The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (56cm, Build Thread and Musings)

[Isaak Oliansky]

Photos here. Perhaps this will get a proper shoot someday and I'll update.

Sometimes there’s a bike…well, it’s the bike for its time and place. Shortly after my 2nd was born last summer, I saw this beauty on the Facebook Rivendell group just after it was posted. I messaged the seller with my phone number, and he called me later in the day stating that he’d had something like 50, 60 messages about the bike. Somehow I had made it to the top of the heap. The phone number is key folks. 

Fast forward two impatient weeks, and this beauty arrived at my door immaculately boxed after a cross continental journey from humid NC to dry Southern Oregon. Although the albstache build was not gonna stick, I knew in minutes that this bike was the one. I gutted it, keeping only the shifters, and began anew.

I ended up selling my ‘89 Ritchey Ultra ‘xibike’ build (with noisy dt hugi hubs and fun swoopy bars), my perfect ‘79 Bruce Gordon road bike (ouch, I hate bending over), and my blue 58cm Black Mountain Cycles Monstercross. With a tidy pile of cash in hand (this purge inspired a further purge of everything that wasn’t bolted to a bike), I decided to simply splurge completely for the first go around, instead of doing the usual strange parts bin builds and then overspending on miscellany as I slowly upgraded them, my usual recipe.

No more of that! Tom Bombadillo has arrived! Boy, he has not disappointed. His new home turf is the Mt. Ashland watershed- steep decomposed granitic slopes with Magic Dirt blissfully mud-free all winter turning into a hot dry grind in the summer. He met my #1 bicycle requirement which is to not break traction in a grueling seated singletrack climb in a tiny gear. I wished to do a robust and portly build for old Tom, yet he still has a spryness that surprises me on every ride, while still feeling confident and planted. 

I swap between 50mm Soma Cazaderos and 2.2” Continental Race Kings depending on the ride. I had some gold Paul skewers on there but they felt too flashy. Finally, the DaVinci cranks are stunning however they might get passed onto a different build in favor of the 170mm fc-6206 xt cranks that came off of my uncle’s cook bros with a microadaptor…to be determined. Otherwise, I ain’t changing a thing! 

Frame/Fork- 56cm Waterford Bombadil

Headset- Black Chris King Sotto Voce 2Nut (nerds, note the brass spacer...could Tom Bombadil wield the one ring after all?!)

Stem- Discord Fingerling 5cm

Handlebars- Ritchey Corralitos 50cm 

Bar ends- mismatched rubber Velox, light and dark green

Tape- Campandgoslow (in Great Horned Owl)

Brake Levers- TRP RRL 

Seatpost- Nitto S83

Saddle- WTB Pure V 

Brakes- Paul Touring, polished

Shifters- Kelly Take offs/Shimano Dura Ace 10s

Front Derailleur- Campagnolo Record 10s Double

Rear Derailleur- XTR Medium Cage

Cranks- DaVinci 110/58bcd (White Industries made I believe), 172.5mm, 38/20 rings 

Pedals- Wolf Tooth Waveform (in Espresso)

Chain- SRAM or KMC 10s

Cassette- XT 10s 11-36 

Cable Housing- Sim Works (in Clear Brown)

Doodads- Forager cable cherries, 6 of them

Rims- Velo Orange Voyageur 650b 36h

Hubs- Son 28/White Industries MI5

Spokes- Sapim Race, brass nipples

Tires- Soma Cazadero 50mm or Continental Race King 2.2in. Tubes. 

Valve caps- MUSA from eBay

Rear Bag- Bags by Bird Goldback 11w Tall Black/Green Canvas

Stem Bag- Makeshifter Snackhole

Rear Rack- Nitto M1

Lights- Sinewave Beacon 2 front and B&M rear 

Pump- Zefal

Bell- Spurcycle

Thanks for reading. Drop a line if you ever pass through Ashland and want to take a spin.

-IO at the base of the Siskiyou Mountains

[Addison Wilhite]

Beautiful bike!  One of the best Riv models in my book and a great build.  I rode my Riv Allrounder through Ashland some years ago on a bike tour with friends when I used to live in Reno.  We stopped to watch Hamlet, treated ourselves to a stay at the Stratford Inn and rode out over the mountain the next day.  Quite a beautiful trip.  I'm sure the Bombadil will serve you well.

Cheers,

Addison

Tirana, Albania

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[WilletM]

That's a good way of putting it-- "Sometimes there's a bike...".  I daresay I'm not the only other Bombadil owner who nodded his head and said "yep" under his breath when he read that.  I lucked into a Protovelo/Bombadil frame on ebay back in 2019.  It arrived moderately nicked up and with some alignment/spacing issues that took quite a bit of work to remedy.  Even more worrying was that I had never owned a Rivendell and had no idea whether my short legs/long torso proportions would even be able to ride a 59/60cm (since I typically ride a 57-ish road bike).   But...well, sometimes there's a bike.  So I splurged, pretty much strictly on faith, and literally added one part at a time over 6-8 months, usually with great deliberation.  Finally finished it months later and then spent months more fine tuning the cockpit dimensions and every little nut and bolt of the build.  And like Isaac, once I found the magic combination, I ain't changing a thing!

 

Thanks for the pics and story, Isaac.  Will you be keeping it "naked" or eventually doing a repaint?  

Willet M.

Carbondale, CO

[Drew Fitchette]

Congrats Isaak!

I remember that Bombadil popping up for sale out here and was so sad it wasn’t a 58. Stoked you got it and have it built up as your grail bike!

Excited to see many more posts of the adventures you take it on out west.

- Drew in ATL

[Gordon Stam]

Good looking build Isaak,

The color looks almost like an unpainted frame, with a bronze patina. And those cranks are cool. I also notice your use of the diminutive Voile straps. Handy little suckers, aren't they?

[Jordan Ateshzar]

Excellent work Isaak, and I like the approach of shedding parts to go all in on a bike like this; your build turned out great! I love those discord fingerling stems. I have a couple in grey and run one on my silver heron touring bike, the long quill makes for such a nice fit. 

Congrats, dude!

[Dan]

Came here to say that I appreciate the LOTR reference with the brass headset spacer. Know anyone who will engrave it?!

Fantastic bike. 

[Brian Turner]

In keeping with the Tom Bombadil theme, you should commission a custom bag in bright blue, yellow, and green… and stick a swan feather on there somewhere. 

“Old Tom Bombadil was a merry fellow;
bright blue his jacket was and his boots were yellow,
green were his girdle and his breeches all of leather;
he wore in his tall hat a swan-wing feather.
He lived up under Hill, where the Withywindle
ran from a grassy well down into the dingle.“

Brian

Lexington KY

[Isaak Oliansky]

Indeed, the bike is unpainted! It's a clear coat over raw steel from the Waterford factory. I believe that it will get a coat of paint in the next few years (there are a few other projects in line ahead).. internal dynamo routing and top tube cable routing (less sure on that) are all possibilities before that. It'll be so hard to decide! Yesterday's brainstorm on a ride was manzanita colors...blood red burgundy with dark mint green panels and light purple trim...but it's doubtful whether that idea will survive until 2027ish.

After purchasing this bike I had to re-read LotR for the umpteenth time and regularly single Tom Bombadillo drivel as I pedal. It's impossible not to :)

@Willet- I am similarly proportioned. 86cm-ish PBH and 6'0 with a long torso. This bike has a little less slope than a 2020s Riv however the generously long stem makes up the difference. 

[Jason Fuller]

Drop bar Bombadil club! I love the story and the build. For what is basically supposed to be the most robust Rivendell made, it sure is pretty spritely, hey??  Not exactly fast, but I doubt mine weighs much more than my Hillborne. I have long been meaning to do a full rebuild on each and weigh them both. When I bought mine, I similarly had a specific zone / ride in mind for it as the 'prototypical route' the bike was destined for, and it sounds similar in a lot of ways - though mine is in the wet PNW rainforest.  

[Andy Beichler]

Thanks for those great pictures and the great words! Your mention of a purge has motivated me to get out to my shed and do the same.  I have been putting it off for too long. 

[Ben Miller]

Isaak, my dude! 

Still want to see that Bomba in person! I reckon I need to come up to Ashland :)

Love the mismatched bar-ends with the Campandgoslow tape. But I think you failed to to mention the pièce de résistance: the brass FMBCH from Shovel Research! 

[Huston]

This Bombadil is incredible!  Great appreciation here for the all the carefully considered bits.  Ben has noted a couple of the subtle details not mentioned in the build list.  In addition to that Shovel Research cable hanger, there are some nice brass ferrules.  And those XTR quick release skewers (maybe M910?) are certainly a nice way to secure the WI and SON hubs.

--Huston

Lexington, KY 

[Isaak Oliansky]

Thanks all! 

Good eyes on the extra bits. Hard to remember it all. I also hoard the XTR M960/5 skewers which didn't visually quite fit here but are well worth setting up an eBay search for. I believe you have to replace the drive side nuts with polished ones that I've found online. These are the best 100/135mm imitation of the gorgeous Dura Ace 7700 skewers. In fact, I have a set cut down for my only 130mm spaced bike. Skewer nerd out. 

Jason- thanks for answering my Bombadil questions! Ben, you are most welcome up anytime- any two Bombadils riding together has to be a rare occasion :) 

[Josh C]

That is just killer!

[Shannon Menkveld]

I love the manzanita idea! What's even neater about it is that when you sand the wood, it's colored the opposite way from the bark. Kind of an oxblood red and deerhide tan.

--Shannon