Bicycle tourists are an enigmatic lot. Hours in the saddle, enduring the elements, witnessing spectacular vistas without the encumbrance of a roof or engine noise and lots of fresh air will naturally produce some real characters.
Give them a marque named Rivendell and it won’t be any wonder it’ll garner a cult following.
This has to be one of the most immaculate Rivendells I’ve encountered. There’s not a component out of place, and there are even some embellishments that while not necessarily the most functional, only serve to complete an already luxurious tourer.
Woodys Fenders will resist water damage as well as any de rigueur fender (anything with four coats of high-quality Marine grade polyurethane will) and are the bicycle version of a walnut dashboard.
A 14-speed Rohloff / Paul Components drive train is about as classy and mechanically perfect as one can get, and lace the hubs to bronze Velocity Chukkers and you’ve got rolling randonneuring beauty right there.
The front hub is a Schmidt dynamo and will provide the necessary illumination for when an ill-timed puncture will postpone the estimated time of arrival past sundown.
Schwalbe Marathon rubber should prevent that, though, they’re some of the hardiest tires on the planet. The Nitto stem, seat post and racks are a garnish on this already perfect bicycle.
The now-discontinued Hunqapillar has a second top tube for added rigidity (like most of the larger-sized Rivendells), and that’s only an opportunity to indulge oneself with an extra set of those gorgeous Rivendell lugs.
On their website, Rivendell remarks that a fool will buy a bike for the head badge. In that case, I’d be a fool if I could have a bike with that head badge in my stable. According to Grant from Rivendell, Hunqapillar sounded an appropriate name for a woolly mammoth. Though whether the woolly mammoth came first or the Hunqapillar is a question only Grant could answer.
Why don’t you give him a call and ask him while you order your own, so you can become a member of the proudest cult of bike owners on the planet?
PS: There’s more shots of the Rivendell Hunqapillar in the The Spoken Facebook Photo Albums, but head over to Devil.Bunny’s flickr stream for more photographic documentation of his mechanical tinkering.
