Dumitru's Classic Rando-Montreal
Dumitru came to us with a mandate for his dream drop-bar build, and the result came out just right! He wanted a few things: an upright and comfortable position, brifters and a 1x transmission for ease of shifting, light weight stuff where it counts, and classic silver and brown styling. He sized between the 52 and 55cm frames, so we opted for the latter to achieve this "French Fit", with the handlebar significantly higher than the saddle. Nitto's super-short, super-tall Technomic quill stem helped out here to get the bars nice and close. For brifters, we opted for SRAM's Apex1 group, which we've tested time and again on our Hog's Back builds over the years. The double-tap shifting is intuitive and fast, and the ergonomics of the levers is excellent. Instead of using their crank, we opted for our Narrow-Wide Low crankset, which has a smaller 38t chainring than the Apex1 offers as a minimum, and can even be lowered to 34t for future-proofing or outfitting this bike for hillier rides. Plus, it's silver! To shave some weight, we opted for where it counts: the wheels. Velocity Quills are our favourite lightweight road rims for wide(r) tires, and they built up perfectly to a Velo Orange rear hub and Shutter Precision front, with double butted Sapim Race spokes that are both lighter, and stronger. Clad in Rene Herse Babyshoe Pass tires, these are smoooooth spinning wheels! Speaking of silver, we needed to make this ride classic. The Montreal is a great platform for this, and we kept things shiny all around. Honjo's beautiful aluminium fenders might appear old-timey at first glance, but they're actually light, solid, and wonderfully functional. The Brooks B17 saddle, which needs no introduction at this point, checks all the boxes when it comes to comfort and good looks. Catch Dumitru riding long distances on this guy! It's since been outfitted with racks, bags, and lights, and continues to evolve over time and age like a fine wine. Photos by Troy
Matthew's Le Montréal Rando-Tourer
Matthew gets it! This is exactly what we had in mind with our design of Le Montréal. While we whole-heartedly embrace the versatility of this frame, and love seeing sweepy-bar builds and modern iterations too, a classically-styled randonneur slash light touring build makes us feel warm and fuzzy inside. While the aesthetics are straight outta the 80s, the spec is 99% brand new, still available parts, save a fittingly pewter grey new old stock Exage front derailer. Rene Herse Endurance casing tires, Shimano Dura-Ace (the best!) bar-end shifters, Dia-Compe non-aero brake levers, a trusty Brooks B17, and MKS's stringently tested Gamma pedals were all chosen for their solidity, reliability, and as a convenient bonus, their good looks. This bike has been ridden and toured on thoroughly, all around the province. It's been crashed, it's been fixed, it's been loved. It sports a pair of Tubus racks when on tour, the sensible choice. We love it all! Build Spec Bassi Le Montréal frameset, limited edition Montreal skyline colourway, 55cm Tange CDS chrome steel headset Tange sealed bearing square taper bottom bracket Bassi Classic Compact Double crankset Wipperman Connex chain Shimano 9-speed cassette Formula hubs laced to Weinmann Zac-19 rims Rene Herse Switchback Hill tires, Endurance casing Shimano Dura-Ace bar-end shifters Shimano RD-M591 rear derailer Shimano Exage NOS front derailer Dia-Compe 204QC brake levers Tektro CR720 cantilever brakes Bassi Classic quill stem Bassi forged seatpost Brooks B17 Special saddle Fantastic photos to match the fantastic build as always by Troy
April's Secondhand Le Montréal
We really enjoy tinkering with and modifying bikes here at C&L. Our personal bikes are rarely the same from one year to the next, and we're happy when someone asks us to help out with making their more theirs. We do all sorts of bikes but it's extra heartwarming when it's someone's older Bassi. April bought this Montréal V1 in 52cm last year, secondhand. The original owner had set it up with great parts, but they didn't suit all of April's ambitions, so after a year of riding the bike and letting ideas mature, she came to us to make it more comfortable, and more appropriate for longer touring rides. When she first picked it up from its previous owner last year, she added a rear rack for touring panniers, a light-duty front rack, a comfy Brooks B17 'S' saddle, and a good and tall Nitto Technomic stem, along with replacing the original tires with cushy and reliable Panaracer Paselas. This year was the serious work: her new Nitto Albatross handlebar is as comfortable as it gets for upright cycling over long distances and in the city, with lots of hand positions that still make it easy to look around. With that came the tasteful choice of Tarugata grips and Newmbaums bar tape, in complementary shades of teal. She also added a Wald 137 basket to her front rack, held on with Voilé straps so it's easy to remove if needed. For riding in all weather, a practical consideration in Montréal, we installed Velo Orange fenders. These 700x45 are the widest that will fit in this generation of Montréal frames, and we weren't sure ahead of time if it would do it! Finally, as part of the general much-needed overhaul of the bike, we changed the 8-speed drivetrain to a 9-speed, and replaced the old road double crank with its 50/39-tooth gearing (too high a gear for anything but a road bike, honestly) for the extremely reasonably geared 46/34t Bassi Classic compact. The bike's now ready for long summer days in the country rolling toward a camping spot, as well as for moving its rider in comfort and style all around town.