common 27.2 and the wider fork. I struggled to get Honjo fenders to fit over my 43mm tires due to the fork and had to go with SKS which are great, but I'm hoping to try another model of the honjo some day. 

As for my impressions of the Sam, over all I absolutely love it both aesthetically and functionally. I had it built for my "do all, hop on and go bike". I mostly zip around on bike paths, paved country roads, and gravel/dirt roads (no single track). Basically I wanted a light-ish bike that I could put wide smooth tires on, ride up-right in comfort but still be able to go long distances. I believe the Homer or even the Roadini would have sufficed for my use but I just wasn't a fan of the long reach calipers that are on my wife's homer. I wasn't impressed with their stopping performance for my weight and it seemed like I'd be limited on future options. I had a possibly unjustifiable concern of future sourcing of long reach calipers if R559s are ever discontinued. Plus, while I was deciding between these 3 bikes, the bronzey green color was announced for the Sam and I fell in love with it which sealed the deal. It turned out to be the right decision for the time being, because I ride with a front mounted child carrier and zip around with my 30lb 2 year old which I may have been hesitant to try on the lighter bike models.  I have about 600 miles on the bike and it is performing exactly as I hoped. Its the only bike I have owned where almost every time I approach or depart it, I stop and gaze in admiration, its a functional piece of art to me. I find myself using multiple hand positions on the albatross bars frequently. Ill use the regular grips often on bike paths, but on longer stretches or if there is a head wind I will alternate to the front tape wrapped round the curved part of the bars, this puts me into a very similar position as riding in the hoods on a drop bar.  My longest ride is 50 miles with very little discomfort, which was reassuring because I hadnt seen many people discuss longer distance riding w/ albatross bars. There is a rather large dilemma I am experiencing however.  This bike really could be my main do all bike forever. But sometimes on long straight country roads with a head wind, I wish I had a more pure road bike w/ drops. And since I have Riv fever I find myself dreaming about what my next Riv would be to satisfy this. The issue is, I cant decide if I would put drops on the Sam and get a Platypus/Atlantis for the upright ride, but a Sam as a pure road bike may be heavier than necessary. The other option would be keep my Sam as is, and get a stripped homer as my "road bike", but this puzzles me because the Sam has a shorter wheel base, it seems wrong to have a longer wheel base road bike and shorter wheel based upright build. I almost wonder if the Homer/Roadini + Platypus/Atlantis would be the best combo. My solution so far is to let those thoughts escape my head and stick to 1 bike because I really do love my Sam.

[Paul M]

The color is a pearl metallic mustard that shows through when in direct sunlight. This is my favorite color next to the metallic lime-green. Enlarge the photo and the metallic comes through.

[Dorothy C]

Will doesn’t say in the newsletter that it is the Homer mustard. He said it is the Clem mustard from a while ago. When I had two orange Roadinis from 2020 and 2023 one had flake and the later one didn’t, they were also very slightly different oranges. 

[George Schick]

The latest newsletter shows a couple of new Sam's built-up.  The mustard one is pretty much how I'd want to do it, too.  I hafta admit, though, that I lament the lack of DT shifter mounts.  And those drop road bars are a little deeper than I'd prefer.  Does anyone know of road bars with a more shallow drop and maybe with drops that are wider than the bend just above them?

[Mathias Steiner]

>>  the lack of DT shifter mounts.  

Let me brighten your day:

Look at the picture again. 
Those are downtube shifter bosses, with Shimano adapters mounted.

Regarding the bars, this year I built up one of my favorite bikes with some lightweight components pilfered from an early 2000s Trek... and while I noticed nothing wrong about the Bontrager drop bars, coming back to my other bikes with Noodles was a revelation: that little upward bend on the ramps gives a hand rest that just molds into your palm, quite distinct from having your hands forward on the brake hoods.

It's all personal preference, but give Noodles a chance if you haven't  yet. It's my all-time favorite and a major money sink for my "cheap" bikes.

BIke/frame/rescue: $0 to $200.

Add B17/Noodle/Tehnomic or better/decent brakes/fenders -- and it pretty much doesn't matter much what you paid for the bike.

And bikes are cheap, as hobbies go. 
I have friends into motorcycles, flying, vintage guitars... we have it good.

cheers -mathias
East Lansing, MI

[Dorothy C]

I spoke to Spencer recently about the downtube shifter bosses vs the slotted braze ons as I wanted to confirm what the 2025 Platys were coming with, and he said one of their framebuilders had told them the downtube shifter bosses are stronger, so their aim is to switch to those for future frame runs. 

[Brian Turner]

I’m going to try for one. 54cm mustard. They made all the right changes to appeal to me (for once). Despite the current climate of this economy and this administration, and me feeling like my own country wants to not see me thrive… I’m going to try to hold onto this one thing that keeps joy in my life - building up a beautiful bike and enjoying it.

Brian
Lexington KY

[George Schick]

@Mathias & Dorothy - thanks for the info.  I went back to the photo in the newsletter and zoomed in on it.  I now see the DT adapters.  It's making me giddy...