The Clems are here
We were finally able to get our container brought over from Oakland and, after waiting for them to clear customs, during which we were forbidden from opening the boxes, we were finally able to tear into them on Tuesday. That's a 52cm up top with cork grips and Monarch pedals added.
It turns out I was looking at an outdated list of parts when I published what's included. We went through so many potential iterations that had to change again and again because of availability that it got a little confusing. Here's what's different than what I had listed:
- An Altus rear derailer instead of the previously listed Deore - both perfectly good.
- Tektro Quartz M730 V-Brakes - They're almost the same as what I had listed but have shoes for the pads - an improvement.
- Tektro RS388 levers instead of RS360 - also no big deal. These are big, chonky, six finger levers that are a pleasure to grab.
- and a Sunrace thumbie for the front derailer instead of Microshift. That's a slight improvement because the housing angle can be adjusted.
The bikes look great, ride even better, and I can't wait to see how people personalize them. The only thing that slightly irks me is the optical display on Shimano's 9 speed trigger - on the 11 speed shifters they're removable but not so on these. If you got a Clem, the trigger will come to you like this:
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But I think everyone should try 'em like this:
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This opens up the hand position in front of the brake levers which I find especially useful for climbing standing up. The shifter won't be directly under your thumb but it's not like grasping for downtube shifters - it's easy and still close. You'll probably shift 15% less often, but you can make up for it by shifting more often with your legs. You'll get used to it probably within the first ride, but definitely by the second. Just try it - scooch it down there and leave the housing long. If you decide you like it, then you can trim everything down.
The Sunrace shifter on the left side doesn't block the hand position as much, but I'd still move it down near the stem or even mount it on the quill.
Important:
One thing we forgot to ask during the lotto was whether people would like us to ship bikes straight away without tuning up the build. They come to us assembled but not up to Riv-standards. We take them out of the box and:
- toe in the pads
- center the brakes
- adjust the headset
- adjust the limit screws on the rear and front derailer
- align the front derailer
- fine tune the indexing
and then we drop it back into the box, pad it up again and send it out. If you think you can handle that or if a shop is doing the initial assembly and you want to get your bike faster, email me at will@rivbike.com with the subject title "ship it quick!" and I'll move your order up in the stack and issue you a $75 store credit for the work you're saving us.
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How was Philly?
I've enjoyed every trade show I've attended since I started at Riv, but Philly Bike is by far my favorite. It was so great to match faces to names previously only seen on screens and everybody was so nice, attendees and exhibitors alike. People even thanked us for coming out, but it was our pleasure, absolutely. I left with the same feeling I had in 2019 - grateful that I work in this corner of the bike industry where everyone is willing to help each other out and there's a refreshing lack of competition between companies for sales.
I had grand plans of documenting the show, but it was so busy (a good thing) that I took almost zero pictures while I was there. Others, no doubt, did a better job of it than I could anyway.
James and I managed to check out the overwhelmingly huge Philly Museum of Art - we went for the Richard Benson photo show, but my favorite was the Emma Amos paintings. We also had a fantastic time riding the bikeshare e-bikes around. The max saddle height on the citybikes is around 79cm or something, so the e-bikes made the most sense to save my knees.
I was in charge of arranging everything and I'm the type of person that'll triple check everything and still wake up in the middle of the night second guessing whether I shipped the bikes to the right address, but once it was clear that it was all going to work out, I was able to relax and have fun. Thanks to everybody who came and visited. See you next year, I hope.
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MKS made us a batch of Panda Monarchs so we wouldn't have to make them up here. We'll also be getting them in reverse, with black middle sections and silver outers, but those aren't here yet.
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Clem Web Special
If you missed out on a 52cm Clem, there's one up in web specials. It was built up a la carte from a frame and has Rich built wheels, a NOS XT rapid rise rear dearailer, Schwalbe G-One Allrounds and Bosco bars. When we build frames up from scratch they always come out pricier than the assembled-in-Taiwan Clems, hence the price difference. It's discounted $300 below the normal retail price.
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Eric Marth, Riv-stuff archivist, has another soothing, ASMR-ish assembly vid up, this time featuring his Appaloosa. Great work Eric! I love the brass bolts and the vertical corroplast bag stiffener.
I should have checked with you about the headset hanger color. 😬
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Yesterday I rode Mt. Tam solo and brought a tripod, my camera, and a bulb release. I was experimenting with running over the bulb release with my front wheel to trip the shutter and, essentially, take bike selfies. It works perfectly but I need a longer bulb - mine is only 20 feet and I wanted to be farther away in the frame. If the pictures come out at all I'll post it here - I shot them at 1/15th of a second to anonymize it.
There was some old timey bike tourist that did the same thing all over the world but I can't find the photos online. Grant says he has the book - I'll scan some of the pics and put them in an update.
No back in stock list today but we'll have a big one next week.
Have a good weekend,
-will
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