Touring Bike For Sale

Bike For Sale!

Ready To Tour

It's a beauty! Here is a fillet brazed 26" wheeled touring bike that is ready to travel. It's loaded with cool stuff, and is now for sale. This bike was seen at 2012 North American Hand Made Bicycle Show in Sacramento, California. 

Here is quick run-down of the features: 

26" wheels, clearance for 2.3" tires with fenders; wide Rhynolite rims

Frame size: 575mm top tube and 600 mm seat tube. The standover with 2.0" tires is 860 mm (slightly less than 34"). Seat tube angle is 73 degrees; head tube angle 72 degrees; fork rake is 60 mm and trail is 45 mm.

This bike has traditional tubing diameters (1" top tube and truss; 1 1/8" down tube; 1" threaded fork steerer). The truss top tube is for added stability from the front to the back of the bike when the bike is loaded. 

Low profile racks front and rear. Rear rack ties into the fender for a very clean look. Front low rider racks are detachable and have 3 mounting points for added stability. Both front and rear racks were designed around the smaller front-style Ortlieb panniers. Integrated Rear RackDetachable Front Low Rider Rack

Bike comes with a large Carradice seat bag. The bag has a small support rack to stabilize it. Between 4 panniers and the large seat bag, this bike has serious carrying capacity (Panniers not included).

New-old stock XTR front & rear derailleurs, and XTR rear 9 speed cassette hub.

New-Old Stock XTR Derailleurs

Front generator hub which powers both the front and rear lights.

Gilles Berthoud leather saddle; high polish seat post by Paul Components, and Berthoud stainless fenders.

Sugino Mighty Tour triple crankset: 48/36/24T

Chris King headset; Nitto Pearl stem, 110 mm; Nitto Noodle handlebar, 44 cm; Brooks leather bar wrap

Last but not least is the silvery blue paint. It's a thin wet paint that is a near perfect match of the blue-gray highlights on the vintage XTR derailleurs. It's a gorgeous finish, pleasant and understated. 

Large Size Seat BagA lot of thought went into the design of this bike. It would make a great randonneur, light touring or fully loaded touring bike. It has excellent functioning parts that are durable, and are nice to look at. This bike is going to fit a person who is between 6' and 6' 3" and it's safe to say, it's going to make someone very happy for years to come. 

Head Tube BadgeThe price of this bike is negotiable. It's now a used bike, and has been tested on tour and longer rides. Because of this there are some scratches in the paint, and some wear on the parts. The bike is sold as is. All reasonable offers will be considered. If you have any questions, or to request further information, please send me an e-mail

Here is a gallery with other photos of the bike. 

Enjoy!

Mike Muzik's Touring Bike

The Oregon Handmade Bicycle Show was in Bend, Oregon this past weekend. The event was coupled with the big cyclocross Halloween race, which draws a pretty large crowd every year. The race has been at the coast, in Astoria, for the past few years. They moved it to Bend this time for a change of scenery. I didn’t make it over to the race, but I heard part of the course was too dusty to see. 

The bike show was held at the GoodLife Brewery. I’m not sure of the exact number, but I think there were about 35 or so booths. I liked that it was a smaller show. A steady stream of people came through, and nobody seemed overwhelmed. At the larger shows you can see peoples eyes turn to spirals from goggling at bikes for too many hours. It’s a particular form of melt down that affects the insatiable bike nerds.

Jonathan Maus of bikeportland.org was in Bend covering the story of the Halloween Cross Race. He also posted a summary and overview of the bikes he saw at The Handmade Bike Show. 

Here is one of the bikes I brought with me to the show. It’s a touring bike for Mister Mike Muzik. I’ll let the photos tell the story. 

Oregon Manifest Bike

Here is my entry to the 2011 Oregon Manifest. The 50 mile ride was good. The weather was just about perfect, even if a little hot, and the route took us through some awesome backroads. There was a combination of paved roads and gravel, with a lot of climbing along the way. I was very pleased with the bike. It was solid, quiet, had the gears I wanted for climbing and it carried the load without a hitch. I ran some pretty large tires so that the gravel sections weren't a problem, and descending with weight the bike felt sure and stable. The bike did everything I asked of it, and did it well. 

There were a lot of great entries in this event. I can't imagine having been a judge, trying to decide which bikes were winners. I think a congratulation should go out to everyone who did the work building the bikes, and for all those who rode the ride. And a special congrats to Tony Pereira for taking the cake. Nice job Tony!

Here are photos of the Ahearne entry with a summary of features to follow. 

Oregon Manifest Bike

This is the Ahearne Cycles entry to the 2011 Oregon Manifest competition. There were several criteria that the all the entrants were supposed to fulfill, most of which were in the realm of bikes that I often build. The bikes are to have lights, fenders, a locking system, a way to carry things besides the rider, etc. Here's a quick list of the features this bike offeres:

24 inch front wheel, 700c rear. The rack is fixed to the frame and is rated at about 50 lbs. maximum capacity. The small front wheel allows the basket to be lower, which drops the center of gravity and makes for a more stable ride with a load. 

The basket has an integrated lock holder (no rattle), a bottle opener, corner bumpers (dead tire), a weatherproof DiBond base (aluminum sheet with a dense plastic core -- light-weight & bomb-proof), a large waterproof bag by Inside Line Equipment, and shown here there are 2 speaker mounts and a water bottle cage (also on the basket). There is also a bolt-on utility bag on the rack which is for spare tubes, tools, straps and bungee cords, etc. 

There is an insanely bright lighting system (600 lumens!) that runs off a rechargeable battery pack hidden under the rack, which is charged off the generator hub. It's a prototype lighting system by Light On! lights. The wired tail light is internally routed, and if you look closely, it is mounted to a bolt that runs through the seat tube and serves the double purpose of being a seat post lock -- the seat post is slotted, and can't be removed without taking out the light mount bolt. 

Speaking of security, there's a hidden lock for the kickstand so that, when the kickstand is open and the lock engaged the stand can not be retracted. I'd love to see a thief try and ride off on the bike, but not be able to figure out why the stand won't go up. 

The bike has clearance for very large tires. The fenders are full wrap, with a 26 inch rear fender covering the front wheel. There's a supplementary blinky tail light and reflector on the rear fender by Portland Design Works. 

Beyond these features, the bike has a lot of the little things I believe should be standard on a hard core commuter bike: full gear range, bell, pump, disc brakes (advisable, especially for rainy climates), wide puncture resistant tires, comfortable upright riding position, wide flat pedals, etc. 

The final thing is the aesthetic, which is subdued and classy. I didn't want to over-invent a machine that has been designed & refined for well over a hundred years. 

Michael A 650b Randonneur

Michael A 650b Randonneur

Here's a classy lugged 650b randonneur. It's got all the basic requirements -- comfortable geometry with a low trail and stable handling with or without weight in the front handlebar bag; it's got a front generator hub and bright front light wired through the rack; the bike has plenty of tire clearance for fatter tires, and long Honjo fenders with mud flaps to keep the road spray off. There's a light duty rear rack that can accommodate small panniers for those short bike camping trips. The drive train is Campagnolo, and everything works like a dream. This is a bike that begs to go out for some seriously long rides, and is meant to be comfortable the whole way, no matter the road conditions. I'm envious of Michael, especially since this one is just about my size.

Enjoy!

Off Road Touring Bike

Ride Review

The BeastIn Portland, Oregon, we're pretty lucky to have Forest Park, one of the largest urban parks and nature reserves in the country. The main through-way in the park is Leif Erikson Rd., which is a mostly unpaved fire road that runs nearly 12 miles from one end of the park to the other. Forest park is a great place to walk or ride, and it's only about 10 minutes (by bike) from downtown. 

Yesterday I rode through the park. The sun was shining and by mid afternoon it was nearly up to 70 degrees. I rode the new 29er touring bike totally unloaded to see how it handled, changing the tires from 47c semi-slick road tires to WTB Exiwolf 29” x 2.55 – big fat knobby off road tires. This is the same bike I picked up in Eugene and rode back to Portland a couple of weeks ago. It's a stable bike, but I wanted to see how it handles at speed over bumpy terrain. 

This bike was built primarily as a touring bike, and has the clearance for fat tires and fenders. I haven’t reviewed this bike yet because I wanted to spend some time in the saddle in various conditions and see how I liked it. For the trip back up from Eugene it was great. Very stable with weight, sure handling, comfortable, a wide gear range. Even with about 15 pounds of gear on the front I was able to ride no-hands without a problem. 

Park Entrance from Germantown Rd.

Going through the park yesterday I was again impressed with the stability and handling. The bike has detachable low rider mounts and a fairly sizeable upper deck on the front rack, which means it can hold a lot of gear. Even unloaded the bike steered easily, and flying down a rocky, gravelly section of Lief Erikson I sat back and took my hands off the bars and the bike held its line easily. Stability, no hands, with or without weight on the front – I like it. 

I didn’t remove any of the racks, and carried along my u-lock in the integrated lock holder on the rear. The bike also has large stainless fenders, mud flaps and a kickstand – all these things add up, and make the bike heavier than one I would usually ride through the park. I would like to strip the bike down to the bare essentials at some point and try it out. But, even with all the extras on the bike I was very impressed at how quiet it was – no rattles, squeaks or knocking. Even the lock shackle is wedged in so it can't rattle. The only thing I noticed was that in especially bumpy places the lower part of the front fender would shake back and forth enough to hit the knobs on the tires -- not a big deal, and to be expected riding off road with fenders.  

Knobby Tire TouringAnother trip I want to take is with the bike fully loaded on the same trail, just for a comparison – fully loaded front and rear panniers and a dry-sack on the upper deck of the front rack. I want to pack it as if I were going for a long trip off road. It will be slower going, obviously, but I’m very curious to know how it feels. I’m fairly certain that it’s going to do just fine.

You know what would be even better, would be to pack it as if I were going on a long bike trip, and then go on a long bike trip. We’ll see what this summer brings…

Flickr Photo Set

Off Road Touring Bike