Liz's Purple Platypus

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Rivendells have been extra-popular this year! During their recent pre-order campaign before the Platypus frames arrived, a lot of people tried to get one, but they sold out within minutes. Liz was one of the disappointed hopefuls, but happily she reached out to us for one of the only remaining 50cm Purple Platypuses in North-America, and we were able to build her a dreamy bike.

Liz isn't new to Rivendells: she's been riding a Toyo-built Atlantis these last twenty years and it's had some serious mileage. At a certain point, though, some enhancements in comfort and elegance make it worth changing over. This build also has many more affordances for everyday convenience, such as the basket-rack combo and the dynamo lighting.

Among the spec was a build close to a typical current RBW and Blue Lug bike in terms of practicality and looks, respectively. Purple was the watchword on this project, with cotton tape finished with twine and coated in shellac as a signature look. The bike wouldn't have to be easily packable and haul massive touring loads for bike trips, but it would need to be able to carry things on day-trips and errands. Riding would be on roads, but super hilly ones. And, in Liz's words, "I sometimes consider a dynamo light system. It’s such a pain to get all the lights charged and hooked up". You're right about that one, Liz. Read on for the gorgeous-looking result!

For the hills, everyone agreed: a triple gets you up and down anything you'll want to climb. Our Bassi Triple Classic has a no-nonsense 46/34/24-tooth range (chosen to be compatible with basically everything). Using it with an 11-34t 8-speed Microshift cassette maxes out the derailer's capacity - that old favourite, the Shimano RD-M310. By the way, I think Liz's was the very last we'll ever have in silver, none of the local Shimano resellers have been able to get them for us this year, and you can forget about Shimano N.A. themselves. Why they don't want to make it anymore is baffling but that's the world we live in. Write your member of parliament or congressperson about it, I guess.

The purple Newbaum's cotton tape on the chainstay protects the thin steel tube from chain-slap. It's lightly shellacked for longevity and some UV protection.

Rivendell's new Silver hubs are simply excellent. Worth the price given how tricky it is to find silver rim-brake 135mm hubs these days, they of course include an internal-cam QR skewer, and the spacer so you can use an 8-speed cassette on the long 11-speed body. You wouldn't think the type of QR skewer is worth mentioning but this kind's surprisingly rare for non-Shimano hubs.

The rims are our SunRinglé CR18 Polished 650B: a rim that goes with almost everything and leaves room in the budget for other niceties. The front hub is a Shimano Alfine, an easy choice in affordable but long-lasting dynamo hubs.

Along with that drivetrain we've got the Silver2 friction shifters on thumbie mounts. Even people who've never shifted friction are impressed with them if they've got an open mind and a couple of kilometers to get used to them! Since friction shifters don't care about the housing's stiffness, we could use the same clear brake housing for the brakes and shifters.

The Shimano DXR V-brakes were a little upgrade from the simple Tektros we spec by default, and they are indeed a little nicer to set up. The matching levers are really comfortable and have reach adjustment for smaller hands or setting them up on a swept-back handlebar like this Choco on a Tallux stem. An all-Nitto cockpit is really the last word in subtly gorgeous parts that work great together.

Above, you can see the effect of shellacked Newbaum's finished with twine. This was about eight layers and some smoothing halfway - the cotton absorbs a lot of shellac for the first few layers. Future touch-ups won't use much product though, and will let the handlebars show plenty of honest beausage.

Here we've reached the most complicated-looking bit of the bike, with a rack, dynamo light, basket, and fenders all connected in the same 10cm area. Let's go through them:

1. Front dynamo: Busch+Müller's IQ-X is their flagship light. The lens design doesn't waste any power on illuminating things you don't need, only the road in front of you and further along, and it won't blind anyone on the road when set up right. That's the beauty of beam-shaping lenses.
2. Front rack: Made here in Montréal by Éliane, Ronny, and Aube at Memento Cycles from stainless steel tubing. These bike builders and designers weld their fantastic racks in-house, informed by their impressive history as bike messengers and cyclotourists. The Ant Rack is their extra-small just-as-strong model and is the right one to pair with a Wald 137 basket. Voilé straps connect the two securely, but you can use zip-ties if you prefer.
3. Connecting the light to the rack can be tricky but it becomes easy and clear with the Blue Lug-designed, Nitto-produced Lamp Holder Mod.7. It's deceptively simple and subtly perfect, and I frankly never want to install another light without one. They make it out of rack struts, it's my favourite new product of 2024.

4. The rear light is powered by the front, as are all modern dynamo lights. The cable runs along the rack, then jumps to the shift cable which it follows down the frame. A twist added to the electrical cable with a heat gun gives some slack, to allow the fork to turn, while allowing for some tension relief and keeping everything in place with small zip-ties.

The Herrmans H-Trace Mini, made in Finland, mounts to the seatstay or, as in this case, to the rear fender. It's a small but cleverly made light! This particular setup needs a lot of cable on a long bike such as the Platypus, since it goes inside the fender right by the bottom bracket and reaches all the way to the light on the rear. The cable's nicely hidden and tucked away from anything that could damage it, though.

5. It had to be Honjo fenders, didn't it? Liz wanted them lightweight so we suggested Honjo, she went further and wanted the hammered version, probably a good choice since they won't show the inevitable bumps and dings of everyday riding the way smooth ones would. There are already a few extra dimples smacked into them by yours truly to make them fit perfectly, but they're impossible to photograph: they just get lost in the hammered surface.

Having the fenders fall naturally into following the curve of the wheel radius they were made for means that they'll last as long as possible: they aren't being forced into a different shape and therefore aren't under stresses which could weaken the metal prematurely. That's the practical reason for an even and smooth fender line: the æsthetic reason should be self-evident.

As a special finish, we added a surprise Liz didn't specifically request but which was oh-so-right: as we were finishing the bike, our friend Peter was sewing us a batch of his Famous Fender Flaps and made an extra purple rear one just for Liz. Anyone riding behind her on wet roads will be thankful not to get a spray of water to the face!

Happy riding Liz, and thanks so much for trusting us to build you this beauty.

Photos and bartape by Simon