The concept
I started to think about what I would like in a custom bike in late 2013. Before then, I had no idea what I’d want if I did get one. The epiphany happened while riding my Long Haul Trucker on a camping trip that fall. The LHT had gotten me to many a place, and I did once love it, but no longer did, as I wasn’t as into fully loaded touring as I was before the Cross-Country Tour. So during that epiphany I decided I wanted a bike that
- Would have a livelier ride then my LHT
- Would still be good for moderate loads, but biased towards front loading
- Optimized for using an internally-geared hub
- Have a plethora of braze-ons for many set-up options
- Designed around 26 inch wheels (559 mm)
- Able to handle rough-stuff
And I realized that no production bike would meet all that criteria, but since I didn’t think I could swing a custom at the time, I filed it away until after I visited Rivendell in January of 2014. Then I got Bob of Bantam Bicycle Works to build it, and on Thursday August 20th 2015 I picked up the built up bike!
The specs
I wanted the geometry of the bike to built similarly to the Bridgestone XO series. (This is the big reason why I sold my XO-3 in the fall of 2014, despite maybe investing too much into it. At the time I thought I would be getting the completed bike sooner. Oops.) This photo of Bob’s notes says it all.
Parts
Unlike a lot of custom bikes, there is no Chris King, Paul, White Industries, Phil Wood, etc. found on this bike. It’s not a diss on their stuff (they are well made, and made in the US), but I only have so much money to spend, and I wanted a bike I could ride NOW, so I go with good and proven.
Wheels: As noted above, this bike is built around “standard” 26 inch wheels, aka 559 mm, the same as most (pre 29″er era) mountain bikes the world over. I wanted to have nice fat tires, so the bike can take anywhere between 1.75″ and 2.25″ wide–with fenders! Yes, lots of clearance. Currently I’m using Panaracer Gravel King SKs. Over the near-decade I’ve had the bike I’ve also used Kenda Small Blocks, Schwalbe Big Bens 26″ x 2.15″ (55-559) in terra-cotta, and Compass Rat Trap Pass.
As for the wheels themselves, there’s no way that I wasn’t going to have this bike be built up for dynamo lighting! Currently there’s a handbuilt wheel with a Shutter Precision hub. (There used to be one with a Shimano Alfine dynohub but that quit after a year.)
The rear wheel is a prebuilt wheel with a Shimano Deore hub and Rhyno Lite rims. We’ll get into the drivetrain biz in a sec, but for those of you out there that will want to tell me that it’s madness! Pure madness! to build a bike around 26 inch wheels in this day and age because “26 inch wheels are dead and no one will make good tires anymore”, I have two things to say:
- See Rat Trap Pass tires above.
- Lucky for you, since it’s got disc brakes, I can easily switch the wheels to 650B and have room for 42 mm tires! Whew! Hell, I can get even crazier and build a nice set of 650A wheels for this bike, but I’m afraid it may give you a heart attack.
Drivetrain: Initially I wanted an internally geared hub, possibly a Shimano Alfine 8 or 11. The bike was built with this in mind, hence moveable dropouts. But I never did that, and don’t know if I ever will. So for now I’m going with a simple derailleur drivetrain: Single chainring in front (34 tooth) on old Shimano cranks (170 mm cranks) with an ten speed megarange 11-40 cassette in rear with a Deore derailleur, and Microshift bar end shifter.)
Brakes: Has the retro-grouch gone crazy? Disc brakes? I know, I know. When I started thinking about my dream bike I wasn’t thinking much about brakes, assuming I’d just have canti/V brakes. But cleaning the very dirty rims on one of my bikes one winter’s day got me thinking about trying out disc brakes. For one thing, I wouldn’t have to worry about cleaning blackened rims anymore (and the subsequent blackening of tire sidewalls.) The other big thing about trying disc was that I wouldn’t have to stick with one wheel size, I could change from 26″ to 650B if I want. Choices! So I went for the most reliable disc brakes out there: a set of Avid BB7’s mechanical disc brakes, mountain version, with 180 mm rotors. The brake levers are the Tektro “long-pull” road levers.
Dynamo Lighting: After using a basic B+M for a bit, the current light is a Spanninga that has a USB jack for phone charging. The rear is a fender mounted B+M Seculas. Also bright. Not much else to report here, other than the internal routing for the wiring! What am I, French?
The cockpit: After a couple years of no true drops (unless Mustache bars count) he idea was this bike would be a return to drops, and the frame is optimized for that. I’ve done a tour of dirt drops, first a Origin 8 Gary bar, then a Soma Portola. After eight years (speaking in August of 2023), drops are staring to lose their appeal, so I’m thinking of upright bars. We shall see how that pans out. A lovely Nitto dirt drop stem holds bars to frame.
The rackage and braze-ons: One thing you may notice is the sheer volume of braze-ons. I wanted a frameset that would be versatile, something I could set up in many different ways. The front fork has braze-ons for fenders and traditional front racks, or those small platform racks, or the three bosses needed for Anything cages. On main triangle there are braze-ons for three bottle cages (two inside, one below the down tube), plus braze-ons for a carrying strap. There is also two other braze-on pairings (non-drive seatstay, non-drive side of seat tube) that can be used for a pump bracket. Options!
Initially I did a rackless set up and utilized those Salsa Anything cages with Randi Jo Fab Big MUT bags plus a barrel handlebar bag. Eventually a small Nitto platform rack appeared, used for either my rando bag or a basket/bag setup. And Salsa low-rider racks were added for pannier capacity. After almost a decade a rear rack has not even been considered!
Other bits: Brooks B-17 saddle, Carradice Camper saddlebag or smaller Treetop saddlebag for rear capacity, SKS All-ways pedals, PDW single leg kickstand (I have a kickstand plate!), brass bell, Lezyne pump, and yer old generic (Sigma) cyclocomputer.
This was a bike built to be “the bike” for me. Hopefully it will last many a year.
For posts about the Bantam, click here.
For photos of my Bantam, see the dynamic flickr album below, or click here.
Updated 30 August 2023
Urban Adventure League 