I’ve been riding my Rivendell Atlantis since December of last year (2018), so feel qualified to give it a long-term review. I’ve ridden it for hundreds of miles—short and long road rides, gravel rides, steep climbs, long descents, mixed rides, rough singletrack, loaded overnights, and a multi-day loaded tour. I have experimented with various packing configurations and have my preferences based on those experiments.
Rivendell describes it as an all-rounder, in this way (rivebike.com):
The Rivendell Atlantis is what we’ve always called an All-Rounder. An Atlantis is as happy on the road as it is on fire trails, unloaded or heavily loaded. It’s not for roadie weight cred or upside-down downhill MTB tricks, but for folks who ride their bikes often and everywhere, generally carrying more than just a water bottle.
It’s an every day useful bike and your go-to touring bike.
My experience is that it is just that, a do anything, go anywhere adventure bike. It just feels good on just about any terrain that you would call a road, paved or dirt. Riding technical singletrack definitely pushes it’s limits, but can be done with the right tires and handlebars, and slowing down a bit.
It’s not lightweight, as in drop-bar plastic road bike, but it’s not a tank either. It certainly doesn’t look like a typical road bike, and thankfully doesn’t ride like one either. I do get comments, somewhat condescending, when I am riding the local canyons. For example, riding up South Fork Canyon, which is a very popular ride, I get comments from roadies, like, “nice job”, “almost there” etc. They look at the bike, assume it’s some type of beach cruiser, and that I’m some washed up old man lumbering up the road. Truth is, I’ve been riding these canyons since most of those people were in diapers. One day I was riding up to Guardsman’s Pass above Midway ( a 4000′ climb over about 8 miles) and along came a father and son on plastic road bikes. The dad commented, “wow, kudos to you.” I pretended like I didn’t know what he was talking about, and said something like, “yeah, what for?” He commented on my bike, so I gave him a short lesson on this high performance upright style bike. I asked them where they were coming from and they said, just down at the bottom of the hill in Midway. I told them I was coming from Provo. They were pretty astonished, and I told them it was only about 25 miles from there. I later passed them heading up the steep road.
With the upright bars, it is a very comfortable ride. After 35+ years of riding drop-bar bikes, I’m done with them and my back and shoulders are pretty happy about that. I have Bosco bars, the wide alloy ones. They took a little getting used to, but I like them quite a bit now. Every time I ride the Atlantis, after riding my other bikes, it just feels so good and comfortable. The only other bike that fits as well and is as comfortable is my Surly Pugsley, but that’s a very different kind of bike.
I originally stitched leather grips over regular gel bar tape, but I found that it was too slick on rough roads, so I wrapped cotton Neubaums over the gel for a little cushion, along with some shellac, and they have been quite comfortable.
I’ve been on five overnight trips on it, one in Winter, and a multi-day loaded bike tour. I have tried traditional rear loads with panniers, front load with low-rider panniers, front and back load, and full bikepacking mode with frame and seat packs and a handlebar roll. I have been riding mostly on Panaracer Gravelking tires (the slickish ones), 650b x 48mm. I also tried out some Kenda Smallblock 8 Pro 2.1″ tires. They were quite nice, but did rub on my front fender a bit. They would be an excellent choice if I was doing a mostly gravel tour. If you’ve read this blog in the past, you’ll know that I did a fairly modest build, and I’ve been happy with it. No frills, just solid and functional. You can see the build here.
On to a load of photos, with some comments.
I love being able to ride from my house on roads, head up a canyon, hit dirt and keep going. In the above two photos, I left from my house, rode up to Battle Creek Canyon, then took the Bonneville Shoreline Trail about 8 miles into Provo Canyon and back home. Lots of the trail was smooth and pretty flowing and that was fine. The loose rocky stuff was a bit more challenging. I could ride everything, but had to slow down and pick my lines more carefully. The slick Gravelkings were not great on the loose stuff.
Of all the packing configurations I have tried, I definitely like a rear load best, and it feels most stable on this bike. When I tried front panniers only, it felt very front heavy and not that stable. No surprise there as this is not a low trail geometry bike. The configuration above, with rear panniers, sleeping bag on top of the rack, a mid-size handlebar bag, top tube bag and a half frame pack was pretty ideal for a loaded tour.
I have been using the Road Runner Jammer Bag up front and like it quite a bit. It is not as convenient to get into it while you are riding, like it is on a traditional handlebar bag, but you can really stuff it with stuff. Once I was riding back from Midway, and stopped at a bakery. I bought a huge round loaf of bread that probably weighed 3-4 pounds, and it fit in the bag, though without being able to roll it down at all.
The Rivendell Atlantis is a wonderful bike and I have really been enjoying it. Is it a quiver killer? Maybe for some people, but it certainly can’t do what a mountain bike can on technical singletrack, and it will never replace my fatbike for riding in the snow, but for just about everything else, it’s ideal.
Into the Outdoors 
We are lucky to live in an area where the roads we ride are as beautiful as the Rivendells we ride them on. Great writeup, I look forward to doing lots of riding together over the coming months!
Nice write up, nice set up of the bike. Thanks for the idea for the hand grips. Is this the newer MIT model? Enjoy
Yes this is the MIT version, that I bought in December 2018.
I just happened on your blog while looking up something else Rivendell related, but I just had to share my empathy about the comments. I just rode a local century on my Rivendell, (which I have owned since I had it built for me in 2000, but I still find myself saying “It is NOT a vintage bike”). I’m surprised at the lack of diversity at the local century ride. I’m primarily a commuter, and not a “recreational” cyclist, so I turn up in my street clothes. I would expect that, say fifteen or twenty percent of riders would be on a variety of bikes and wearing non-lycra street wear. Nope. I’m pretty much it. Many of the people who pass me feel moved to say, “You’re doing great!” That leaves me wondering if they’re saying that because a) I’m on a vintage-looking touring bike b) I’m wearing Carhartts or c) They just say that to everyone. I ended up laying leapfrog with a lot of them, because I don’t spend much time stopping at the food stops. One guy who passed me a few times finally said, “I just want to say, I think you’re awesome!” That was weird. I thought later, I should have said, “I don’t know you very well, but I assume you’re awesome too.”