Sam Hillborne 2024 (demo bike check)
Hi guys, It’s Kari from Blue Lug Yoyogi Park.
I guess you can tell what this blog is about from the title.
The Sam Hillborne from Rivendell Bicycle Works from Walnut Creek has arrived.
They now have a new color available. How cool is that?
I was lucky enough to build a demo bike for Blue Lug Yoyogi park, so I will be writing about the bike.
Let’s get into the frame colors first.
Periwinkle, the new color.
A periwinkle is a name of a flower, in case you didn’t know.
A flower inspired frame color sounds very lovely.
Here’s what the actual flower looks like.
In Japan, we have this thing called a “Hanakotoba”, which means language of flowers.
It is the Japanese form of the language of flowers. The language was meant to convey emotion and communicate directly to the recipient or viewer without needing the use of words.
Basically, we have a specific word that represent each flowers.
The Hanakotoba for Periwinkles are “A happy memory” , “A eternal friendship” and more.
The new batch of Sam Hillborne is also available in Bronzey Green.
This color was used for the Cheviot and the first Gus Boots Wilsen we ever got.
Both colors are beautiful. I hope this doesn’t give you a tough time deciding which frame color to get.
There is a minor change to the frame from this batch.
The new Sam has down tube shift bosses, which is huge in my opinion.
You can now adjust the inner cables easily or have a W lever set up…and so on. My imagination don’t stop!
Ok, so let’s go through the demo bike I built.
*Rivendell* Sam hillborne / “periwinkle” size54
The theme of this bike is “Everyday Hillborne”
I wanted someone to ride this bike as their first bike.
Here are some descriptions of the Sam from the RBW website.
“The Sam is a versatile road and light trail bike. Everything that makes it a great touring bike also makes it a great commuter, camper or all-rounder. The Sam is equally a great bike for a carrying food and camping gear and clothing around.”
It’s a bike that you can ride daily, but also a bike that you can go try out riding gravel, or even go on a tour if you get interested in that sort of stuff. I thought this practicality is what makes Sam the OG all-rounder, when I was building this bike.
Basically, this bike is more capable, more than you imagine.
Albastache bars. One of my highly recommended Nitto bar.
I’ve had it on my Homer Hilsen, which I ride everyday for a while and I never got tired of it.
When I say “never get tired”, I mean this since the handlebar is a multi-position bar.
This bar is not a chiller sweepy bar. It’s actually more of a forward position bar with a slight uprightness, if that makes sense.
Oh, and most importantly, they look sick.
“ALL WEATHER: Easily fendered. Can the “gravel bike” you’re considering fit fenders? How about racks?”
Yes, what they (Riv) said. Full fender-ready, a must for an “Everyday Bike”.
I want people to ride in the rain too, or more like, I want people to enjoy riding in the rain. A bike you ride everyday should be comfortable and stress free.
It’s still got plenty of tire clearance even with fenders, which is a huge deal in my opinion. The tires I chose for this build are none other than Ultradynamico tires. Rose for front, Cava for rear.
制動を司るブレーキにはやっぱり安心感が欲しいしリムブレーキだからこそブレーキには妥協なく、信頼と実績のPaulを。
美しいポリッシュの仕上げがフレームカラーを引き立ててくれてるし全体もキュッと引き締めてもいるいい仕事っぷり。
One more shot of the whole bike.
I still have a ton of stuff I want to write, but don’t want this post to be too long, so I’m cutting it here.
I will say though, the Sam feels sturdier than the Homer, but still feels supple and also very responsive. I really liked how it rides.
The 2024 Sam Hillborne frame will go live on the webshop on June 24th (Mon) at 7:00 p.m.
Bye!
Kari
