I really enjoy reparing and building bikes from scratch. Building up a bike that fits and rides just right is insanely satisfying. This is doubly true when you build one as a gift for someone else. I have an affinity for steel frames with classic-looking geometry. I live in Pittsburgh, PA, which is very hilly, and I don’t care much about going fast. So, the bikes here are generally optimized for comfort, the ability to carry things, and are geared fairly low. Below you’ll find pictures of some of bikes I’ve built and/or kept up along with some specs. See the archive for bikes that have been sold or canabalized for parts.
This page conatins a good amount of jargon. The following resources will prove very helpful to the uninitiated:
- Sheldon Brown’s website
- Park Tool (Calvin Jones’ tutorials are indispensable)
- RJ The Bike Guy on YouTube
- Shifter (also on YouTube)
You may also find the following bike-related YouTube channels entertaining:
If you live in the Pittsburgh area and are looking for a bike shop, I highly recommend you check out Thick Bikes in South Side and Kindred Cycles in the Strip District. The staff at both shops are super helpful and they will almost certainly have whatever parts or gear you need (and can order them for you if they don’t).
Surly Cross-Check (2023)
This is my current day-to-day bike. The Cross-Check frameset from Surly is famous for being very reasonably-suited for most uses, but not necessarilly excellent at anything, making it more than capable for anything I could possibly throw at it. I bought the frame for this bike several days before Surly discontinued it. It is 58cm tall and supports cantilever rim brakes and down-tube shifters. It has cheap 700c wheels with 42mm tires, which I have found to work very well year-round in Pittsburgh.
It has an 18-speed drivetrain comprised of 38/24T chain rings on Rivendell Silver Cranks and a simple 9-speed 11-34T casette from Shimano. It has a Rivendell Stubby Skeleton Key derailleur in the front and a Shimano Acera M3020 in the rear. I’m able to get away with such a goofy drivetrain because I set the bike up with friction shifters, removing the need for tedious indexing and having to commit to a groupset from a single manufacturer. The low range of gears makes light work of most hills. It also has Velo Orange Sabot Pedals, which makes the bike super comfortable to ride in just about any kind of footwear.
It has a Velo Orange Porteur Rack with the Surly Porteur House bag in the front. If I remove the bag, I can strap awkwardly shaped cargo to the rack, which makes this setup perfect for carrying 95% of the things I need to move around the city. The Velo Orange Postino Handlebar and Velo Orange Happy Stem make for a fairly relaxed riding position and make it trivial to keep the bike stable when the rack is fully loaded.
I hope to ride this bike until I die or it does, whichever comes first.
Update September 2024: I replaced the front rack on this with the Soma PortFolder Rack. Being able to fold the front rack up when I don’t need the full platform (most of the time I’m riding) makes the bike feel more compact and makes squeezing through gaps in traffic feel less fraught. It also makes negotiating crowded bike racks easier. I also added a Soma Rakku 2 as a rear rack. This makes carrying heavier cargo much less sketchy than it was on the front rack. It also allows me to carry more stuff. Similar to the Rachel , I replaced the Postino handlebars on this build with the Velo Orange Granola Bars. This has made the this bike into such a comfy ride.
Update November 2024: In preparation for a wet winter I installed a proper set of fenders. I used the 52mm Zeppelin fenders from Velo Orange. The skeleton key front derailleur was too bulky and got in the way of fenders. So, I replaced it with a Sensah Empire, which has slimmer mounting hardware. I also fell out of love with the racks I installed in September. They were too bulky and I really missed the silver-on-black look. So, I put the Porteur rack back on the front and ordered a Velo Orange Constructeur Rack for the rear.
Bassi Rachel (2020)
I built this bike for my partner, who uses it as her day-to-day bike. The drivetrain is identical to the Surly Cross-Check build above, but many other details differ of course. She prefers step-through frames, so this bike is built around and older version of the Bassi Rachel frameset. It is a mixte-style frame, the seat post measures 47cm, and like the Cross-Check it is made of steel. Unlike the Cross-Check, it has caliper rim breaks and it has ratcheting friction thumb shifters on the handle bars. It has cheap 26” wheels with 1.5” tires.
It has a Velo Orange Constructeur Rack with a Wald 137 Basket on the front. The Velo Orange Porteur Handlebars combined with the frame geometry make for a relaxed riding position without sacrificing the ability to handle the bike when the basket is loaded.
Update August 2024: To make the riding position on this bike more relaxed, I replaced the stem with a taller one and swapped out the porteur handle bars with the Velo Orange Granola Bars.
Update December 2024: Just like the Cross-Check did in November, this bike got fenders.