Last summer Spencer got the opportunity of a lifetime: a steal of a deal on a Rivendell Hunqapillar from fellow contributor Tay. After years of lusting and building budget Riv-inspired builds, Spencer finally received the offer he couldn’t refuse. Read the whole story below…
Origins of a Dream
In the latter aughts, I was a young, fledgling mechanic working in a bike shop in downtown Long Beach. I was finishing my degree in photography at the time and had found my way into bikes through the nascent fixed gear boom. Through the aforementioned shop’s manager and Russ Roca, who at the time was a local photographer who worked via bike, I was introduced to Rivendell Bikes. I was instantly enchanted by the lugs and classic aesthetics, but when I told my manager that I hoped to one day own a Rivendell, he retorted, “You’ll never have a Rivendell, Grant doesn’t sell to hipsters.”
I felt despondent at what was then a catch-all jab, though I couldn’t really argue with him riding my brakeless fixed gear around at the time. I even found an old aspirational Tumblr post of mine saying One day I’ll have a Rivendell, which features a Hunqapillar. Prophetic. He was, of course, wrong about the whole selling to hipsters thing, or is it just to cult members? In the end, proving my old manager wrong was just icing on the cake to finally finding a dream Hunqapillar.
Summer Romance
Fast forward almost two decades, and I’m in Vancouver, BC, just after a two-week bike tour around the Olympic Peninsula. My old bud Sam Stewart encouraged me to make a stopover for a long weekend in BC post-bike tour, and I happily obliged. I sent my touring rig home to Tucson with a friend before heading to Vancouver, so I was bike-less, but a visit to see Tay led to a loaner Hunqapillar. I jumped at the opportunity to ride the dreamy rig. The year prior, an ensemble of Radavist staff came together to procure the Hunqapillar from a nice old man selling it in Albuquerque. He even had the original tag from the sale.
Tay lent me the Hunq for the weekend so I could pedal around with buds who were also mostly riding Rivendells. The sun was blazing, the beers cold, and the weekend flew by in a haze of treats and summer bliss. I was enchanted by the bike, the aesthetic, the feel, the warmth…