I’ve been admiring the wares of and purchasing stuff from VO now for over 15 years and I finally couldn’t resist leveling up into a VO bike owner. If we could have user flair here to describe what kind of VO customers we are, mine would probably be “Believes everything Grant Petersen of Rivendell Bicycle Works says BUT thinks disc brakes and through axles and normal-ish wheelbase lengths are okay, actually”. My riding style is that I like experiencing the world in a perfectly upright posture on top of a bike whose job I believe is to facilitate that experience while allowing me to mostly forget I’m even riding a bike because my hands don’t hurt, and my butt doesn’t hurt, and I sort of just feel like I’m me but gliding through the world somehow.

First Ride/Handling: Handling is great. I left the steerer tube of the fork full length and just slammed spacers until the stem and bars were all the way at the top. I don’t think I’m going to leave it that way but wanted to mention that the handling felt great even with the most ridiculous bar set up. My first ride started on the LA River path, and I ran into a guy on an older Polyvalent and he was like “cool bike”. I really appreciated him not making fun of my preliminary setup. Northeast LA may have the highest Polyvalent density outside of the VO warehouse based on pics in other reviews and my run ins IRL.

Build Quality: Great. I used to build bicycle frames, so I am picky when I look at welds and braze-ons and things being aligned just so, and everything on the frame looked terrific. I had a medium and a large at the same time so I could be really nitpicky and look for variations between the two and everything on both looked solid.

Build: I built it up with spare parts from a State All-Road and a Shimano Cues 9 speed shifter and derailer (RIP Sheldon Brown). Wheelset is 650b with Schwalbe 2.15 Marathon Green Guard tires that just barely fit without fenders, so the max tire size specs for the frame are right on in my experience. I put a Pletscher touring kickstand on today and that is a bigger tire clearance issue than the frame. I may open up the hole in the kickstand plate a few millimeters to the left to give my tire a tiny bit more clearance (or do nothing and let it sort itself out).

Frame sizing: Double check with and defer to the VO folks on this one, but I’d recommend going a size up from what their size ranges recommend (especially if you’re in the upper range of the range) UNLESS you’re going to be using drop bars. I started with a medium (I’m 5’ 9”) but ended up trading it in for a large. I think the most important dimension on the medium was right for my size (reach), but I feel like most people are going to use swept back bars, and using this sort of bar allows you to size up, which gives you less toe overlap, the space between top and down tube being less tight for your water bottles, and the stack height is higher for better bar position (with less spacers). Some guidance regarding riding a larger size frame on the Rivendell website (that I think applies here) said “These bikes are designed for upright, sweepy-back bars (Albatross and Bosco, for example), and the sweep-back gobbles up horizontal reach in huge mouthfuls”. I wouldn’t prioritize less toe overlap or more water bottle space or needing less spacers on your steerer tube over an appropriate reach, but with swept back bars you can have it all. VOs pictures of the Low Kicker are of a large and some reviews have pictures of a built up medium if you want to see how the different dimensions play out in the different sizes. No sizes are bad, just want to give my feedback on what size ended up working for me and my bar choice so you can get the appropriate size frame for your needs on the first try.

Conclusion: I love it and think that if you’re even considering it that you’d be very happy with it. Mine now has a front rack with the world’s largest milk crate attached to it, and I’ve lowered the bars by about 2-3”.

My favorite build ever, thanks for all the support thus far!!

I wanted a flatbar gravel bike for bad roads and easy singletrack. I have short legs, and having passed the age of Medicare, my once-impressive flexibility isn't what it was. For those awkward mounts and dismounts when that easy singletrack isn't quite as easy as I had thought it was, I wanted one with a relatively low standover height, 700 mm or less. (Curiously, both Marin and Salsa had several models that met my spec on their web sites, but they didn't seem to exist in real life - nobody could get one in stock in the Denver-Boulder area where there are approximately 83 million cyclists and 400,000 bike shops.)

The solution was to buy the Low-Kicker frame with its 600 mm standover and have a local bike shop (Treehouse Cyclery in Denver) build it for me with:

Shimano Cues 1x10 drive train, 40/11-48, 170 mm cranks
Tiagra mechanical disk brakes
Jones Loop handlebars
VO Sabot platform pedals

For now, I have Kenda Drumlin 27.5x1.75 tube tires, but they are sort of heavy and I may switch to wider tubeless tires some time.

After a dozen or so rides, I have things dialed in, and I'm pretty happy with it. I can't claim I have the expertise to judge that it's better or any worse than any other steel frame for comfort and handling, but it works for me.

A minor issue: on the size medium frame with 27.5x1.75 tires, you may find that your size 9.5 shoes hit the front fender if pedaling while cornering. (The center-to-center dimension from the bottom bracket to the front axle is shorter than on any of the five 26" or 700c bikes in our fleet.) For this reason, I got the sort of mud guard that clips to the down tube instead of a regular front fender. If you get the smallest frame and want fenders, consider building it for 26" wheels.

Right now my beautiful bike is at the bike shop getting built. Hopefully, it will be done this week. Can’t wait to go for a ride.

Nice geometry for the mixte version.
These were invented by the French firm MERAL. (https://forum.tontonvelo.com/viewtopic.php?t=11999)
https://cycles-meral.fr/lhistoire-de-meral/