Complete Bike - YelloWolleY Presale Starts @ 12pm PST

For decades we avoided yellow bikes because I/Grant thought any yellow bike looked like -cheap Nishiki from the ‘70s. Jobst Brandt insisted on yellow because yellow shows cracks sooner than other colors; a bad reason to pick yellow. On drop bar bikes, it’s hard to pick a tape color that looks good. Maybe gray, but anything else looks too contrasty. I wonder how many people I’ve just offended. 

Then in 2024 or so, several of the guys here, even knowing how I felt about yellow, said we need a yellow bike. After my hidden bristling subsided, I looked at yellow differently. It may not be the way you look at it, but this is how we ended up with the YelloWolleY (YWY) — 

Most modern bikes try so hard to look serious, and that means gray, black, charcoal, anthracite, and sometimes white. When they vary, it’s often neon orange or green. They seem to go out of their way to avoid looking pretty or fun. Our normal color palette is great, but it’s one classy color or pretty color after another, with lots of blends and softness. The dark gold and oranges spice it up a little, but YELLOW is in its own category. It seems to anti-bland that I really like it now. It helps to have a warm yellow and nice graphics.

The YWY is an all-purpose pavement bike, with “light trail” capabilities. Like 90 percent of our bicycles. It costs way less than our other models because

1. It’s available only as a complete bike, and is assembled by pros who do nothing except assemble bikes, so the assemblies are consistent and less expensive. We specified all the micro-parts details-cable housing color and length and routing, etc. And we picked all the parts, the tubing, designed it from head to toe…
2. The head tube is TIG-welded, like CLEM’s, and the head tube is the same yellow as the rest of the frame, so the painter didn’t have to mask it off.
3. Our margin is less, because we want to get it out there.

If a Platypus costs too much, get a YWY. It rides 100 percent as well. It’ll last as long. Because it’s yellow, it’s even cheerier and less likely to be stolen. The overall vibe is that of an old cheap bike, but it is made to the same standards—design, structural, other—as all Rivendells. It is the best deal we’ve got—whether it’s your first Rivendell or your fifth, you’ll ride it a lot and never wish you were on anything else.

Here's what's included:

• Heat treated Nitto Albatross bars - 55cm wide
• Nitto stems - 60mm Tech Deluxe for the 45 and 49cm frames and 80mm Tallux for the 53 and 57cm.
• Silver bar end shifters - these allow more of a grip in front of the brake levers
• 38/28 Silver3 cranks. 167mm for 45 and 59cm, and 170mm for the 53 and 57cm.
• Sunrace 9 speed 11-36t cassette
• Skeleton key front derailer
• OM-1 rear derailer. Both derailers are supremely functional
• RBW Silver hubs - regular cartridge bearing hubs. 
• Alex DM21 rims. We ordered them without any branding except for a small sticker at the seam. The wheels are built by St. Jump, the best wheelbuilders in Taiwan.
• Kenda Kwick Drumlin tires - 650b x 50mm for the 45cm and 700c x 47mm for the 49, 53, and 57cm.
• 837AL Tektro V-brakes. Mark prefers these over some fancier models.
• Tekro RS360 levers. 
• FSA Duron headset
• Shimano cartridge BB - 113mm length
• Nitto S65 posts

No pedals, no grips, and no saddle included, but we sell some great options if you don't already have some you like.

Relevant specs:

• 135mm rear wheel spacing
• 27.2mm seatpost
• 28.6 FD clamp
• 68mm BSA BB shell
• V-brake mounts
• June 2026 geometry here

Important:

These preassembled complete bikes require a mechanic for the final assembly. If you're taking it to a bike shop, or you're confident you can do it yourself (the checklist is linked here), pick the "I'll arrange the final assembly" option on the dropdown menu above and we'll ship your bike pronto. If you want us to go over the bike and get it all ready to go, pick one of the other two options. Note though, that we'll ship the DIY bikes first, so if you need it quickly, go that route.

Sizing:

PBH ranges:
45cm - 68 to 75 cm
49cm - 73 to 81 cm
53cm - 79 to 87 cm
57cm - 82 to 92 cm