This is the first All-Rounder sold to anyone after Rivendell was founded in 1994. I paid $850 for it, a $100 discount because I was among the first to put down a deposit. As a surprise, the designer had an "extra" serial number added to the bottom bracket shell that include my initials, "AR" for All-Rounder, and "#1" because it was the first sold. I bought this bike because I had been sponsored by the Rivendell founder, Grant Petersen, when he ran Bridgestone Cycles USA and I wanted to show my support for his new enterprise. This was the first bike I'd bought in thirteen years as I'd been sponsored by one company or another between 1984 and 1994.

I didn't build this bike up, or ride it, until the fall of 1998 as it took some time to find all the parts I wanted to run on it. As soon as I assembled it, I flew to Seattle and rode from there to Mill Valley, CA in Marin County in a week. Although I primarily planned to use it off-road or combined trail/road rides, its initial configuration was very roadie: the components you see here, but with Scott Drop-In handlebars, the 8-spd shifters mounted on the down tube, Spinergy Rev-X wheels, and V-brakes. I found those wheels flexed too much and rubbed on the frame, I hated the drop bars off-road, the V-brakes worked terribly and had to be run VERY close to the rims, and it was darn near impossible to reach the down-tube shifters while riding off-road. As a result, I reconfigured the bike as you see it here, pretty much identical to its predecessor in my stable, a 1993 Bridgestone XO-1. I've been riding it this way ever since. The "in action" shots are from a week-long trip to Moab and The Maze in Canyonlands National Park in Utah in May 2003. Click any thumbnail to see it full-size, then scroll through with the arrows. For the component specs, scroll to the bottom of this page.