Ended up selling the motorcycle, the Surly Krampus, and the red DJ bike recently, all bikes that I just did not ride as much as I wanted to. The motorcycle especially was struggling in storage, the fuel (despite being treated) was not aging well and the bike was getting hard to start. It needed someone who would ride it.
However, silver lining, with these bikes gone, I had room to build more bikes.
Starting with this one, the most successful basket/townie bike yet:
Scored a really cheap Marin Four Corners frame to use as the base for this. Covered up all the frame logos with stickers, including a large black reflective vinyl for the downtube (to increase visibility on the street). This frame is supposed to be a drop bar tourer/gravel/adventure bike, but it has a longer reach than is standard for a similar drop bar bike of its size, which means it works well for a flat bar conversion.
This Marin frame also generally is a bit more heavily built, with thicker tubing, which means it’s stiffer and should handle better when loaded down with some weight. This was the biggest issue with the previous Soma Wolverine build, which turned out to be a bit of a noodle when loaded down, just flexing everywhere.
I used an All-City Gorilla Monsoon fork, again another adventure bike. Comes with a 12×100 thru-axle, mounts galore, and again is more heavily built compared to the Wolverine. Plus, the aesthetic of curved fork blades is a nice little retro touch, I think.
This frame originally was meant for 700c gravel wheels/tires, but I ended up mounting fatter 650B Panaracer Gravel King tires with full fenders from Portland Design Works. The bottom bracket height is dropped maybe 1/2″ as a result, ending up at 10.5″. A little bit low, but not crazy low. On a casual cruiser like this one, it works, adds a bit more stability and ease of mounting/dismounting around town.
The wheels are some cheapish FSA set, but they came with end caps for 12×100/15×100/QR, 12×142/QR, which is super convenient for adapting the wheels to pretty much any older bike.
The cockpit consists of my old Brooks B17 Narrow saddle that I first acquired all the way back in college, with Soma Dream handlebars cut down to 760mm. These bars have a nice rise and swept back position for a comfortable and upright riding posture.
Brakes and drivetrain are nothing special, more or less a parts-bin mash-up of Hayes MX-2 mechanical disk brakes, Avid FR-5 levers, SRAM Rival rear derailleur, NX 11-42T 11-speed cassette, SRAM S700 shifter, Shimano Deore 30T crankset, Race Face Chester pedals.
The accessories and rack/basket/bag setup really work well together this time. Swift Zeitgeist bag with a Carradice Bagman cradle, Tumbleweed T-rack on the front with a Wald 137 basket, Outer Shell stem bag, and two King Cage titanium cages with Voile straps to accommodate massive water bottles, or anything else that needs to be strapped in. There’s a little trailer mount on the left side of the rear axle too, for pulling a small cargo trailer if needed. And can’t forget the kickstand! A Pletscher two-legged thing that all folds up to the left side of the bike. It’s really nice to be able to have the bike stand on its own to load without the front basket flopping to one side.
This is the first bike that has really felt comfortable to ride while fully loaded down with a bunch of weight in the front and the back. The front end is actually stable, and the bike doesn’t flop around everywhere. I may keep this one.
The next bike is a move towards the opposite side of the spectrum, somewhat:
Scored a Felt ZW C frameset for what I thought was a decent deal, wayy cheaper than any modern carbon road bike frameset. It’s technically a women’s frame, but what is gender, anyway? The color scheme is simple and looks nice, and I’m a smaller person.
Used a bunch of leftover parts, combined with some select new ones. It’s got a Hunt gravel wheelset with Continental GP5000 700x25c tires set up tubeless, TRP Spyre Brakes, SRAM 1x Force/Rival/Apex drivetrain with a 9-42T Leonardi Racing cassette, and a mixed parts bin cockpit. The stem is super short, but this is mostly just me not liking the super long and laid out positioning on road bikes, I prefer to be a little more scrunched up with bent elbows to get low and aero.
Came out to just over 18 lbs. wet, without any particularly lightweight parts on it. Should be pretty fast.
The next build is more just a slight modification to the Velo Orange Neutrino, swapped the Soma Clarence handlebars for the even more casually swept-back Soma Oxford. I just like being comfortable, these days. Then added some blingy pedals, the SimWorks Bubblys, which have a slick quick-detach system, keeping in line with the bike being small and meant for ease of transport.
Lastly, of course after coming home for the holidays, the first thing I did was build the bike I shipped back home, in case I feel like riding in the middle of winter in Michigan:
Andrew Liu 