Rambouillet

Three Quarters	Side	Front
A little white paint hides a lot of Carbon	"Racers"	Fancy Lugs
Loaded for commuting

After much deliberation and agonizing over models, I finally decided to buy my first Rivendell bicycle. I picked up the Rambouillet frame from Rivendell's (unassuming) Walnut Creek warehouse on a thursday afternoon. At first glance I thought there must be a mistake. Those gorgeous blue bikes they were building COULDN'T be what I was getting?!? I wasn't at all impressed by the blue on the web site, but in person it really is striking! By friday morning I had about 90% of my old bike stripped down and added to the Rambouillet frame. After another week of trying out different stems and bars. Here is the final product!

Saddle: Brooks B-17

Bars: Nitto Dirt-drops wrapped with 1 layer of cork, then 1 layer yellow cloth tape, then 5 coats of shellac.

Stem: Nitto Technomic 8cm

Shifters: Campagnolo Record-ergo

Crank: Ritchey Logic (Sugino) with logo removed (paint stripper works like a charm)

Ft. Derailleur: Old Suntour I had lying around

Rear Derailleur: Campagnolo Record Carbon

Seat post: Campagnolo Chorus Ti

Brakes: Vintage Mafac "Racer" Centerpulls

Wheels: Record hubs with/ Torelli rims 36 spoke 3x... I built these myself. They are... ALMOST straight. ;-)

Bottle and Cage: Sigg bottle with Forte Carbon Fiber cage (painted off-white to match the head tube)

Pedals: Speedplay X-1's

Bag: Carradice SQR Tour &Uplift (This is a fantastic bag. Takes exactly 2 seconds to put on or remove. Lots of space, 16 liters! I can take it off if I don't want the weight, and drop it back on for commuting.)

Some notes and errata:

I started out with the Nitto bottle cage. The construction was perfect. It was a beautiful little piece of hardware.. except that the Sigg water bottle rattled around in it something awful. The carbon cage I found was on sale for $19. Painted white it actually echoes the cream dots on the lugs, and it holds the bottle tight. No rattling.

The Mafac brakes work great. It takes quite a bit of fiddling to get them set up properly, but once set up, they feel great. It would be NICE if someone made a modern version that uses the V-brake pads. The Paul centerpulls require braze-ons, and at that point I'd more than likely go with cantilevers.

Ok, the Campy Record group I had on another bike. I've actually been very pleased with the solid feel when it's sorted out. smooth, fast and instant shifts. Unlike the Shimano STI, I can up shift and brake at the same time. This is handy when on my commute a light changes suddenly, or an SUV pulls in front. I agree that aesthetically, down tube shifters win hands down, and bar-ends are a close second. But, it's hard to beat the Ergo for ease of use. Just for the record, my next bike will probably be a tourer, and IT will have bar-ends.

The Ergo levers are set up so that the derailleur cables crisscross in front of the head tube. Sheldon Brown suggests running the cables into the "wrong" side of the down tube stops, and then crisscrossing cables on the way down to the bottom bracket. I've done this, and it seems to work beautifully. There does not seem to be any negative affect on shifting, the cables are shorter, and aesthetically it looks cleaner.

Future plans:

I've got a set of narrow plain polished Honjo fenders I'll be fitting up eventually. I'll try and get more pictures up whenever that gets done.

I might eventually upgrade to a Berthoud bag with a proper rack wich would go a long way toward making the bike look French (along with the fenders), although I've been really happy with the SQR & uplift arrangement.

In 20 years when it needs new paint, maybe I'll have that nice Rivendell sage green put on instead.

Comments? Suggestions?

Send complaints to: mark@sutter.com