RIVENESSA

März 18, 2024

RIVENESSA

Vanessa's custom decathlon bike.

I call it the rivenessa cause it's vanessa's riverside and it reminds a lot of the rivendells! (coincidence?? I guess no.)

This is probably the cheapest new bike you can buy. What is nice, cause then there's a lot of money left to buy nice parts!! Vanessa got it for valentine's day since she's not able anymore to bent over on her road bike due to this little human that is now growing in her belly. I got the perfect deal at work (thanks jan) and was able to make her super happy with her new bike!

It wouldn't be us if we wouldn't customize the ish out of this bicycle. Vanessa's job was to spread nailpolish all over the bike and embroider the handlebar bags. Hundreds of little details are now part of the bike, making it a rolling piece of art.

And... to have it roll nice, I changed a couple of technical bits and pieces. Starting with proper platform pedals to get the intense power to the drivetrain (lol). I found an old brooks saddle where the pin was broken and restored it and brought it back to a new shiny finish. Together with an old promax seatpost, it makes for a very comfortable seating situation. For handlebars there could only be one choice... nitto, japan.

Another problem was the missing front derailer and with that, a far from perfect gearing. I fixed it with changing from a 34-11 cassette to a 40-11 mega range. Together with the acera rear derailer that had been on my rivendell in it's first life and the kmc 9 speed chain it was ready for some smooth shifting. But not without changing to friction shifting thumb shifting, made possible by rivendell shifters. Now this makes steep climbs possible even with the extra weight in the belly!

To top it off, we thought it was a good idea to mount tires that did cost more then the bike itself. All for a royal ride. The smoothest, best possible ride, that you can only get with ultradynamico tires.

Enjoy!