Ron Blumethal's Saluki

Saulki Final Fit 1, originally uploaded by J Ferguson.

As a dyed-in-the-wool (so to speak) fan of Grant Petersen's approach to bicycles, owning a Rivendell has been a dream almost as long as I've thought about having Bill Davidson build me a custom.

At $5,000+, a Davidson is out of reach at the moment, and in any case, even if I had the cash, it would be premature to go that route. It probably makes sense to ride an excellent production bike at least 10,000 miles before even thinking about a custom. My preferences are likely to change and develop over the next few years of riding more.

The Rivendell Saluki was one of the few production road bicycles designed for 650b wheels that was made in my size, ~62cm. As far as I know, the only other options were the Rivendell Bleriot and the Kogswell P/R, both also no longer made.

I tried talking Estaban del Rio into selling me his Protovelo to no avail. I posted a WTB on the Rivendell list, and heard from Ron Blumenthal that he might be interested in selling his 62cm butterscotch Saluki, originally built up by John Ferguson.

Have a look at John Ferguson's original build, here.

The bike as Jeff built it had more of a classic/vintage feel than I would prefer (only because it feels too precious), but all of the components were beautiful and top notch. Ron has since switched out the brake levers for aero levers and installed Silver bar-end shifters. I like that direction. I'm not wild about the butterscotch color, but it's growing on me.

Ron and I are talking....