Rivendell Bicycle Works
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Rivendell Bicycle Works is a small manufacturer of lugged steel bicycle frames, located in Walnut Creek, California. Rivendell produces both stock frames and fully customized frames for individual customers. Rivendell frames are designed in the United States, with manufacturing of stock frames being done in Japan and Taiwan. Custom Rivendell frames are individually made in the United States.
Grant Petersen, who—while in charge of American marketing and bicycle design at Bridgestone— was responsible for the development of the famous Bridgestone XO-series, founded Rivendell in 1994. Among their offerings are a single-speed/fixed-gear bicycle frame by the name of Quickbeam and a line of bicycle bags by the name of Baggins (Both of these names also refer to characters from The Lord of the Rings). The company operates on a membership basis.
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[edit] History
[edit] Bridgestone History
While heading Bridgestone's US bicycle division, Petersen was able to express and evangelize his passions for traditional good designs. A passion that had been fed by old world cycling traditions from Europe and spread with the bike boom of the 1970's. But was endangered by the marketing and flash culture surrounding the rise of the mountain bike. Petersen was able to use Bridgestone's massive production capacity to make inexpensive, high quality bikes that were aimed at a market that valued long term use as well as performance. So the Bridgestone team took the inherent advantages of the steel frame, mated them with well thought out components and produced bikes that supported longer rides, greater comfort, durability, everyday use and of course style without sacrificing performance. They looked back at the Fin de Siecle bike boom and promoted the classic aesthetics of that period. The bikes, which had always been nice now began to look nicer, riders had the opportunity to sport Bridgestone manufactured classic wool jerseys with nut buttoned shoulders and classic looks.
The Catalogue had been the chief medium for explaing the bikes and promoting the ideals behind them. They contained the basic information on the bikes, very pretty photographs and editorial essays from significant thinkers in the field. Tom Ritchey, Grant Petersen, Keith Bontrager contributed to early editions. Later editions were printed on unbleached recycled paper, with soy inks, and featured very technical diagrams and pictures converted to engravings a la The Wall Street Journal, though the whole thing combined with perennial poster children and Bridgestone team members Pineapple Bob and Karen in period clothing gave the sense that you were looking at the offerings of say Schwinn, Hercules, or Raleigh circa 1900 or so. (Brooks has emulated this packaging in order to remind the consumer of its philosophical affiliations). The articles honored simplicity and the advantage of good design, often undermining the flash of other products with sound arguments on the advantages of friction shifters, lugged steel frames and cold forged dranks.
The bikes became better and better, new designs were less flashy but better thought out than the rest of the market, especially among major producers, which Bridgestone was. However, at some point things began to go wrong. The Bridgestone ideology began to undermine sales. Quiet quality will sell bikes to educated consumers but for any number of reasons a shiny cheap bike will sell as quick. Petersen was taking a risk with his high minded strategy, it was noble but he took it too far. The market for the bikes slowed down, Bridgestone USA was still beholden to the parent company in Japan, they had no reason to keep backing a venture that was losing money and so didn't. Bridgestone quietly disappeared from the American market.
[edit] The Rivendell Era
In 1994, Petersen launched Rivendell Bicycle Works, funded from personal savings and investments from friends. Petersen borrowed the name from the now defunct mountaineering equipment company, Rivendell Mountain Works (RMW), which took its name from the fictional refuge in The Lord of the Rings. Petersen admired RMW because "it shifted my thinking about equipment interference, function, and things like complexity and simplicity and features."[1]
Rivendells were the ultimate expression of the old Bridgestone USA ideology. However, without Bridgestone's massive production and distribution networks Petersen had to contend with higher fixed costs. The average Rivendell bicycle is based upon the better vintage designs of the 1970s and 1980s, although inflation adjusted prices for new Rivendells are higher than the original list prices of comparably equipped vintage bikes.
Members receive the company publication called the Rivendell Reader, which is published 4-6 times a year. It features updates on the company, interviews, informative articles about a particular bike feature, such as a new lug design, or, say, the effect of trail on bike handling. There are also non-bike related articles and stories.
The company has continued to evolve over time developing their own line of wool clothing (Woolywarm), cycling bags (Baggins Bags), and an expanding selection of frames, including the Atlantis, the Rambouillet, the Bleriot (an economical variation of the Saluki), the A. Homer Hilsen, as well as the Rivendell frames which are designed specifically for the customer according to their needs. Rivendell Bicycle Works made the decision to introduce a frame designed around the 650B wheel size around 2004-2005 called the Saluki. This meant developing a source of wheels and tires in support of this traditional French wheel size, which they are committed to. They are also giving support to centerpull brakes, which have been in decline for the last decade or two and are generally passed over for side pulls and cantilevers.
His ideals are expressed well in the products of Rivendell and its sibling companies however at prices several times that of a comparable Bridgestone USA or other mass market bike.
[edit] Custom Rivendell Frames
While Rivendell's production frames are mass produced by frame shops in Japan and Taiwan, custom frames are hand-built by frame builders in the United States. The first Rivendell customs were built by Waterford Precision Cycles. Later frames were built by Joe Starck, while Curt Goodrich and Mark Nobilette currently build Rivendell's custom frames.
