Rivendell Bicycle Works is a producer of lugged steel

Lugged steel frame construction

Lugged steel frame construction is a method of building bicycle frames using steel tubing and sockets, called lugs. For most of bicycle's history steel has been the primary material for bicycle frames, with lugged construction the primary assembling method...

 bicycle frame

Bicycle frame

A bicycle frame is the main component of a bicycle, on to which wheels and other components are fitted. The modern and most common frame design for an upright bicycle is based on the safety bicycle, and consists of two triangles, a main triangle and a paired rear triangle...

s, located in Walnut Creek

Walnut Creek, California

Walnut Creek is an incorporated city located east of the city of Oakland. It lies in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. While not as large as neighboring Concord, Walnut Creek serves as the business and entertainment hub for the neighboring cities within central Contra Costa...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Rivendell produces stock and customized frames. Rivendell frames are designed in the U.S., with manufacturing of stock frames in the United States, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, and Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

. Custom frames are made in the U.S.

Grant Petersen

Grant Petersen

Grant Petersen is a bicycle designer and the founder of Rivendell Bicycle Works. He was U.S. marketing director for Bridgestone Cycle , Inc...

, who, while in charge of American marketing and bicycle design at Bridgestone

Bridgestone

The is a multinational rubber conglomerate founded in 1931 by in the city of Kurume, Fukuoka, Japan. The name Bridgestone comes from a calque translation and transposition of ishibashi, meaning "stone bridge" in Japanese....

, developed the XO-series, founded Rivendell in 1994.

History

Petersen worked from 1984 to 1994 on bicycles and catalogues for the U.S. division of Bridgestone Cycle, Japan's largest bike maker. Bridgestone closed the U.S. office after 10 years when the dollar-to-yen exchange rate fell. Petersen, then 40, started Rivendell with $89,000 of retirement money, savings, loans, and stock. The company worked from a garage for two years. It now has 5000 square feet (464.5 m²).

The name came from the mountaineering equipment company, Rivendell Mountain Works (RMW), which took its name from the fictional refuge

Rivendell

Rivendell is an Elven outpost in Middle-earth, a fictional realm created by J. R. R. Tolkien. It was established and ruled by Elrond in the Second Age of Middle-earth...

 in The Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...

. Several of their products have Tolkien-derived names; it is not known what arrangement they have with the Tolkien Estate

Tolkien Estate

The Tolkien Estate is the legal body which manages the property of the late J. R. R. Tolkien, including the copyright in his works. The individual copyrights have for the most part been assigned by the Estate to subsidiary entities such as the J.R.R. Tolkien Discretionary Settlement and the...

, if any.

The first custom frames were built by Waterford Precision Cycles

Waterford Precision Cycles

Waterford Precision Cycles is a small bicycle manufacturer based in Waterford, Wisconsin. Waterford produces high-end, custom, hand-built, steel-alloy frame bicycles, particularly road, criterium, stage, track, and cyclocross racing bicycles, that range in price from about $2,500 to $8,500...

. Later frames were built by Joe Starck, then by Curt Goodrich and Mark Nobilette. Currently, Mark Nobilette is the only custom builder of Rivendell frames.

S24o

s24o is an abbreviation for sub-twenty-four-overnight, a style of bicycle camping promoted by Grant Petersen of Rivendell Bicycle Works as an easy way to spend more time outside on a bike. Unlike conventional touring, the s24o encourages going on short (sub twenty-four hour) camping trips. The logic being that if it is short and uncomplicated, it is easier to arrange and easier to make happen. Typically this happens on bicycles and only necessary gear is brought.

External links

• Rivendell Bicycle Works
• The Rivendell Reader
• Grant Petersen interview on BikeRadar.com
• First Ride: Rivendell Bombadil
• First Look: Rivendell Roadeo steel club racer
• Jack Brown tire review on BikeRadar.com