Dawn of the Quickbeam Era

I've wanted a Rivendell Quickbeam pretty much since I first saw one maybe 15 years ago. I've filled the interim with a succession of cheaper replacements: my Cross Check, various vintage Treks, and lately my Black Mountain Monstercross. But here in the winter of discontent, I finally decided to take action. I put up a "WTB" ad on the Riv and iBOB lists, not expecting much response, but Howard from Virginia quickly responded with a 64cm for sale. Just my size. A deal was quickly made, my bike fund was even more underwater, and I finally had a Quickbeam in my garage.



I've hesitated over the years about getting a QB. To my engineer's mind, the Cross Check and Monstercross are technically better bikes: more versatile, more tire clearance, cheaper, readily available, with easier to use front facing dropouts. But there's no justifying desire. The Quickbeam just appeals to me: no derailer hanger for a geared backup, no wide mountain bike hubs to match the rest of my fleet... these aren't logical features, but that's fine. It's just a simple drivetrain:

V brakes are stronger, but these canti look great and stop pretty well:

I was thinking about running Albastache bars again for this build, but my new bike came with moustache bars on a nice high dirt drop stem. I'll run these and see how I like them. And they're twined! I've never gotten around to doing that on my builds.

The rear hub is a flip/flop, but bolted on, not the stock QB QR setup. This will work fine, since I rarely shift... though this may make shifting even more rare. I'll probably move the White Industries Dos freewheel from my BMC over to the Quickbeam, along with the low Q Ritchey cranks.

The tires don't seem especially supple, but at 20F, what tire is? The QB doesn't have the tire clearance of my CC or BMC, so I won't be able to fit my 44mm Resist Nomads + fenders. I may switch to Compass 38mm tires some day, after my bike fund recovers. That day is pretty far off.

I'm happy to find this bike is in such fine condition. It's almost like new, pretty amazing considering it was probably made in 2006. And there were only ever 100 orange Quickbeams made, making me feel even more fortunate.

The Sella Sanatomic saddle looks great, but I think I will changing it out sooner rather than later. My history with this saddle isn't so great. I can sell it to recoup some of my costs.

I took a short ride Saturday morning. I turned for home early when I started to worry about frostbite (mid teens, windy) on my exposed face, but then ended up taking the long way home. I just didn't want to stop riding.