New Bike Day: My take on a Charlie H. Gallop

[Bill Lindsay]

It was rainy this morning so I had time to finish up my Gallop build.  Here's the Flickr link to the album I've got going.  I haven't added any titles or descriptions to the photos yet.  

https://www.flickr.com/photos/45758191@N04/albums/72177720322843646/

I made a few concessions to gravity and weighed the build down a little bit.  

1. Rather than go with ultra minimalist grips, I'm running proper cushy mountain bike grips from Wolf Tooth, that my son bought me for Christmas.  Instead of leaving the middle part of my Nitto Jitensha Bars bare, I covered that area with Keirin grips that I bought at Jitensha Studio in Berkeley.  

2. Rather than go with a lighter 8-speed 12-32 cassette, I am running a 10-speed 11-32 XT cassette, in part to use a contemporary hollow pin SRAM 1071 chain.  I had to add a few links for the long stays.  

With those additions, the initial weigh in is 20.4 pounds on the big scale, and 9277 grams on the gram-scale weighing every part one at a time.  So that's excellent agreement.  Even though it's kind of a weight-weenie build, it's got a LOT of features that would be considered Riv-approved.  Those include:

Riv frame set and stock headset

Absolutely zero carbon

Silver 3 Crankset

MUSA White Industries BB like Riv sells (but with a Ti spindle)

Friction 1x10 drivetrain

The cheapest and lightest long reach brakes Riv sells with their heavily endorsed E-bike brake pads (Yokozuna)

The cheapest and lightest straight bar brake levers (Tektro FL750)

Retrofriction thumbie shifter on the stem (Microshift)

MUSA Steel stem

Heat treated Nitto Handlebars

The other fun last minute inclusion was Campagnolo brake cables and housing, and Campagnolo shift housing.  Every bike needs at least one Campagnolo part.  

I think it's going to be an exceptionally fun flat-bar road bike for me.  I have swappable HED Belgium wheels elsewhere in my stable that will allow me to butch it up if needed, and I've got the pieces in place for a 2x drivetrain if I want to take it on a light tour, which may happen in the Summer of '27.  

Anyway, enjoy!  

Bill Lindsay

El Cerrito, CA

[Eric Marth]

Bravo, Bill, this bike is an unexpected take on a Riv while having the unique Bill Lindsay build signature we can recognize from seeing so many of your bikes here on the forum. 

I understand getting the build under 20lbs was a target when you started out. Are you satisfied with the final weigh-in and build? 

Can you tell us a bit about how the bike handles, how it compares to other Rivendells or if it has any ride characteristics that you find unique to the Gallop frameset? 

Enjoy the miles ahead and congrats on wrapping this one up in 2024

[Eric Daume]

Looks great. I love the idea of a dedicated flat bar road bike. But based on my previous experience, I’m very leery of the lack of stopping power of long reach side pull brakes in wet weather. I’ll look forward to a report from the field!

Eric 

In rainy Plain City, OH 

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[Ryan]

Your usual eclectic and tasteful build....love those new Riv headtube lugs. Blue accents on the gold frame look great. Of course I am dying to hear your take on the ride

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[John Rinker]

Very nicely done Bill! The bicycle kinda of has a 70s Honda cafe racer vibe to it. Looks like a fun ride indeed!

Cheers, John

[Oliver Moss]

Nice indeed Bill!

John, Hahaha that is exactly right.

[Bill Lindsay]

I'm very pleased with the final weight.  It's light, and I made zero dumb decisions in making a good practical bicycle.  

As a flat-bar road bike the CHGallop is a significantly different design from any other Rivendell.  It is by FAR the longest top tube and Reach of any bike in my stable, which is why it's a flat bar road bike.  I expect it to handle like a road bike, which should be a lot better than a normal drop bar road switched out to flat bars.  I'm optimistic to achieve something that allows me to do 10 hour rides like I do with drop bars, but with flat bars.  If it handles and fits like my Romulus, Legolas and Roadeo, while having a flat bar, that will be cool.  

I think of the genre "flat bar road bike" as a machine for folks who can't deal with drop bars.  I'm greedy, and I want it to be a valid configuration for me, who loves drop bars.  I'm in a phase where I want to broaden my bike setup spectrum as wide as possible.  This is a big step outside my normal envelope, fit wise.  

Bill Lindsay

El Cerrito, CA

[Bill Lindsay]

"I’m very leery of the lack of stopping power of long reach side pull brakes in wet weather"

I'm not sure what exactly this is supposed to mean.  You have made abundantly clear over the years how you feel incapable of getting the braking you expect out of long reach side pulls.  So are you leery because you want a Charlie H Gallop but hate the brakes?  Or are you leery about my bike for me?  Unlike you, I feel that long reach side pulls can provide perfectly adequate braking. I feel that rims, brakes, brake pads, brake levers, the mechanic holding the wrench and the rider, all contribute to braking performance.  I agree with you that all rim brakes have degraded stopping when the rim-brake pad interface is wet.  

I only rode my CHGallop around the block this morning, but my block is a steep incline and decline, and the bike has effortless one-finger braking, which is how I planned it.  Come on over to El Cerrito if you want to feel it for yourself.  

Bill Lindsay

El Cerrito, CA

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[brendonoid]

What a great build, Bill! You have inspired me a great deal.

Thanks for sharing.

[ascpgh]

Cool build Bill. Wow, 5 grams of lube?

Tolerances.

Andy Cheatham

Pittsburgh

On Sunday, December 29, 2024 at 1:41:27 PM UTC-5 Bill Lindsay wrote:

[Eric Daume]

The CHG is an expensive frame, but it’s appealing to me and ticks a lot of boxes for me. But I’m scared of the brakes. I keep hoping there is some magic trick I’m missing that makes these long reach brakes acceptable peformers (picture the YouTube clickbait tile, “just do this one trick to make your R559s as strong as V brakes!” but I don’t think such a trick exists. 

I remember my Cheviot with these brakes, I had to set the pads extra low on the rim… the arms flexed so much, that was the only way to keep the pads out of the tire. In another case, I was riding my Raleigh Technium 650b conversion. I crossed a patch of wet grass immediately before a road crossing, then could barely get the bike stopped before a car went across the road. Spooky. 

I want to justify a CHG. But I don’t think it would be a keeper for me. I’m trying to reduce my bike flipping, especially the expensive losses.

Eric

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[Bill Lindsay]

My recommendation is to keep riding as many bikes as you can.  I've ridden lots and lots of bikes and I know what bad braking feels like in my hands, and I know how to get what I consider good braking out of long reach calipers.  It sounds to me that if you could test ride a bike for free that had what you consider good braking, then you could give long reach calipers another chance.  

The secret weapon on my Gallop is my HED wheelset with their special "RA Black" treatment.  The sidewalls are mechanically roughened up, and then hard anodized.  So they are kind of like a file.  HED claims they are the ultimate for rim-brake performance and it harkens back to ceramic coated rims of the 1990s.  I bought the wheelset for my Roadeo build, but they did not match up well with Rene Herse cantilevers.  They do great with caliper brakes though.  Rims contribute a lot to braking performance.  I expect I may need to switch brake pads more often, but that's why I'm using E-Bike inserts.  

Because of my huge stable and compulsion to balance the load throughout the stable, it'll be quite a while before I can give a 1000-mile report on the Gallop.  I may be able to give a 200-mile report in the Spring of 2025...

Bill Lindsay

El Cerrito, CA

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