Bombadil

This is the page for my 52cm Bombadil which I bought off fellow Riv-lister Joe in autumn of 2020.

While I don’t know all its details for certain, I do know it’s a fairly early batch – when they still did two top tubes for the 52cm size, and they were using parallel top tubes rather than the diaga-tube which came in mid-production. Here is a photo from my very first ride on it, about 24 hours after it arrived.

The wheelset came with the frameset, and the rest were parts I already had laying around from my Clem Smith Jr (or in the case of the tires, from the Hillborne’s alter-ego build).

The very next ride on the Bombadil was over 50km of mixed terrain with quite a lot of technical singletrack, and a lot of elevation as well (including getting past the snowline!). A very ambitious “shakedown ride” in retrospect, but the bike performed great and I had no issues other than the bars rotating a bit in the stem from taking a couple drops.

Not long after this, the Bombadil received some fenders an an upgraded drivetrain. I also ordered up a new wheel set, going all-out with a SON and White Industries hubset and Cliffhanger rims. Thanks to the bike boom, it was six months before all the parts were received though. In that time I had countless adventures on this bike.

A particularly treacherous but exciting ride involved visiting Seymour Lake via my favourite loop, where the weather was snow- and frost-free before the valley but we were surprised with snow and ice, including a solid sheet of ice on the paved parkway back (for over 5 km!) due to a thaw-freeze cycle.

It has undergone some updates, including trying a Nitto Wavie bar in place of the MAP Ahearne bar, upgrade to some old XTR cranks, the addition of a Nitto Campee rear rack, and a small variety of tires.

The bike was disassembled in September 2021 for a fresh paint job by Chris Dekerf, and back on the road as of January 2022 with an assortment of new parts: Nitto Albatross bars, Pass & Stow front rack, and Rene Herse Umtanum Ridge tires wrapped in VO Fluted 63mm fenders.

The new paint was selected from a swatch, a pearlescent green with gold, which worked out beautifully. I didn’t expect the tires to work with fenders, but while the clearance was minimal, it was fine!

The build continued to evolve: the Albatross bars were swapped for Nitto Wavie with Ergon grips, which leaned into the ATB roots of the bike. Later, the Wavie bars were swapped for Crumbworks’ KT bars, which had a similar sweep but played better with a front bag and also had some rise so the stem didn’t need to be so high.

Above is the development ten months later – went back to 48mm tires (Ultradynamico Rosé, but also Cava mixed in sometimes) because the additional fender clearance helps, and the Pass & Stow rack ultimately felt like too much. The Bombadil feels best with only a modest front load, as close to the bars as possible.

Above was June 2022’s bike camping setup – still had the Pass & Stow, which worked great with the rack bag from Outer Shell and the big MUTs from Randi Jo Fab.

Below is an image from the Good Friday ride of 2023, where the Bombadil has taken on commuting duties as well as being the defacto adventure bike. As of mid-April, the Charlie H Gallop returned to my quiver and the Bombadil can be relieved of commuting duties.