Charlie H Gallop

I told the folks at Rivendell if they ever sold the silver Charlie prototype, I would love to buy it. The Charlie evolved into caliper brakes, which I wasn’t interested in, so this was quite literally the only Charlie H Gallop frame I was interested in. I also loved that it was silver, because that played perfectly into my plans for the bike: an ordinary looking commuter bike that rode like a dream and had an “if you know, you know” vibe about it.

Well, about 18 months after I sowed that seed, I got my opportunity – they decided to sell the v1 prototypes when the v2’s arrived, and they called me to offer me the bike!

However, I missed that phone call. And I missed that they had called altogether.

A few days later they listed it on the “garage sale” section of their web store and a blessed stranger on Instagram DM’d me to tell me it was on the site. I didn’t even get this message for about two hours – but when I frantically navigated to the web shop, there it was, still available. I think I stared for less than two seconds before clicking ‘add to cart’ and calmly but quickly checking out to make sure I didn’t lose out.

A few minutes later, Will’s email update went out – and mention that it sold while he typed the description for this bike was included. If that email had gone out before I bought, well, I wouldn’t have had the chance to buy it. Serendipitous if you ask me!

It came “as is, where is” with a build that wasn’t exactly what I had planned, but had a lot of very good parts. It had the saddle I would have bought for it anyway, already included. It had the right length crank arms. The tires are basically ideal for my purposes. I swapped some parts from my Bridgestone and parts bin, and I was almost where I wanted to be already.

It’ll evolve a bit more before finding its final form, but I’m pretty darn confident that when it gets there, it’ll be a bike I don’t fuss with often. And hopefully, it’ll be a bike I ride a lot. I plan to commute 100+ days a year on this bike, 32km each day. That will add up!

In summer of 2022 I bought a Brompton, which served perfectly as a commuter especially since I could either ride the whole way, or take the train part way to work. It largely overlapped with the Charlie, and the Hillborne overlapped on the other end of the spectrum. So in November 2022, I sold the frameset with select parts to a friend.

In April 2023, I bought it back, having realized my mistake (and changing jobs that resulted in a long, hilly commute without a train option). I built it back up similar to before, but with a few differences – and I think it’s better than ever!

Comically, I once again sold it in July 2023, this time to someone in Oakland CA. The reason for the (second) sale was because ultimately the Crust Wombat won the battle for the final available spot in my quiver.

My 700km review of the Charlie can be found here. In the end I had put just over 1500km on it, and certainly loved every bit of it. If I had the space I’d have kept it, but alas.

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