I’ve always had a hate/love relationship with Grant Peterson. I love him cause he helped kill off the ridiculous Biopace chainrings back in the 80s. Some of you may remember Bridgestone’s MB-2 ads proclaiming “round chainrings!” Yes! Sweet! However, Grant’s dislike of Shimano caused him to spec a lot of weird crap on his bikes, and I regularly cursed his name while building up Bridgestones back when I was a lowly wrench in bike shops. The Giants and Treks went together easily, while those B-stones with their crappy Suntour derailleurs, Ritchey cantis and crummy wheels were a pain in the ass. I think Grant was the last person on the planet to switch to the Shimano cartridge BBs. Anyway, I wasn’t sorry to see B-stone go away, and find it humorous that they have such a following today. Yes, the catalogs were cool and the colors were cool and lugs are cool and the X0 bikes were cool but for the most part Bridgestones were inferior to the garden variety Giants and Treks from the same era. Continue reading…

Flash forward to Rivendell and the whole retrogrouch thing. I guess I’m gettting old cause some of it is actually starting to make sense to me. I haven’t been converted to Grant’s upright riding position and I’m not going to shellac my bar tape. Still, I can’t believe I just ordered friction shifters. But I got tired of waiting for some decent 8 speed DT shifters to show up on eBay. Also, I’ve been wanting to try Jack Browns out ever since I saw them on Andy Hampsten’s bike. I’ve ordered Phil hand cleaner from him in the past–it’s great stuff and I couldn’t find it locally so I stocked up and ordered two tubs. Anyway, look for reviews of all these products in the coming weeks.

In the meantime here’s my review of Rivendell as an online retailer. I ordered on a Monday and got an immediate e-mail notification. It got shipped UPS ground Tuesday with another e-mail notification and it arrived at my house on Thursday. Nice politically correct packaging.

Here’s what I ordered:

2 Jack Brown Greens at $46.00 each

1 Silver Shifters Downtube kit at $42.00

2 tubs of Phil Hand Cleaner at $8.00 each

Shipping was another $8 so the total was a whopping $158!!!

Web site design: A
Prices: C
Ease of ordering: A
Communication: A
Delivery time: A
Overall: A-