Adventure-commuting: Refreshing the Bantam

The Bantam in Frazer Park, 31 January 2023. Olympus XA/Kodak Ultramax 400 My Bantam is the nicest bike I own or owned, a custom machine built to my body geometry and specifications almost eight years ago. Everything about all that screams special. And I've kept it as my "special" bike over these past eight years....

The Heavy Duti gets some tweaks

Down by the tracks, 3 July 2021. Minolta SR-T 101, MC Rokkor PG 50mm f/1.4, Cinestill 800T Since the Crested Butte left the stable, my Schwinn Heavy Duti is now the bike I've owned the longest. A lot has happened since that October day in 2014 when it became mine. For the longest time I...

Raleigh Crested Butte: Yet more tweaks to the endless tweaking bike

My Raleigh Crested Butte is my longest-lived bike. October will mark nine years of ownership. It's the bike that really got me in love with vintage mountain bikes and 26 inch wheels with chonky tires. It also has become a "proving ground" of a bike: I've tried out several different configurations over the years as...

The long strange trip of my Crested Butte

Remember when I was trying to sell the Raleigh Crested Butte? Yeah, me too. Now just a half-year since the attempt, not only do I still have the Crested Butte, but I've done a lot of stuff to it, some of it twice! Ay yi yi. If I wasn't so gung-ho about selling the bike...

A Sunday Ramble while some game was going on, plus a rack for the Bantam

It's spring here in Portland! Woot! Yeah, while technically by the calendar we're still in a season called "winter", I've often commented that Portland's four seasons are: summer, fall, extended late fall, and extended spring. We don't get "real" winter here, it's basically November from...November through January. And February is when it tips over to...

A basket on a Bullmoose?

It's another one in the endless series of tweaking bikes! This time around we'll be featuring my Schwinn Heavy Duti, the klunker/beater/cruiser that doesn't see as much action as it should, alas. Anyways, last time around I decided on a whim to put the chromoly Bullmoose bars on there, the ones that were originally on...

Raleigh Crested Butte: Changes

On Thursday, November 1st I rode up to Ed's house in North Portland to do the major changes to the Raleigh Crested Butte in one big "sesh".I was pretty sure that I wanted to use the Civia Dupont bars that I got for the M40 on the Crested Butte, but was still wondering if I...