Passed a beautiful green Riv in Pasadena Yesterday

[Ben Adrian]

I was doing a very difficult gravel ride on my carbon gravel bike yesterday (March 2nd, 2025). I was near the end of my ride and was very exhausted; debating my life's choices.

Right at the area where Linda Vista Ave turns into Highland Drive, north of the Rose Bowl and close to Devil's gate, I was passed in the opposite direction by the most beautiful, green Rivendell. If it wasn't a Riv, it was something very much in the style of Riv.

It gave me a bit of an existential crisis. Why am I riding? Do I want to kick my own a$s on a carbon bike on truck trails that are in bad shape? Do I enjoy trying to keep up with other riders who are much better than me? Or, would I rather just explore in style on a beautiful bike at my own pace?

Anyway, all of that aside, if the rider of that bike is in this group, that bike is spectacular!

Cheers!

Ben Adrian

Echo Park

[Ted Durant]

On Monday, March 3, 2025 at 10:05:28 AM UTC-6 bunny...@gmail.com wrote:

Right at the area where Linda Vista Ave turns into Highland Drive, north of the Rose Bowl and close to Devil's gate, I was passed in the opposite direction by the most beautiful, green Rivendell. If it wasn't a Riv, it was something very much in the style of Riv.

Another time it might have been me - when I'm out there almost every ride goes through that intersection. I hope it wasn't my beautiful green Sam Hillborne - that should be hanging peacefully in my daughter's garage.

Shortly after taking this photo I was debating my life choices, having augured in on a tight turn descending the fire road from Mt Lukens.

Ted Durant

Milwaukee WI USA

[Steve]

Ben,   I began to ask myself your question - "Why am I riding?" - at some point in my mid 50s (I'm now in my 70s). The how and why I ride has evolved with the passing of time. Today I ride purely for the pleasure of being in motion in the great outdoors. I stop to gaze at streams and vistas and sometimes I take a picture. I wave at every rider who passes me. No Garmin, no  Komoot, no computer, just me and the bicycle. I call it "Slow Riding" and I plan to keep at it until I no longer can.

Steve in AVL

[Christopher Young]

Hi Ben,

So I also had an existential biking experience this past summer, and it resulted in me making big changes, including getting a Riv. I was riding on a fairly crowded bike path (no cars) on my carbon road bike, keeping up with some other riders that were going fast, drafting a bit and having others draft off me. I've done this many times before on that path and never had a problem. Anyway, I had a rider come up beside me to pass, and as she went by, I assumed she'd keep going and also pass the folks in front of me, so I looked back to see if there were other riders behind her. When I looked back ahead of me, what I saw was the wheel of her bike 3 feet in front of me, pretty much stopped. Apparently the 2 folks that I had been behind stopped suddenly in front of her, and because she tucked in in front of me, the little margin I had was gone. I hit her back wheel at pretty much full speed and went flying. In all, there were 4 bikes involved and it was the worst bike accident not involving a car I have been in or seen. I slammed/scraped everything along the left side of my body (knee, hip, elbow, hand) and I thought my leg was broken. It wasn't, but 7 months later I still don't have full mobility, despite stretching pretty much every day. Fortunately the others only had very minor scrapes.

The point of all this is that when I finally got home and had a chance to think about it, I couldn't believe I had done something so foolish and pointless. What was I trying to prove? Why did I put myself at such risk, and even worse, why did I put others at risk? It's not like I was in a race. A few months after that I read the New Yorker article about Grant and Rivendell, and it all made so much sense. The point is to have fun, and you should aways try to be the nicest person on the bike path, not the one trying to aggressively pass people. I decided to get a Riv, and settled on a Homer because even though I knew most of my riding would be road riding, I wanted a bike that was a little more relaxed, so I intentionally steered away from the Roadini (though it sounds fantastic!). I am absolutely not the same bike rider that i was back in July, though I'm riding as much as I ever did and I've never enjoyed it more. I ride fast some times, but I only do that if it feels like what I want to do, and I pick spots where I'm not putting myself or others at risk. I stop more often to enjoy things along the way, and I try to say "hi" to all the people I am sharing paths with. It's so much better!

regards,

Chris Young

[Mike in BK]

Wow, Chris. So awesome. Would love to see your bike. I'm deliberating on a Riv and the Homer is under serious consideration. I love long rides and as I get older I want to be comfortable all day. I used to ride the length of the Amalfi coast solo in my Italian steel spandex days. That was before starting a family and living back in NYC. Like you, my days of drafting in the pack are behind me. If there's a boring stretch of road ahead of me I do want to be able to go a little fast. I also want to ride some rail trails and non-paved roads. I've heard great things about Grant's ideas being very well actualized with the current Homer. I'd love to hear about the feel of the Homer from a perspective such as yours. 

Thanks!

Mike

[Christopher Young]

Hi Mike,

I am happy to give you my thoughts, with the caveat that there are many others in this group that are better riders, know more about bikes, have more Rivs, etc. I do ride a lot, though, including 30 years of year-round commuting, until I retired 2 years ago. 

I love my Homer! I think it's a great option for the type of riding you are talking about. I've been mostly on pavement with it and it feels fast and agile enough for me. The longest ride I have done was 56 miles (~4 hours, with a few stops), and that went well (I've done it 3 times). I had to verify that I was indeed slower than on my road bike because it didn't feel like it, but indeed I'm probably at least 1 mph slower. However, I have no back or neck stiffness even on long rides, which is amazing. Being in a comfortable, upright position solves a lot of problems. I know a lot of people in this group love drop handlebars, but after riding both drops and uprights I can't figure out why anyone would use drops who isn't in a race. 

This weekend I rode Homer on some single track stuff along irrigation ditches we have in the neighborhoods down by the Rio Grande, and that went well. Fairly bumpy, with exposed tree roots, etc. No way I'd do that on my road bike. In getting Homer last October, I went for the "you pick the fun stuff" option, and was happy with that. I think the choices I made were handlebars (albatross), style of shifters (silver, end shifters because they look cool and i was curious), chain rings (42/28), 9 speed cassette. I wanted sidepull brakes because I'm used to dealing with those, but I think that's what they were going to recommend anyway. Unless I'm forgetting something, Riv chose the rest of the stuff and I have no complaints. I appreciate the amazing builds I've seen on here, but I was fine with whatever derailleurs and brakes the Riv guys chose, so long as they worked well...and they do! They put 48mm tires Soma Shikoro tires on which looked enormous when I first saw them compared to my 25 mm road bike tires, but they've been excellent. I gather that those are good but not top-notch tires, but they are by far the best ones I've had (I tend to be a cheapskate), and the ride on them is great. I added a Brooks B17 saddle and big MKS Grip Monarch Pedals (I can wear regular shoes!!!).

What I can't tell you much about is how Homer compares to other Riv models 'cause I live out in ABQ and you hardly ever see a Riv...except I can do a comparison with the Platypus, because I love my bike so much that I got a Riv for my wife, and the Platypus was the easy choice for her. And because she is 5'11'' we had to get the biggest Platy size (60), so I can ride that one, too (I am 6'1"). I find it surprisingly similar to the Homer. I'm not saying the same, but much closer than I would have guessed given the very different looking frame. They both feel long and stable, but the Platy feels equally agile, which I didn't expect. I have zero regrets, but if I had been able to ride both of them, I think it would have been a tough choice. 

I can't comment at all on Sam, Joe, Atlantis, etc. If I had thought I'd do any bikepacking I might have considered one of those, but realistically that didn't seem likely and I just didn't see the point of getting a heavier frame, so Homer seemed like the sweet spot. And I didn't want to go with the Roadini (though BikesnobNYC seems to be in love with his) because I wanted to push away from thinking about weight and speed. 

I hope this is in some way helpful to you. Attached is a picture from a few weeks ago of Homer and Platy out for a ride in the South Valley of ABQ.  There's a nice donkey down there named Betsy that we liked to feed carrots to.

Best wishes,

Chris

P.S. I'm adding a "racing" wald basket in the back because I like my wife's so much. I never would have thought I'd have a bike with a kickstand and a basket, but it's happened.