Yes, there is some sense of “ego affirmation” when someone you respect independently comes to the same conclusions as yourself.

Alan Barnard, the prolific photographer, blogger, and all around nice guy behind EcoVelo, has put into words and pictures his admittedly biased long-term review of his personal Rivendell Sam Hillborne. And we couldn’t agree more.

So rather than rehash his words and “borrow” his photographs (like the one above), we’ll let you read them for yourself:

http://www.ecovelo.info/2010/06/27/long-term-road-test-rivendell-sam-hillborne/

Thanks Alan for the affirmation … we’re not crazy for loving these bikes after all.

Well … it was such a shame to get to get our vintage Stumpjumper dirty, that we had to just keep on riding it through the muck, the mud, and the rain. But now that we’ve gotten over the “new car smell”, we can get down to the real reason for this whole process … enjoying a unique mountain bike.

Renaissanced 1983 Stumpjumper

Our Vintage Stumpy hits the trails. Like we said, we build unique bikes that are meant to be enjoyed. No trailer queens here!

6 Photos

As promised, here is our biased review of the bike:

The Big Picture

From the get-go, we wanted to create something unique.  Certainly, there are better performing mid-level off-the-shelf mountain bikes … but that is like comparing a one-off hot-rod to a Honda Accord.  Anyone can own and drive the sensible car (and most people do), but it takes a little bit of personality to own something special.

And like a hot-rod, this bike took a little getting used to.  Remember, this frame predates a lot of the characteristics of the modern mountain bike … it was based the demands of early mountain bikers, far before Downhill was a verb.  But overall, the bike is responsive, easy to ride — and well — a good mountain bike.

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