The frame is a Ti mountain bike that I made custom for Laurie in 1994, when I worked at Ti
Cycles. Since it was custom for a light rider, I used tubing that was both smaller diameter
and thinner wall than normal, so the frame is very light and pleasingly flexy, proportional to
Laurie’s size and weight. She finds most production frames too stiff.
It originally had a suspension fork and it was set up like a normal mountain bike. She got a
couple years use out of it before it got stolen out of our garage; then another couple years
passed and we got the frame back – found it for sale at a local bike shop! All the parts were
gone, so building it back up to be a MTB would have been expensive, plus Laurie had gotten
another MTB to replace the stolen one, and didn’t need another, so we stashed the frame in the
basement and pretty much forgot about it.
Recently I got the idea of building it up as a “sport-utility” bike, a do-anything bike that is
light and fast but can carry loads and handle rough-stuff.
I found the fork (from a Bridgestone MB-1 I think) for sale used at Recycled Cycles, dirt cheap.
Laurie’s going to ride it and make sure we like it before we decide whether to redo the
hacked-up paint or not. Recycled Cycles also supplied the top-pull triple front derailleur for
1-1/8” seat tube, a somewhat rare part, for like $5 I think. Many of the parts are from
Laurie’s old road race bike from the ‘80s, mostly Dura-Ace 7400. Check out the early Dura-Ace
“aerodynamic” brake levers. I had some wheels lying around, and the nice new-old Avid
Tri-Align brakes were picked up for a song at a swap meet. The only things we had to buy
retail are the seatpost and handlebar stem, the cranks and the sweet Compass 26 x 1.75” tires.
So overall a pretty cheap project so far.
The bike as shown in the photos weighs 21 lb. (~20 lb. with a regular front wheel with no
generator hub), but it’s going to get heavier – we’ve got VO aluminum fenders, front and rear
racks, maybe baskets, F&R lights and a kickstand to put on. So it’s going to be a very fancy
grocery-getter and commuter for the time being – with a big heavy lock! But it’s nice to know
she can strip it down to have a sporty gravel grinder too.
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