Joe Appaloosa Redo

[James Valiensi]

Hi,
I’ve had my Appaloosa for 8 years now. I’ve worn out one each of chain, cassette, derailleur, shifter and a set of brake pads. Two BBs were ridden to failure. And rode through four or five sets of tires. Wore out one Brooks Saddle on it.
The headset (FSA) and wheels (Silver), Nitto seat post and Pual’s brakes are all still good. The wheels never go out of true.

I was inspired by Gideon’s Atlantis and planned a rebuild.
New drive train, 11 speed x 1 Shimano XT (same as my original build). Bluelug/Nitto Bullmoose handle bar. Paul’s crank arms, a Phil Wood BB found on ebay (NOS) and a Woldtooth oval chain ring. The tires are Ultradynamico knobby tires.
It looks like a late 80’s MTB that someone bought 40 years ago, road a few times and dug it out of the garage to start riding again.
For me the handlebars are perfect, much nicer than the original Bullmooses I tried 8 years ago. The oval chainring was ordered by mistake - but I like it. The feel is very subtle and not negative. My purple anodized brakes are fading but their performance is not.

[Dan]

Great to hear of the many miles your bike has been ridden and that you're treating it to some more love.

I'd love to check it out, but the photos you attached are tiny! Is there any chance you can try and upload them again?

[Bicycle Belle Ding Ding!]

Wow, I love reading stories like this - Rivs that get such high mileage that their parts get ridden to dust! Really fun idea to do a refresh. I hope more of us follow your example, James. Where did you go to get all those miles? Is this daily commuting? Adventure biking? Camping? The bike has few adornments, which amazes me. I have junked up all my bars and saddled my bikes with bags and more bags. Your bike is delightfully uncomplicated.

I feel like Pam Murray is the RivSister version of James. They both wear out drivetrains! Enviable! We need them to meet and take a photo…

Leah

[James Valiensi]

Hi,

I do not commute by bike, because I work from. But throughout the nineties I did commute by bike, but on a cheap Schwin cruiser. 

The Appaloosa is my fun to ride bike. I have a small group of friends that ride on the weekend. I also have been doing a late morning ride on Monday’s. I have other road bikes, including a custom Rivendell built by Curt Goodrich (circa 2002). Because the Appaloosa is easy on the body and a little heavy it became my go-to-bike to have fun and burn some calories. 

I see my friends on their carbon fiber road bikes, wearing clown kit (only looks good on 20-somethings) and think to myself “you’d be so much happier on this bike”.

I have a front rack and Wald basket and Swift bag for it. I’ll eventually put it back on.

I was pleasantly surprised when I changed the BB that there was so little rust inside the frame. I’ve done rain rides with it.

The hubs and headset are truly a best value. I would expect many more years from them. Which is good because finding regular hubs has become difficult - jeeze. 

I over filled the air pressure in the tires (60psi) and get a nice monster truck buzz from them. They roll better than they look to.

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[Leah Peterson]

How long does it take to wear through the parts you mentioned in the original post? 

I understand about looking at traditional road riders and thinking your same thoughts - their bikes and outfits are uncomfortable. I thought I’d win some of the club riders over when they saw that a bike like mine could be fast like theirs. Thought they’d want to try mine and find out the reason for my devotion. But no. They continue to hope I’ll get a “real road bike”, and I continue to disappoint them. I took one of them bike touring on the GAP trail. She had to rig her carbon frame up with enough bags to get us through a 3 or 4 day trip and she did it, but barely. Every cubic inch was accounted for. I thought maybe she’d be pining for a Rivendell after seeing how capable mine was for that kind of riding. Nope! 

But I reiterate that I love to read about Rivendells with long riding histories and I hope some others chime in here. I have a lot of miles under my belt, but my bikes are all age 5 or younger, so they do not have the same rich histories as your Appaloosa. Glad you started this thread!

Leah

On Dec 16, 2025, at 8:36 AM, James Valiensi <jpval...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi,

I do not commute by bike, because I work from. But throughout the nineties I did commute by bike, but on a cheap Schwin cruiser. 

The Appaloosa is my fun to ride bike. I have a small group of friends that ride on the weekend. I also have been doing a late morning ride on Monday’s. I have other road bikes, including a custom Rivendell built by Curt Goodrich (circa 2002). Because the Appaloosa is easy on the body and a little heavy it became my go-to-bike to have fun and burn some calories. 

I see my friends on their carbon fiber road bikes, wearing clown kit (only looks good on 20-somethings) and think to myself “you’d be so much happier on this bike”.

I have a front rack and Wald basket and Swift bag for it. I’ll eventually put it back on.

I was pleasantly surprised when I changed the BB that there was so little rust inside the frame. I’ve done rain rides with it.

The hubs and headset are truly a best value. I would expect many more years from them. Which is good because finding regular hubs has become difficult - jeeze. 

I over filled the air pressure in the tires (60psi) and get a nice monster truck buzz from them. They roll better than they look to.

<AFA60F58-B08C-4A72-952D-0EC341CED259.jpeg>

<8B38BB54-F230-4576-A82F-563920881A0D.jpeg>

On Dec 16, 2025, at 3:48 AM, Bicycle Belle Ding Ding! <jonasa...@gmail.com> wrote:

Wow, I love reading stories like this - Rivs that get such high mileage that their parts get ridden to dust! Really fun idea to do a refresh. I hope more of us follow your example, James. Where did you go to get all those miles? Is this daily commuting? Adventure biking? Camping? The bike has few adornments, which amazes me. I have junked up all my bars and saddled my bikes with bags and more bags. Your bike is delightfully uncomplicated.

I feel like Pam Murray is the RivSister version of James. They both wear out drivetrains! Enviable! We need them to meet and take a photo…

Leah

On Monday, December 15, 2025 at 6:58:33 PM UTC-5 James Valiensi wrote:

Hi,
I’ve had my Appaloosa for 8 years now. I’ve worn out one each of chain, cassette, derailleur, shifter and a set of brake pads. Two BBs were ridden to failure. And rode through four or five sets of tires. Wore out one Brooks Saddle on it.
The headset (FSA) and wheels (Silver), Nitto seat post and Pual’s brakes are all still good. The wheels never go out of true.

I was inspired by Gideon’s Atlantis and planned a rebuild.
New drive train, 11 speed x 1 Shimano XT (same as my original build). Bluelug/Nitto Bullmoose handle bar. Paul’s crank arms, a Phil Wood BB found on ebay (NOS) and a Woldtooth oval chain ring. The tires are Ultradynamico knobby tires.
It looks like a late 80’s MTB that someone bought 40 years ago, road a few times and dug it out of the garage to start riding again.
For me the handlebars are perfect, much nicer than the original Bullmooses I tried 8 years ago. The oval chainring was ordered by mistake - but I like it. The feel is very subtle and not negative. My purple anodized brakes are fading but their performance is not.

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[James Valiensi]

Hi,

My chain lasted about seven years, likely 30k miles. 

During the first part of the pandemic, I would get a flat tire nearly every ride. It was so bad that I felt like quitting bike riding! So I bought Schwable most puncture resistant tires. They worked but looked like they belonged on a farm tractor. After about a year of them I put on Pancenti’s pari-moto tires and had good luck since.

Sent from my iPhone

On Dec 16, 2025, at 10:10 AM, Leah Peterson <jonasa...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Patrick Moore]

Congrats on the Apaloosa's many miles.

Don’t diss roadie cycling kit entirely. It evolved for a purpose despite the obvious fashion marketing for much of it (which Bike Snob skewers very amusingly). I wear wool when I can, and I l gave up many synthetics 25 years ago, but let me tell you, drop bars lower than saddle and trim, if not tight, cycling clothing can make a huge difference in cycling comfort — as with all things cycling, IMO, everything is about comfort.

I’m recovering from 8 days off the bike with flu, so my rides are short and energetic, but I just got back from a very pleasant out ’n’ back along our Paseo del Bosque recreational trail on the 1999 Joe Starck custom road gofast fixie; 15 miles rt. Outbound with the wind, return in the hooks against NW 10 to 15 gusts to 26, in a 75” gear —(the Dingle provides a 68” gear, but I like pushing against the wind, and after so many years I know how to pace myself so that I don’t blow up). 

Believe me, a very trim (Large Long) Wabi Woolen jersey and trim but not tight Endura riding pants with pegged legs made a huge difference compared to other cycling kit I’ve used, like oversized and untucked viscose Hawaiian shirts that I used to commute in during our 90s-to-100s summers. (I’ve ridden many miles in baggy shirts, t-shirts, jeans, corduroys, cut-down khakis, lycra kit, wool, viscose, what have you.)

Despite the single WW “sports” (= lighter gauge merino knit) jersey as my single layer at 58*F and wind, my cap was wet enough that I rinsed it out upon return.

Not everyone’s taste, I’m sure, but for me, great fun, fun augmented by garments that wick sweat, feel good against the skin, and especially, don’t flap in the wind. Black on black, tho’ an Eddy Molteni cap for a bit of color on top.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/5980CC85-1B8B-471A-A73C-C43D28095534%40gmail.com.

--

Patrick Moore

Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum

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[Josiah Anderson]

Wait, what!? What kind of chain lasted 30,000 miles? And how worn was it when you replaced it? I usually get no more than 5,000 miles out of a chain to 0.5% wear, or 2,000 for super cheap ones. I assume you must also ride in much less wet weather than we have here.

Josiah Anderson 

Tacoma WA 

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[DTL]

I am curious about the Bottom Brackets wearing out. Surely the cartridges or individual bearings get replaced, not entire bottom brackets (bar something catastrophic going wrong, which is not wearing out)?

[James Valiensi]

Hello,

Very good question. The bearings, actually do not wear out. It is the aluminum cup that supports the non-drive side of the BB shell. It deforms and then the crank is always clicking.

If you pull one apart and see that the inside of the cup is coated in black, it is shot. The black stuff is aluminum dusts plus whatever else gets in the microscopic gaps. 

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