A Man & His Bikes

I'm going to start a set of posts on the bikes I ride. I have some pretty eclectic tastes & I thought folks might get a kick out of it. My number one steed is my Guerciotti fixed gear. The frame was bought off a local bicycle mechanic for the paltry sum of $40. It had been ridden hard, with various scrapes & dents (primarily on the chainstays). A little sandpaper & Testor's paint fixed her right up. I read an article in Bicycle Guide magazine about 15 years ago about using a fixed gear bicycle as a winter trainer & thought this frame would be a perfect candidate. I scored a Shimano Exage brakeset along with a 105 crankset out of the backroom (off another old bike) at my LBS. I bought a Suzue rear hub & began my wonderful trip into fixed gear riding. I had never liked riding a road bike before: I rode mountain bikes. But this bike put the love of asphalt in me. Along the way, it has been highly modified. It now has a Thomson seatpost (set it & forget it), a Chris King headset, Salsa stem with Bontrager bars (I had to have something Bontrager on the bike-Keith is one of my cycling heros). The original Guerciotti fork broke on RAGBRAI, and is now replaced with a chrome Colnago. The wheels are the biggest cycling extravagance I've ever allowed myself: Mavic CXP-33 laced to Phil Woods. I think of this bike as the CiTy BiLLy team bike. It features an original eDBiLLy deer whistle mounted to the fork. I can't tell you the countless deer this has saved!