Riv ‘n’ stuff (crow's bikes)

Ah, crow! Congratulations! A stunning bike indeed. Love the shape of the fork. With geometry like that and those wheels, it must be smooth, comfortable ride too.

Oh that is so nice! Blue lug builds just look so good.

1mm, which felt like overkill if anything. Directplastics did a 250mmx500mm sheet that was perfect for this bag.

Just that single stitch at the front/top. The plastic then just fits in a compressed u shape and gives it a pretty solid structure. For more stout Carradice materials you might not even need the front stitch, as a canvas seam might be enough to just tuck it under at the front.

Thanks! So far I’ve only ridden it in very small circles (!) but it all just feels very normal, which is prefect.

Great shout on th carradice. I have the bar bag of the same material and it's so slack. Might do the same!

Ta, will get some ordered, little project for my week off.

good mods to be bag.

mine is used on a small front rack. some color, the orange is peaking everywhere...

A glorious few hours spent out on the bike yesterday afternoon:

• Bike is great (phew). Fit is good, feels very comfortable and pretty nimble. Essentially I’ve built a lightweight touring bike and it’s pretty much perfect for the riding I do.
  
• Nitto noodles are literally perfect. Velox Grey tape turned out more sweet baby blue than grey but I like it and am looking forward to getting it filthy.
  
• Tires are great and the pairing of nobbly front smoother rear suits my mix of on/off road nicely.
  
• For anyone who was losing sleep over the gearing: 46/30 is a bit stiff, but not by much. Feel I could lose 2/4 teeth off the big. Small was fine, but I’d take 2 teeth smaller. My rd struggles to pull enough chain for a gap of 16 teeth to work at both ends of the cassette. Think 42/28 might be the sweet spot.
  
• Bag worked well on the back. I took too much stuff for a short ride but now know it works. Enjoyed not having a bar bag/front load.
  
  

Got out after lunch. Indirect route (more hills/fewer cars) out to penshurst. 30t small was fine on the steep hill. Stopped by a gate for a fettle with the front derailleur.

Then on to new bridlepaths for a bit of an explore. First one took me over towards chiddingstone hoath. Nice and smooth. Stopped for some pictures.

Linked up a few more bridlepaths to take me round to Heathfield. Bit of a mixture of surfaces but discovered my new favourite bridlepath somewhere along the way with a near perfect bivi spot at its mid point. Classic Kentish bridleway. The start is so narrow and rutted by horse hooves you’re tempted to give up (there can be nothing good this way, you think…), but persevere and it smoothes out to a wide sweeping downhill through trees before turning sharply left and pitching you into a steep, deep holloway, where the smooth surface gives way to deep loose leaf mulch with a few logs thrown in and virtually no traction. Real high octane stuff.

Perfect bivi spot

From Heathfield, I picked up the freshly resurfaced Forest Way back into town. The resurfacing has given the new bike a rather exquisite coating of fine chalk dust. I have popped it away carefully without cleaning to allow this to cure.

Bits to do:

• sort front light. Had been waiting to work out if I’d be using bar bags. I don’t think I will be, so a nice caliper mounted son edelux should be the ticket. Have binned the idea of rear dynamo light/routing and will just get a fancy blue lug rechargeable.
  - smaller chainrings. 42/28, maybe. (Edit: nah, this seems like way to much effort for such a small gain, having ridden it again. Just need to get a smidge stronger and it’ll be grand.)
  
• Bagman and compact camping setup for short overnights.
  

Love it!
Crank/downtube and stick/seattube alignment in pic.2 is something else.
Sounds like a great first (proper) ride, glad you like it.

So classy! Love the look of this, you’ve done a great job 👍

Excellent bike :)

such a bice bike

Got out for a bivi on Friday. Found a pizza van on route, having left home without really thinking about dinner, what luck!

Dynamo light on. Rear blue lug light on. Bivi setup needs some attention (it’s been a good few years since I last used it) but was great to be out. Woke up to a barn owl criss-crossing the field in front of me.

Nice light on the ride back into town

looks ace

Cool. One night? Was it chilly?

It wasn't cold, but I was a little! Combination of a rubbish old mat and a slightly underrated sleeping bag I think. Just the one night - time is short at the mo but hoping to get out for lots more one nighters near home and then plan something a bit longer for the summer hols :)

Looks great, and what a lovely bike. Really enjoyed the thread.

Would it be too much to do a Riv ride some time?

Not at all - sounds like just the ticket!

Perfection

Been steadily pootling about on this and absolutely loving it. Couple of overnighters here and there - starting to get my bivi kit pared down to just the essentials. Long term, contemplating some clippy pedals; sold my SPD SLs when I let my road bike go and tempted by some SPDs.

The search for the perfect bag continues, and took a step forward this weekend. The Carradice Audax is great with the addition of the HDPE, but just sits quite oddly without a bagman (which I don't really want to fit full time). I do also have a camper Longflap with the bigger bagman for when I'm actually 'touring'. But neither fits the bill for just everyday stuff. Probably should just bite the bullet and fit a rear rack as a support for any bag, but I just don't really like the visual clutter.

Anyway, I've been eyeing up a https://choughstuff.com Puffin Burrow for some time and messaged Mike a couple of weeks ago about a small 7l one. He was very friendly and helpful and the bag arrived at the end of last week. It's taken me until today to get out on a ride with it. It's great - you can properly fill it with stuff and then cinch it all down into a solid package. Doesn't swing about at all once packed and fitted. If I can get my bivi stuff packed into it, I anticipate just taking it with me on the off chance I fancy an overnight. Every ride is currently an overnight spot scouting mission.

Anyway, pictures:

So good. I say keep the flats.

Such an absolutely amazing and inspiring build, I can't stop staring at it really.

Splendid!
Like the rear bag.

Riv went kid carrying today. Not for the first time, but the kid just keeps getting bigger and I'm not sure how much more 'knees out' cycling I can do over any distance. The Yepp mini makes downtube shifters very hard to use. So started thinking about rear bicycle seats, then welled up at the thought of having to clamp something round the seat tube to mount it (or fitting a big rear rack). So I need a new bike.

Luckily, I have this HardRock frame in the shed. Bought it to build up into a coaster brake silly machine but ran out of energy. Was going to build it up for a friend but he has diverted funds into a new camera purchase. Then it struck me this morning that the VO stem and lovely Nitto fun3 bars would fit right onto this...

Everything on it was broken, so it'll need new everything except headset. Paint is knackered but has a certain charm. Trip to the LBS tomorrow to see if they can remove the BB. Thinking 9 speed triple for all the gears.

Anyone got any 26inch tyre recommendations for an mtb that will never see a mountain?

On a recent Rockhopper of similar vintage, I ran Gravel Kings and was very happy. Big enough for any off pavement excursions but small enough for guards to fit over the top.