The Platypus is our most popular bicycle. Behind and beyond its superficial beauty is a bicycle that— in the best possible interpretation of this description—practically rides itself. It is supremely comfortable. No weight on your hands, no leaning forward in a manner you’ve been brainwashed into thinking is “proper” but in reality is wrong and hurts; and it's easy to control. It’s not a trail bicycle, but it fits tires to 50mm (2-inches) wide, so it’s good for smooth or rough roads, and “light trail” use, whatever you think that might be.
Like all Rivendell bikes, it has a longer than normal wheelbase. Like long surboards, long kayaks, long skateboards, and limousines, a long-wheelbase Platypus rides smoother than what you’re used to, unless what you’re used to is one of our other long-wheelbasers. If you have a “normal” bike, you’ll notice the improvement within 25 feet. If you haven’t been on a bike for years, you’ll won’t have anything to compare it to, so you'll think it's normal. It's not.
Also like our other bikes, the Platypus takes useful accessories like fenders, kickstands, racks, and baskets easily. We can put these on for you when you buy, or you can do it later yourself at home.
When you buy a complete, if some part or a couple of parts aren’t just right for you, we (1) Will wonder what you’re thinking, because the parts are really dialed; and (2) We’ll change them for you, but you pay the labor and we don’t buy the parts back from you (because we’ve already bought them once, and we can’t sell them as new if they’ve been on a bike).
But since a Complete is almost a thousand less than an a la carte build, you’ve saved enough to buy the extra stuff.
“Complete” is a small lie. We don’t include parts that you might already have, or that you want to buy separately because you erroneously think our offerings aren’t cool enough for you. The parts in question: Saddle, pedals, grips, kickstand.
These are for complete Platypus bikes, preassembled in Taiwan. They're coming with:
- 55cm Tosco bars
- Silver cranks in a unique 42/30 chainring combo
- Nitto Tallux stems
- Soma Shikoro tires on the 700c bikes, and Gravelking SS plus on the 650b.
- Silver Tektro V brakes
- Tektro RS360 levers
- Alex DM21 rims (narrower than the DM24s we've had on Clems. They're similar to the Velocity Atlas rim)
- 9 speed Silver Sunrace cassettes
- Novatech hubs
- Sunrace shifters and derailers
- No grips, no pedals and no saddle
BONUS: $25 from each Platypus frame sale and $50 from each complete Platypus sale will go to the Australian Platypus Conservancy.
We have framesets for sale too (or at least we do at the time of this writing) but these completes are easily a better value. An Antonio's pick Platty, for instance, costs a little under $3,700, and for that price you could get a preassembled-in-Taiwan $2,500 complete, have Rich build up a fancy, supplementary wheelset and still have money left over for bags and racks.
That's the magic of buying parts straight from the source instead of through distributors. The completes aren't as meticulously assembled as Mark, James, or Antonio would do it, but they're a good enough deal that paying to have a bike shop or a competent mechanic friend bring it over the finish line is easily worth it.
There's a video of these bikes in action here.
Can I add racks and fenders?
Yes but we won't be able to install them unless you're local and picking the bike up here, and there'll be a labor charge ($35 and $100, respectively) for each. Not having to take each bike out of the box and then re-box it is part of the lower price.
Kickstand?
No kickstand. Add a Pletscher from our site if you'd like one.
Relevant specs:
- 135mm rear wheel spacing
- 26.8 seatpost
- 28.6 FD clamp
- 68mm BSA BB shell
- V-brake mounts
- Geometry here
PBH Ranges:
| 50cm |
74 - 81 |
| 55cm |
82 - 87 |
| 60cm |
87 - 96 |
