The Long Bike

Here's a project that I did for my friend and customer Jeff Cleary. He wanted to be able to get around town with his kids and create a practical bike that could be used for running errands and general skylarking with the boys. This bike has a lot of fun details, we started with a steel Soulcraft frame that he was no longer using and combined it with the Xtracycle rear end (http://www.xtracycle.com/) to create this bitchin' townie.



The Xtracycle has a wonderfully simple mounting system and attaching this part to the frame was a breeze. It has a disc mount and we went with an Avid cable actuated disc brake and oversized rotor to control the speed when the bike is freighted with kids and groceries.



Because this frame was made to be used with a suspension fork, I chose a Soma suspension-corrected rigid fork to make this an efficient pavement pedaler and not mess with the handling. It's surprisingly nice to ride even with the extremely long wheelbase as a result. Jeff wanted to use his old Mavic Crossmax front wheel and some left over XTR v-brakes on the front, so it was fine for this fork not to have disc mounts. If this bike was going to be used for more demanding rides, I'd have probably used a disc brake up front. With the rear disc underneath whatever load this bike may be carrying, it actually stops pretty well.

I used an old Race Face MTB crank that had a 110mm bolt pattern that could accomodate a 34/50 chainring combination. This allows a good range of gears when used in conjunction with a 11/34 cassette. The super long chain shifts really well with this configuration. I had some 9 speed bar end shifters kicking around and I converted them to top mount shifters using the Paul Components "Thumbies"- these things are such a great way to recreate the old top mount thumbshifters from days gone by. I really like these things and I'd love to set up a bike of my own with them some time.





Other highlights include the Crank Bro's Mallet pedals for use with or without mtb cleats, pimped out cut-down Easton EC-90 carbon bars for the stoker stem that's mounted on the seatpost, custom upholstered padding on the kids seat and last but not least the rechargable "down-low glow" lighting system that shines blue on the pavement at night! The kids totally love this bike and it was great to see it in action when Jeff came to pick it up after a cleaning the other day.