Brian’s Bike History
Here Goes!
The catalysts for my introduction to cycling were two: First, in the waning twilight of my storied adolescent roller hockey career, my sister accidentally got stuck with a subscription to Mountain Bike magazine. Being a bit of a wannabe athlete (whose potential for success in team sports was cashed by age 12), I was interested, and quickly began devouring the issues and hoping the accidental subscription wouldn’t run out. That same summer, I spent a couple weeks in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula with my friend Steve, and we ventured deep into the mosquito-ridden woods on some sketchy K-Mart “mountain bikes” that were at hand. The wooing was complete by this stage, and when I returned home I started talking about getting a bike. To tide me over, my brother-in-law gave me his old Free Spirit 12 speed, complete with splatter paint and rusty chain. I rode it often and hard, eventually destroying the bottom bracket and most everything else.
By the next summer I had saved enough money to get my first “real” bike: a 1997 Gary Fisher HooKooEKoo in “Bloodshot Red” – I still remember the catalog pictures. Those were the days when you could get a Made in the USA, triple-butted cromoly steel hardtail for $700. That bike received about twice its purchase price in garishly colored, usually ill-advised upgrades, but served as my introduction to bicycle maintenance and mechanics, and went with me on my first mountain bike trip: Vail, during a high school summer.
In the winter of 2000, I got my first bike shop job at the same store (American Cycle and Fitness, Walled Lake, MI) that sold me the HooKooEKoo (as well as some of those ill-advised upgrades), and quickly began looking for fresh (bike) meat. I eventually decided on a 2000 Trek 8500 hardtail, with a RockShox SID XC, mostly XT parts and a (gasp!) XTR rear derailleur. The need for upgrades never leaves, however, so I soon replaced the stock wheels and V-brakes with a set of disc compatible wheels and first generation Hayes hydraulic disc brakes – 22mm chainstay mount and everything. The bike was stiff as anything and fast, fast, fast, and got ridden all over, including my only trip (so far) to Moab, as well as some more Colorado riding.
You’ll have to excuse me at this point if I wander, for the order becomes a little less clear in my memory. I got a Surly 1×1 the summer before college from a coworker. It was too big for me, but was a more than adequate introduction to singlespeed trail riding. I also got a LeMond Poprad cyclocross bike, again a nice made in the USA steel bike. I had been toying with the idea of a road bike since getting the shop job, but thought that ‘cross would be a gentler introduction to the skinny tired side of cycling.
For the next few years, most of my bike acquisitions/separations took place during the summers that I worked at the shop in Walled Lake. I worked at a shop at college, also, but it sucked and I never got a bike there. I kept upgrading the 8500 (again, garishly), sold the HooKooEKoo (sigh…), sold the 1×1 (oh well, it never fit), and got an On-One Inbred SS. This was a bit nicer of a dedicated singlespeed, mostly since it fit me, and I outfitted it pretty well (Race Face Turbine LP cranks, Avid Single Digit Ultimate v-brakes and levers!), but sold it a while after another getting an old Cove Stiffee frame. Cove is a Canadian company with a penchant for inappropriate names, but their bikes are great and I ended up keeping the Cove for quite a long time. I was also finally able to restrain myself from hanging obnoxiously colored parts all over it, and it went through lots of different iterations, singlespeed more often than not. The best change made to the bike was when a coworker at ACF put a piece of electrical tape over the top part of the “C” to make the decal say “Love.”
After college I crashed the LeMond Poprad on a road ride during a trip to Colorado, and although it was still rideable, I just couldn’t really do it anymore, so I let it drift slowly out of my possession (a friend ended up buying it). I also decided to go all the way with my pavement interests, and got a Project One (custom parts and paint) LeMond Sarthe road bike with Campy Chorus and some stupid, expensive, fancy Campy wheels that I got rid of pretty quickly and replaced with my first set of handbuilt (by me) wheels. This bike saw the fewest component changes and most miles of any bike I’ve ever owned, until I moved with it to Denver in 2007. It rolled along happily and made me faster, and I think it may also be to blame for my continued aversion to leg hair.
Somewhere around this time I got my first fixed gear, a Surly Steamroller that I built up with some more handbuilt wheels, ridiculously nice parts and little common sense. I never looked at the geometry chart before ordering the frame, so it was way too big for me, but I rode it a fair amount before selling it. I also got my first and second BMX bikes since childhood when a couple of my friends from the store were looking for something to do during the winter and found an outlet in a local skate park. None of us were any good, but it was fun and a good way to pass the dreary months (there was also a bar next door). I got a blue Haro, rode it for a while, then Shawn decided to get a bike too and liked the blue one, so I sold it to him and got the one I really wanted (for no real reason): another Haro, the Nyquist R1, I think. We all ended up selling our BMX bikes over the summer anyway, and the next winter we just rode our mountain bikes in the skate park.
My interest in cyclocross bikes (not racing them, just riding them on trails) returned when someone I knew got an early ’90s Ritchey Swiss Cross frameset and it didn’t really fit him. It was steel, green and lovely, and rode like a dream, but I couldn’t leave well enough alone with the setup. Combined with the scanty 30mm tire clearance, I just gave up on it eventually. So instead, I got a 29″ wheeled singlespeed mountain bike. 29ers had been around for a while by this point, and I’d even sold a few, but hadn’t ridden one myself. Based on the Surly Karate Monkey, but lighter and handbuilt by Michigan builder Scott Quiring, the Q-Ball is another one of the bikes I shouldn’t have let go. Once again, with the setup I was shooting for esoteric and instead hit strange and uncomfortable, so after a season or so I sold it off. Somewhere in there I got a Trek Remedy 66 – a 6″ travel all-mountain bike which was loads of fun, but about 8 lbs. too heavy for southeastern lower Michigan trails. Between that and my singlespeed Love, I was basically never appropriately equipped, but couldn’t have been happier.
I got an old Falcon San Remo road bike from a new coworker one of those summers after college, and converted it to a fixed gear in the worst way possible (I won’t mention details – Salvagetti doesn’t do rigs!). Richard and I flirted with the idea of doing a fixed gear century, but ended up putting freewheels on instead. It’s hard enough, even with coasting. The Falcon had tubular rims, so I got some nice wide Tufos with a low profile diamond tread that you could run at about 60 psi – a dream on dirt roads, though I’d never want to mount them again.
From the same coworker, I got a 1974 Schwinn Paramount track frameset after expressing some interest in riding the Velodrome at Bloomer Park in Rochester Hills, MI – a short, tight, steeply banked affair similar in dimension to the new Boulder track. I didn’t ride it there much, and it actually became my commuter bike when I moved to Denver.
The last few months before the move were another flurry of comings and goings: I sold the Remedy, for basically no good reason, got a 2007 Gary Fisher HiFi Deluxe 5″ travel trail bike and built up a Trek Session 77. Yes, I was still in Michigan, but closeout pricing is enough of a reason for a bike junkie with semi-disposable income to get a 7″ travel freeride bike. Once I got to Colorado, with no more disposable income, I sold the Session and rode the HiFi for a while before eventually selling it, too. I rode the Falcon or the Sarthe around town and on longer rides until my parents shipped the Paramount here, and then I set it up as a sensible commuter, playing around with different bars before settling on some upright touring bars that make you feel like Mary Poppins. My wife named it Ruby. At some point, the rocky terrain pushed me past the limits of tolerance of the Cove’s (Love’s) harsh feel and small wheels, so I turned it into a fully rigid ‘69er as a last ditch effort before abandoning it altogether and landing on a Jamis Exile 29″ SS (fittingly named Seamus). One of my favorite bikes ever. For my first Colorado winter I built up another SS 29er, a Kona Explosif (Kate’s sobriquet for this one was Fezzik) with fat tires and full fenders for the snowy days. It didn’t last much past the winter, unfortunately.
During my second summer here, I sold my car and got a Surly Big Dummy (named Wynona). Compared to the suburbs of Detroit, Denver is bike heaven, and with a commute of less than a mile and dozens of great destinations within 5, I just didn’t see the point of keeping the car around. The Big Dummy is usually overkill, but sometimes it’s blissfull salvation. Two extra bikes? Ok. A wife on the back? Why not? I carry my dog to work in one of the side bags every day, and couldn’t be happier to be car free.
I also finally got rid of my LeMond Sarthe and satisfied my curiosities about carbon with a 2009 Giant TCR Advanced 1 (Beatrice). 16 lbs! It’s about 3 lbs lighter than my steel bike was when it had SRAM Red on it, and it’s also stiffer and rides smoother. I think I’m screwed; I can’t imagine going back now.
The Exile also had to go, but to a great home: I sold it to Hannah, who needed a mountain bike and a heavy duty winter commuting bike. Before I let it go, I made it a 3-speed in a characteristically unconventional way that works (kind of) great – just ask Hannah.
And with the Exile gone, I had room (and need) for a new mountain bike, and finally got the one I’ve been eyeing for quite some time now – a Maverick Durance (Woodsley, although the Maverick-given serial name is, unfortunately, Goober). It’s gone through a couple iterations already, and is now a singlespeed with 140mm of rear travel, 100-130-160mm adjustable front travel, and an adjustable height seatpost. It’s about the most versatile setup I could think of, and so far it’s been great, but we’ll see what the summer brings.
That just about brings me up to date. I just got a Surly Long Haul Trucker (nameless so far) from Phillip (our new mechanic), for which I have several plans (none of which involve derailleurs), and I’ve got a newly redoubled hankering for a 29er SS hardtail. We’ll see where it goes from here.