Early August
I wrote in an earlier update about how our production is shaping up for next year and how it's looking like we're going to have a repeat of this year with many of our frame orders placed over a year ago getting pushed all the way to 2023.
The situation is obviously serious either way, but I have a suspicion and hope that our people in Taiwan are doing what we try to do here (it doesn't always work out) which is underpromise and overdeliver; or maybe they're just preparing us for the absolute worst scenario and it won't end up being that bad. I'm allowed to hope!
Here's an example of what it's like now: I placed two orders in June each for 1200 Alex DM21 rims and they told me the current ETA for the first order is July 2023, and the second order is March 2024. How could that be? Do they really have that many unfufilled orders? It's hard to wrap my head around it.
If the current production schedule is accurate, we're getting less than half of what we planned for. This means more instant frame sell-outs, reduced dealer sales, and increased prices. The alternative is laying off employees, reducing hours, or possibly not making it to 2023.
That all sounds bad and worrisome, but recently I stumbled across some entries from Grant's progress reports in the early Riv Readers. The problems then were absolutely worse; Riv was on the cusp of out-of-business for years. If you feel like it, you can read through some of those in the early Readers here, but they're stressful, even 20 years later. At least now we have enough momentum to clear the hurdles - We're not Dalilah Muhammad, but we're doing OK.
Here are some updated frame ETAs, with a major emphasis on the E. They don't account for port strikes or congestion, Covid shut downs, or Suez Canal type jam-ups. Also, we won't make the frames live on the site the day we receive the container. If we're still working on the shipment that came before, we'll wait awhile before making them available to buy. All these dates below can change and sometimes drastically.
Clem L framesets, 45 frames: delivery is imminent, like next week.
Homers in 47.5 and 51, 48 frames: Shipping from Taiwan in early September - delivery mid to late the same month.
Clem L Completes 99 bikes: Shipping with the small Homers above.
Homers in 54.5, 58, 61.5 and 64cm, 98 frames: Shipping from Taiwan in early October - delivery mid to late the same month.
Gus and Susie - 130 frames: Shipping sometime in November, arrival early December. If they get delayed we may push them into 2022.
Rosco Platypus: Unknown ETA - we're still waiting on samples.
That brings us to 2022 and the only confirmed deliveries we have are:
Atlantis - 150 frames: Slated to ship from Taiwan in January, with arrival late that month or early the next.
Platypus - 226 frames: Delivery in March.
Sam Hillbornes - 209 frames: Delivery in April.
The rest of our orders, most of which we placed in September 2020, have been pushed back to 2023. We're still waiting to hear for sure what we can get from our other frame maker - so far all they've said is that they'll try their hardest to get us Homers in July '22, but no word yet on Roadunos, Roadinis, and Gus-n-Susies, which they also make.
We also have a couple projects in the works, here's the scoop:
Jim Rear Rack: Delivery in early October.
Slim Jim Goat Gloves: Late this month
Microshift front derailers: Late this month - these will work on all our bikes.
Microshift thumbies: Sometime in September.
Silver2 Thumb mounts: Late this month - the shifters are in stock now.
|
|
A limited Silver crank re-stock
We have some 34/24 Silver cranks up on the site now. These might be the only cranks we'll have on the site for the rest of the year so it could be worth it to get some even if you want to change the rings. The 34/24 is perfect for trail bikes, but you might spin out going downhill on the road. No big deal.
|
|
Blue Lug/RBW hats - Stuck in customs
I'm going back and forth with DHL trying to get them released and they're asking all sorts of funky questions like "what is the gender of the intended wearer?" Uh what? They're reviewing my responses now and hopefully they get sent sometime this week. We'll let you know before making them live.
|
|
|
|
We imported the last remaining stock of Shimano Nexave rear derailers. They're feature laden in a way we like - RapidRise, big pulleys, and a pivoting housing catch, which eliminates the need for a bend in the last piece of housing. We bought 132 of them but we're saving all but 22 for Riv builds. They're here.
|
|
Trail
Trail was a hot topic a couple years back and came up in phone conversations at least once every two days. There's a great article, written by John Schubert, in RR 37, that lays it all out there as plainly as possible if you've heard about trail but aren't quite sure what it is. I like that he measures it in inches. It's here on pages 24, 25, and 26.
There's another steering dimension, a hugely overlooked one, that we pay close attention to on every frame design - Don't ask me what it is, I won't spill, but if you have a Riv you can trust it's been optimized for good handling.
|
|
New Blahg
Grant has a new one up now with some of his favorite comics and
If surfing is anything like skateboarding, it shouldn't be an Olympic sport - It's not quite as ridiculous as making interpretive dance or painting an Olympic sport but it's close. It's just too subjective to declare winners and losers. Skeeball would be a better Olympic sport.
Also, a huge part of skateboarding is the environment where you do it and nothing sterilizes it more than the bland, made-for-tricks, perfectly smooth skatepark they've built for the Olympics. Exciting skateboarding happens on architecture designed without skateboarding in mind. Do surfers like watching people surf on wave machines? It's kinda lame right? I realize I'm highly opinionated.
|
|
Even more Peace Wheel shirts
In charcoal, and with a pocket this time. James is looking pretty monochrome up there. Don't look too hard at the handlebar set up - we were experimenting.
Same deal as before - $7 from every shirt sale goes to the Grocery Guy Fund and we'll match it with our own money too.
Get one here.
|
|
|
|
We restocked some Rivendell Readers - I found a box of #43 which we had thought was sold out. $5 an issue.
|
|
Back in stock 8/6/21
incidentals
shimano
snow peak
|
|
I've really been enjoying city rides lately, especially at night, and especially when the ride involves alleys or streets lined with tall buildings. The city blocks, and how quickly you can move through them, make it crystal clear how efficient and wonderful bikes are. Country roads, although obviously great for riding in their own way, don't have the regular landmarks that make you feel like you're making easy headway. It's like how newspaper articles make you feel lightning fast at reading because the lines are so short.
The other day I was riding through the Financial District of SF on Battery street, on the way from dumpling soup to a cappucino. We were splitting lanes, effortlessly overtaking the car traffic (which was light anyway) and the late afternoon sun was filtering through the tall buildings to our right and it was the best feeling 5 minutes of riding I've had all year.
-----
The track I've had on repeat this week is this iteration of "Take Five" - It got Rich's stamp of approval too. Val Bennett - The Russians are Coming (1968).
Have a good weekend,
-will
|
|
|
|
|
