Old Bike Meets Old Trail

I've purchased two bikes in the last week or so (the Rockhopper, and a new Vaast A/1 that I will write about soon). So I certainly don't need to be be checking FB Marketplace, but there I was Friday, checking again, and came across this ambiguously labeled ad:

But I could see it was a Zizzo Liberte, a lightweight folder that normally costs about $400. I hesitated a moment or two, but I couldn't pass up the price, and so found myself on Saturday morning driving down to Cincinnati. Since I was going right past Caesar's Creek State Park, I threw the Rockhopper in the trunk to get a ride in on the way home.

Rockhoppin'

Just before we moved, I picked up a '98 Rockhopper off CL. It was so:

Not a bad find overall for $50, but there were clearly some issues that needed addressing:

Inappropriate Technology

With six bikes in the garage (at the time), but no fixed gear, something clearly had to change. My KM could easily be a fixed gear (track ends), as could the Technium or Polyvalent (forward facing horizontals), or even the Jones or Niner (EBB), but I like to do things the hard way: I converted my vertical dropout Rockhopper instead:

Playin' the Oldies

We had a balmy weeked here--temps in the 60s aren't the norm for January in Ohio. Nothing to do for it but grab a bike and ride.

Saturday morning, I was out before the sun on a grocery run. I was riding my $50 CL Rockhopper, now converted to flat bars and featuring a kickstand:

Drop that Karate Monkey!

I was pretty darn satisfied with my drop bar Rockhopper, which of course meant it was time to pull it apart and use the parts elsewhere. I've had a hankering for a drop bar mountain bike lately. I thought the KM would stretch me out too far, but the Tape Measure of Truth told me it could actually be a bit shorter than the Rockhopper, with the right stem. So time to get to it:

I'm in a fit of downsizing, so I'm also planning for my KM to take over my fixed gear duties. I don't ride fixed much these days, so this should be good enough:

Rockhopper Updated. Several Times.

Regular reader(s) might recall I picked up a '98 Rockhopper off CL this summer for just $50:

After fixing the various drivetrain issues, I rode it around more or less stock for a bit, but then I decided to try it as a neighborhood cruiser:

For some reason--maybe due to "comfort bike" factor of a suspension fork on a city bike, this build didn't really gel for me. That's when things got a bit more interesting. I enjoyed the way the frame rode, but wanted a bit more off road capability than the noodly Indy fork could provide. News flash: twenty year old elastomer forks don't work that well. Digging into my parts bin, I figured a non suspension corrected, high offset fork from a Singular Gryphon might make it into a workable 69er:

Lunch Run, Rockhopper Update

Last Sunday, the boys and I biked to lunch before heading to Kate's lacrosse game. I told Henry if he could ride into town (~6 miles), we could eat Moe's, his favorite fast/casual spot.

Henry was on his trusty Trek, all bagged up:

Henry's S24O

After Sam's solo backpacking trip, Henry lobbied hard for a camping trip of his own. I was sick last weekend, so we had to delay until it was now the last weekend of summer. After raining hard Friday, Saturday was clear and perfect, and we loaded up and hit the road.

Unlike most previous S24Os, Henry was riding his own bike and even carrying most of his own gear. Progress! We took some well earned breaks along the way to camp:

Winter Project: ‘95 Trek 830

My bike fleet has been pretty stable lately, so it was time to mix things up. I was sorely tempted by a 62cm Rivendell Joe Appaloosa frameset on the RBW list, but I was worried it was a bit too big for me, and it was realistically out of my Jones drained budget. Instead, I’ve been trawling Craigslist for old mountain bikes. I’ve been missing my old Rockhopper, low stack height and all.

While I was killing time in a Detroit hotel this week, I came across this old Trek and made plans to see it on Saturday. And quite clearly, I brought it home. Maybe because it needed help:

Mountain Bike Thief Alert! and Kids and Bikes

Henry has developed a sudden interest in all things bicycle this summer. Not sure where that came from. Anyway, earlier this week, we headed to the beginner loop at Alum. He knocked off two easy laps there (4 miles), so we continued on to the main trail and rode parts of that, maybe 7 miles all in. He did great! He even rode a small ramp, which had me a bit nervous as I trailed behind him. He's really building his confidence, and was able to laugh off a brief off trail excursion. Go Henry!

Cheap Bike Challenge: Another Rockhopper

Over on the iBOB list, there's a summer challenge to buy a bike for less than $200, spend less than $200 fixing any issues, and then ride it at least 200 km. I had an idea to pick up a '90s hybrid for this, but a lack of choices in my size combined with unresponsive sellers left me at a loss. I didn't really want another old mountain bike, but sometimes you have to go where the market takes you:

The Bikes of 2024

Happy New Year to all! I feel like my bike flipping has been slowing down, but I expect writing this post may disabuse me of that notion. Regardless, here are the changes that happened to my fleet last year:

Jan: I bought a Specialized Expedition frame that I converted from a comfort bike to an adventure bike, mostly as a winter project:

Fleet Update

My reader(s) have surely been clamoring for an updated overview of my bike fleet, so let's jump right in, shall we?

As always, bikes are posted in descending order of how much I like them at this moment:

1. Surly Karate Monkey (2012, XL):

"Wait," you sputter, "where is THE JONES?"

Not even top three.

2016 in Review

It's that time of years when bloggers get together, clean the last of the Christmas food out of the fridge, and make some sort of end of year list. This year, I'm going to look at what bikes and frames I've bought and sold over the year:

In January, I sold my Mukluk fatbike. I still think about a fatbike every now and then, but the wide Q factor and overall slowness of the fat tires didn't work too well for me.

Bike and Playgrounds

We had a record warm Saturday, so after a morning of working on the basement, Sam and I headed into town for a lunch at Moe's. Fully fueled, we had energy to hit some playgrounds on the way home, just like the old days. Avery Park was first up:

New Ride: Traitor Wander

I've been on a bike buying binge this fall. I spent most of the summer selling bikes: the Raleigh Pardner went to Indianapolis, the Raleigh Kodiak went back to Raleigh, the Rockhopper became a winter beater for a local, and my old Raleigh Technium is hanging from the garage rafters, waiting in vain for another Technium fan. At one point this year, I was down to just two bikes: my Karate Monkey and my Black Mountain Monstercross.

Of course, that situation couldn't last. As mentioned in my previous post, I picked up a Niner ROS9 to handle my hard charging mountain biking duties, and now the KM is back to its normal rigid and single lifestyle. For a while, I ran my BMC as my city/camping bike, but that didn't take. I like to have a lightly loaded road bike for solo rides, and something good for running errands: upright position, racks and fenders and baskets, that I don't mind banging on bike racks.

Which brings us to my latest buy, a Traitor Wander frameset.

Traitor bills this as a touring type bike, built around a modern semi-compact geometry and disc brakes. My build leans more towards an upright city bike:

Velo Orange Polyvalent Intro

I certainly don't need another bike, but when this VO Polyvalent frameset drifted across one of my bikes lists for a reasonable price, I didn't hesitate to pick it up. My hope is this will be the bike for my now-longer solo rides into Dublin when I want to run some errands. At least, that's my excuse to myself.

My first build was a quick hodgepodge:

After converting my Raleigh back to 27" wheels, my free pair of 650b wheels allowed this build. My only major problem was that I was out of derailers, so I had to make do:

Last Ride of the Halfwheeler

I bought this Giant Halfwheeler trail-a-bike 5 or 6 years ago for $75 off Craigslist. I had been thinking the kids have just about outgrown it. To give it one last hurrah, I hooked it up a few weekends back when Henry wanted to go riding with me on an early morning library run.

Turns out, a seat post mounted trail-a-bike, a lightish 'cross frame, and a burly 10 year old isn't the best combination in the world:

Fleet Update (Again)

A recent post on the Rivendell Bike list asked what is the ideal number of bikes. I should have three:

1) a mountain bike for fast single track riding

2) a road bike for sorta fast solo road riding

3) a city bike for camping, family rides, grocery runs, etc


So how did I end up with seven? I feel another downsizing event coming on. But here's the latest, this time in categories:

Mountain Bikes:

1a) Surly Karate Monkey:

I've tried to sell this bike a few times. The Jones is clearly a more premium bike, the Niner is better with B+ wheels... but I like the way the KM rides over either of them. Quick handling, a responsive frame, and dead simple technology is a winning combination for me. It's my favorite bike.

By the way, the left grip is spare orange bar tape. I ran out of grips during this build. No expense spared for my favorites!

1b) Niner SIR9:

The Dying of the Light

We've had a strange spell of warm weather around here, so for the last week I've been jumping on my bike for a short ride as soon as I get home from work. On Wednesday, Sam joined me a quick spin over to the Metro Park:

I was riding my Rockhopper in its latest state, with Surly Open Bars giving a perfect position for lazy rides around the neighborhood. I liked this bike with drop bars, but it's also working really well like this. Somehow, the cheapie 700c 'cross fork gives it very neutral, even steering. I'm curious to load up the basket and see how it works then.

Sam was excited to explore this dry lake bed: