Re: [CR]Extended Headtube / Riv Lugs

> To get the bars to a useful height, I always had to
> buy a too large
> frame, till the Technomic stem was introduced. To
> me, the extended
> head lugs look beautiful.
>
> I think the best thing Grant could do about lugs
> would be to pay Curt
> and Kirk Pacenti to TIG or braze up some blanks and
> carve their
> interpretations of what a Riv lug set should look
> like. Then choose
> one of the sets and send it to Long Shen for
> duplication. Unaltered!
>
> Grants lugs look like they were designed by a
> committee, or came from
> 3 different sets. Hardly hideous, but with awkward
> transitions and
> no coherent theme. Don't let me get started on that
> fork
> crown. Acceptable on a lesser bike, but not worthy
> of the
> craftsmanship lavished on the bikes by Curt and
> painter Joe Bell.

http://rivendellbicycles.com/html/membership_rivendell39.html Mark, Look at the photo of the head lugs and fork crown. Your words above cannot possibly follow. Ol' Grantersen has a beautiful bike there, with the cream head-tube rings as well as all other spots well-chosen to accent in kind. As for the crown, that cream wing, ever visible by the rider -- is a gift to the rider -- the crown is not just a part to ogle over from angles that don't matter; the "Joe Starck touch" on the side of that crown, wherein I turned the stock-cast common oval into another swoop and touched it all off with three little discs exemplifies simple perfection. I thinned every lug on every Riv I made -- where the lug needed it -- and I'd say a thinner lug than what you see isn't desirable. Bikes for men need a certain amount of masculinity, and bikes like this Riv have the right amount. Thinner lugs evoke psychic frailty; and all else can never compensate for that. And so, when critiquing Riv aesthetics and build quality, it's wee-minded to a pea to praise Curt(or me) & Joe Bell without an equal salute to unique and desirable things that is Riv/Grantersen as evidenced in the bikes. Joe Starck Madison, WI USA (Automatic Addendum: There's really nothing in it for me to defend Rivendells; I can't say I'm friends with Goodrich, Petersen and Bell, I just speak up on occasions like this to correct, in this case, Mark Stonich.)
> As for collectability; I have a gut feeling they
> will be highly
> sought after. Enzo Ferrari didn't build, or even
> design most of his
> cars, but they are the product of one man's
> philosophy. I can see,
> years down the road, people trying to collect one
> from each
> builder. And telling the uninitiated, "I get asked
> that a lot. But
> no, that really is the original fork."
>
> Mark Stonich;
> Minneapolis Minnesota
> http://mnhpva.org
> http://bikesmithdesign.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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