A Man & His Bikes-Croll

This is as close to a custom bike as I have. When I was riding a mountain bike frequently, my LBS raced on these frames. Croll frames were built in Minnesota, originally by Walter Croll, who was a master. He built road, cyclocross, track & mountain frames. This frame was built after Walter sold the company. It was semi custom: many sizes to choose from, including short & long chainstays (east & west coast geometry), 853 tubing. The paint was my own selection, a beautiful forest green with pearl white panels. House of Kolors paint is a paint used for show cars & while it has to be seen to be believed, it probably is not the wisest choice for a mountain bike. Chips appeared within a few days of build-up. To combat this, many vulnerable areas (the bottom half of the downtube, for instance) are covered with a paint protecting clear tape. The bike is built up with XT components, save for the Truvativ crank. A Marzocchi Atom Bomb fork handles shock absorption & a Thomson seatpost (the first I bought) holds the WTB saddle. As you can see, this bike is more of an eye-candy bike at the present: I don't even have pedals installed. Maybe someday, I'll start riding mountain bikes again, but with my paltry bike handling skills, maybe not.