Poor mans Rivendell?

I'm currently pedalling on two very same same bikes, a Mercian and Dawes both setup for touring.
Trouble is they both only have a clearance for max 35's.

I'm a big fan of the Rivendell lugged steel frame's & their clearance, not such a fan of their price tag + postage costs.

Anyone know of frame builders out there building similar steel frames with larger clearance at a more modest price?

1 Attachment

Stanforth ?

Guessing your Dawes/Mercian only take 35mm without guards? A trad UK tourer would typically have had 32mm (1¼") tyres, so finding something with bigger clearances is tricky. My old Eclipse can just about squeeze 35mm tyres and guards in there, but it's pretty tight; if not set up for cantis, finding suitable deep-drop brakes is tricky (the Eclipse has Weinmann centrepulls). I'm not sure there is much available OTP - what are the most important Riv-a-like qualities for you, apart from wide clearances? I'm guessing rim brakes, slackish angles, threaded headset, lugged frame? My immediate thought for a rim-braked tourer with wide clearances is the Surly LHT, but it's not lugged and has a threadless headset. the Stanforths are nice but not massively cheap - once you're at that level you might as well be looking at a custom builder IMO.

Trek 970. Incredibly good frame.

This^

But if you fancy a framebuilder who does great work like that, look at Llewellyn, Varonha, Woodrup.

Discussion on the topic here: https://groups.google.com/forum/m/#!topic/rbw-owners-bunch/LDgN-ihgqxo

Allcity Spacehorse , clearance for 45s and guards. not lugged but classic looks and ride well.

1 Attachment

Hard to come by, as it's an archived frame for All City, gone discs you see. @markturnip If you're not too fussed about lugs try Soma, or Surly, both steel, larger tyre clearances than your current bikes, canti/ long drop calipers ready.

surly crosscheck?

Surly LHT/Disc Trucker both build up very nicely in that Riv vein.

1 Attachment

Hey all. Thanks heaps for responses, been great looking through advice.

Seems the Surly Crosscheck can be built up real nice with plenty clearance:

Although seems the Dawes Wildcat or similar can be build up pretty nice!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Murray Watson (@murraywatson) on Sep 13, 2017 at 2:24am PDT

1 Attachment

Here’s my ‘Dawes wildcat turned BL Rivendell homage’ I’m new to cycling and this was my first sort of build up with powder coating and collecting parts et al.. does this qualify as a poor man’s riv?

I can’t take full credit as a ginger Jedi councillor guided me.. All in much more affordable and a lot of fun!

2 Attachments

That's fully sick

great build. looks fun to ride.

How about a 650b conversion of an old touring frame? Mine fit 32 in 700 but 42 in 650b. Had to use super long reach centerpulls and very short cranks. Only the former bothers me, and might not be a problem in most cases.

Interesting build and it certainly looks fun to ride. Was the Dawes frame
originally a hybrid or touring bike?

It’s a 80’s 501 R’ Dawes wildcat mtb - 26” Wheel and full mtb clearance for big tyres but think it possibly has room for 650/700 wheel depending break caliper reach and tyre et al

*Looking back could have gone more riv with the paint but this also nods to ritchey in the bronzey gold

Couple weeks ago I met a dude who built up one of these Rivendell style with cheap ergotec bosco type bars and friction thumbies. It looked really cool. Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures.

Not necessarily a poor man's Rivendell, but the guys at Isambard have done very cool things in the past, like this Ephgrave: https://www.isambards.co.uk/blog/1953-No.-2-Ephgrave

I started chatting to them about something similar and then ended up getting an actual Riv, and felt a bit of a knob. One day I'll go back to them and get something similar done.