My Bikes

Molly

This is the bike I took to Africa with me. Sometimes I think of it as my Afri-bike. The names comes from something my dad told me. He was looking for a few parts to send to me in Bamako. When he told the people at the bike shops that he was sending the parts to Mali, they looked nonplussed. Only later did he realize they were thinking he was sending them to a person named "Molly".

Sadly she is no longer with us. If you recall the frame cracked in Ghana. The company who made the frame, Trek, were great and did replace the frame. But they had to destroy the old frame. (I did cut it in half so that I could mount one half on my wall. More pictures to come when I finish that project.)

The bike started out its life as just a simple bike. A Trek 4500 hardtail mountain bike. I got it so that I could get around and cruise on some trails. Before I left though I did a major overhaul and replaced the entire drive train. This included a square taper bottom bracket and crank arms. This was fortuitous choice when the canister bottom bracket I had blew out in Uganda and I had to use a local replacement. I also upgraded the wheels with some hand built 36 spoke wheels to handle the extra weight and the miles.

Specs:
  • Frameset: Trek - 4500 2005 frame and fork (16in).
  • Wheels: Hand built 36 spoke wheels with Mavic XM 317 rims and Shimano hubs.
  • Tires: Schwalbe Marathon XR
  • Bottom Bracket: 
  • Crank: Sugino DX1 crank arms with Race Face Race 46-36-24 chainrings.
  • Rear Derailer: Shimano Deore LX 8 speed rear derailer.
  • Rear Cassette: Shimano 8 speed cassette.
  • Racks: Old Man Mountain Red Rock rear and Ultimate Lowrider front racks.


You may notice a something hanging onto the front rack. That is my water bottle holder. It will take a 1.5 liter water bottle that is commonly available throughout Africa. (With the exception of Kenya for some reason...) This is actually the third version that I used. I first built it in Morocco for getting through the Sahara. That broke in Mauritania, so I had a new part made in Senegal. It was still pretty shaky so in Guinea I put on more supports and I also put in some vents along the sides. This completed the third version. Version 3.0 was great. Don't forget, on tour your bike really is a work in progress. You are always tweaking things to make them work just a bit better.




Jake

For my new bike, I decided to go with a cyclocross/commuter bike. I got a Jake the Snake frame from Kona as the base. From there it was all a custom build. First, I only wanted a rear derailer. In my normal style of biking I almost never shift out of the largest chainring. Having the extra gears and derailer is just more weight and more to maintain. I am also not one of those guys who is trying to get perfect cadence and crap. Instead, I went with a mountain cassette that had a big gear ratio (11-34). Also, I never liked the drop handlebars on road bikes. I went with the pursuit bars, which I think look better. I thought the bar end shifter would fit into the time trial levers I got though. Nope. I had to grind out some of the shifter mount to make it work. Remember my motto: "Anything worth owning is worth modifying."

Now that it is all together, it is beautiful. Everything works and it is a dream to ride. Plus, coming in under 20 pounds it feels like a feather compared to any other bike I have ever ridden.

So here are the specs:

Mzungu


Well, I finally got around to putting together a bike based on the replacement Trek frame I got. Originally I was just going to put all the parts from the Molly, the Afri-bike on it. But when the new frame arrived it was so nice I just couldn't load it up with a bunch of dirty, half worn parts. Instead I put it together as a lightweight cross country mountain bike.

I started with a RockShox SID front suspension. This is supposed to be the lightest suspension for on the market. (Okay, there are a few others that are a bit lighter, but cost an arm and a leg.) Coming in at just over 3 pounds, it was just what I was looking for. From there it was a pretty standard build.

I was hoping to use and SRAM Apex 46/34 crankset. I really like the idea of only using two chainrings. I find that I rarely need the granny gear for anything. If it isn't Rwanda, I don't think it is worth the weight (which is minimal anyway.) I was even thinking of forgoing the front derailer and just switching chainrings manually. But no, the Apex was built for a road bike and the chainrings would grind into my frame, so it was a no go on that point. Instead I went with the Truvativ Stylo OCT 44/32/22 crankset. It fits the bike perfectly, but I know I am basically never going to use the 22.

From there it was some Avid BB7s, basic Deore shifters and we are good to go.

So here are the specs:

-Dravis
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