Beaulé's Hog!
Sam spent a few seasons with us at C&L and concluded it with this perfect Hog's Back build! Wald 137 baskets have become nearly ubiquitous on our on all our townie/country/toury builds, and each person tends to make it their own. Sam did that with a made-to-measure, made-in-Montreal bag by Trame with nice complimentary colours and lots of pouches for organizing. Along with his Carradice saddle bag and Atwater cell pouch, he's got plenty of space for all his bits and bobs! A fun silly detail - the FSA The Pig headset fits the porky Hog's Back theme just perfectly! Given that it's a stout DH headset, it fits the bill perfectly for what's intended to be a bombproof commuter and tourer. MKS x Sim Works Bubbly pedals are a staff favourite - many of us have given into temptation because of their perfectly spinny bearings and great design. Sam opted for the very tough Rhyno Lite rim along with a fast rolling Maxxis DTH dirt jump tire. Pics by Troy @killiskii
Roberto's Hog's Back and Bobby Bar Prototype!
Here are the specs of the forthcoming handlebar right off the bat: 780mm wide 30° backsweep 25mm rise This bike, and handlebar, has been my go-to all summer. Between commuting, long-distance road rides, local secret trail rides, overnighters and even actual mountain biking, I'm confident in saying this handlebar truly unlocks the "right tool for any job" superpowers of the Hog's Back. The relaxed 30° sweep offer a great middle-ground between shreddy and cruisy for all-day comfort and off-road control. The long grip areas not only make it possible to trim down the bars substantially if you're so inclined, but also offer plenty of room to move around. What started over two years ago as an idea for a new bikepacking handlebar is shown here in its final prototype phase with the production batch featuring dear friend @lovedrawings' graphics on the way! We're expecting them to arrive by late Winter. Here's an early prototype made by JD that Vince borrowed to test on his Hog's Back:
Julian's 2x2 HB
And now for something completely different. I've ridden quite a few iterations of this frame, starting with the prototype which first landed three years ago now. The Hog's Back, with its mile-long top tube, was very much intended to be built with swept back, wide, comfy handlebars, and initially, that's what we expected everyone's build to feature. Then something a little unexpected happened: people started building it with drop bars. Early adopters were friends Keith, and James and Candice at Analog Cycles, whose Discord Components stems help shorten the reach to achieve this kind of setup. It caught on so much that we ended up offering a drop bar build as a stock option. I felt that I needed to see what the hype was all about, so I built myself a road bike! I was also wondering what was up with everyone's wide-as Cowchipper bars, so I built it up with a 52cm and love it. Chunky descents are a breeze, just keep your hands in the drops for quick brake grabs. Speaking of brakes, these TRP RRL levers are just the comfiest! I'm also quite fond of the Newbaum's cushioned cotton bartape. I love the way it soaks up the UV and fades, just like some of my favourite black t-shirts. The fraying is fun too. Sim Works Super Yummy. They live up to their name. Moderate but grabby tread and peanut butter sidewalls do great on smooth, chunky, and everything in between. Plus they look fantastic! 2008 fixie craze me is stoked that colours are back on bikes! Pops of purple here and there keep this build exciting - the Widefoot cage, Paul QR seatpost collar, and White Industries headset were a couple indulgences I felt were crucial to get this bike looking just right. These pedals are something else. They're Shimano Deore XT PD-M730s, produced between 1986 and 1993. I've never enjoyed a platform pedal so much. I like their asymmetry and black/silver combo. If you're hunting for a used pair, make sure to get this wider version, not the more conventionally shaped and smaller PD-M735. Or treat yourself and order a NOS pair from Chillin ATB Antique Dealer. My mountain bike friends keep teasing me for not having a dropper post, so this one's for them! And here's the weirdest part. We're living in a strange time, and parts sourcing for our customer's builds has been a challenge, to say the least. I feel as though every day I'm becoming (evolving? regressing?) more and more into the old-timey retro-grouch club. I pore over back copies of Rivendell Readers, gripe about new groupsets and their lack of inter-changeability, am terrified of electrification, and covet parts that are as old as me. This build is very much an expression of that. It's a 2x2 transmission, inspired by our friends and Bassi dealers Crumbworks. It's got a double crank (40/34) in the front that I manually shift (upshift with my hand, downshift with my toe) and a double freewheel (20/22) that I shift with the barrel adjuster on the Shimano 600 (6100 series) derailleur. It may seem strange, or dumb, but I'm into the simplicity. A lot of my bikes are single speeds and albeit a slight departure from that, this transmission gets me in the same mind set. Since I don't shift with my hands while riding, I always feel as though I'm in the right gear and adjust my cadence and effort accordingly. It's fun, try it! All said and done, I've been stoked with this build. I rode it on Matt's yearly Dynamo ride, inspired by classic UK overnighter Dunwich Dynamo. It did fantastically on the rolling hills of the Rivière Rouge and was plenty comfy for a hallucinatory overnight 150km. Then I rode it for a week with a bikepacking setup in the Chic-Choc mountains in Gaspésie, where you can find the namesake for the Hog's Back. Cruising the ATV trails of Réserve Faunique Matane, climbing up Mount Logan, wild descents in Parc National de la Gaspésie, long rolling gravel days to Murdochville, power line rough stuff, riverside doubletrack, Mont Béchervaise single track, and a glorious finish in Parc Forillon were all a pleasure on this whip. Check out the route here, we had a great time and I'd recommend it to anyone! What's on it Hog's Back Frameset, sparkly beige, 51cm White Industries EC34 Headset, Purple Tange Bottom Bracket Bassi Classic Double Crank, but with the big ring swapped out for a 40 Shimano Deore XT PD-M730 Pedals SRAM PC-870 Chain White Industries Double Freewheel, 20/22 White Industries ENO rear hub, in case I want to pull the derailleur and single speed it Sapim Race double butted Spokes Velocity Blunt 35 Rims Sim Works Super Yummy Tires, 26" TRP RRL Brake Levers, hoods swapped out to match the peanut butter sidewalls TRP Spyre Brake Calipers Paul QR Seatpost Collar Bassi Forged Seatpost Brooks C17 Saddle 49N Stem, which I'll swap out for a Discord Peeper now that I'm sure the fit is right Salsa Cowchipper Handlebar, 52cm Newbaum's Cushioned Bartape Widefoot CargoMount Cage Pix by @jochhoo, @jenny_bernier, and me
Jean-Michel's Hog's Back "The Green Thing"
Here's one of the very first Bassi Hog’s Backs that was built in early 2020. Jean-Michel had been riding a yellow prototype for a long time before transferring all the parts to this one. Those who are lucky enough to meet him on Montreal’s cycling paths know about this beautiful yellow bike. The “Green Thing”, on the other hand, is constantly changing, first to adapt to the seasons, but also because JM loves to try new configurations. It keeps the build dynamic, as he says. Here's a bit about JM and his bike! Your favourite Montreal restaurant : Jean-Talon Market Your favourite tool : Anything Ratchet Your favourite meal : The midnight snack Your favourite part on your bike : Bassi’s shoulder strap Photos by @jochhoo except the last one by Jean-Michel
Vincent's Hog's Back
I started 2020 telling myself (and all of my co-workers) I wouldn’t get a Hog’s Back this summer, because I was already getting a hardtail. So, yeah… Here’s a piece about the Hog’s Back I got this summer. This build was a long time in the making, mostly because of stock shortages, but also because of my own indecisiveness. My good friend/colleague/boss Roberto and I spent soooooooo much time discussing and ping-pong’ing ideas about what our respective Hog’s Backs would/could be like. Mine went through many iterations in my mind, ranging from dirt drops to triple cranks. I finally settled for what I consider a mountain bikey, off-road/rough-stuff oriented setup. It’s not what I would call a "beautiful" bike, and by that I mean I didn’t pick the components solely based on aesthetics or on how well they match together -- except for the flowery housing, it just looks too good. I really chose the components based on their simplicity, durability and ease of replacement. The all-steel cockpit from Sim Works is just the best. The Fun 3 Bar is super comfortable, but doesn’t feel awkward on tech-y MTB terrain (and also looks fly as hell). The White Industries headset was an easy choice : more than decent price, easily accessible replacement bearings, and obviously amazing quality. The wheelset couldn’t be simpler: DT Swiss Champion straight-gauge spokes handlaced in 3-cross, Velocity Blunt SS 32-hole rims, DT Swiss 350 hub at the rear and the new Kasai Field-Serviceable Dynamo hub at the front (no need to ship my wheel halfway around the world if anything happens to the hub!). All this makes for a very sturdy yet lightweight wheelset. This might come as a shock to some, but I actually love the silent freehub of the DT Swiss 350. I can just quietly listen to the surroundings while coasting, without having a giant bee chasing me. The Sim Works Super Yummy 650B x 2.22" is a great all-road tire, but I decided to go for a bigger and knobbier Maxxis Ikon 650B x 2.35" at the front, because why not. Both have tubes in ‘em. Although it took me quite some time to be at peace with how expensive they are, I went with Paul Klampers for the brake calipers. They might not be the most powerful on the market, but in terms of durability and serviceability nothing comes even close. I always like to dig deep through our suppliers catalog to find the lesser-known, but oftentimes most interesting, components nobody uses. That’s how I found these neat brake levers from IRD. They do both long- and short-pull, have a long enough lever, they’re tough, and they look great. The drivetrain is where things get a little weird. I settled on a 1x setup, but most readily available groupsets just don’t do it for me. Call me a retro-grouch, but nothing will ever beat a friction transmission. A friction shifter doesn’t care about your bent derailer hanger, or your rusty shift cable, or whatever number of cogs you've got, or even what derailer it’s activating. It will still pull that cable and move that derailer up and down those cogs. But building a wide-range, 1x, friction drivetrain proved more challenging than I expected. To begin with, there aren’t many good-quality friction shifters on the market anymore, and the one I wanted (Rivendell’s XO thumbie) had been out of stock for ever. So I settled for a NOS Suntour LD-2800, mostly because I read somewhere that this was the shifter Rivendell based their XO shifter on (and also old Suntour are still some of the best shifters around). I paired it with the Microshift Advent 9-speed clutch derailer, as I wanted to try something different. Although it is only specified for a 42t max cog, it has no problem managing the 46t cog on the Sunrace 10-speed cassette. The only downside is that this derailer has its own proprietary pull-ratio, which means it doesn’t work with a standard-pull friction shifter. Now the Suntour LD-2800 is most likely a 6-speed shifter, so in order to make that derailer work with that shifter, I had to cut the tab that stopped the shift lever’s travel. But even then, I could only reach the 9th cog. I finally added the Wolftooth Tanpan widget, which increases the amount of cable pulled by the shifter, to make the derailer go all the way up to the 10th cog. Yay victory! Then there was the crank situation. I majorly favor square-taper bottom brackets over external cups because of their durability (I chose the IRD Tenacity open ball-bearings). But good quality and good-looking square-taper cranks are getting scarce, or plain non-existent for 1x specific drivetrains. All in all, getting an old road square-taper crank with a common 110 BCD seemed like the most logical option. They’re reliable, easily replaceable, and look great with a 36t narrow-wide chainring from Blackspire. This Sakae crank I found in an old parts bin in the shop’s basement. In the end, it makes for a pretty wacky, completely mis-matched drivetrain that isn’t supposed to work, but it does. I just love “cheating” with drivetrains like that, it’s fun and it makes me feel like I won over planned obsolescence. The rest of the bike came along randomly: DMR pedals I have used on many of my bikes, the grips have a cool name (shoutout to Death Grips fans), the flowery housing (definitely of lesser quality) comes from a weird French website Julian stumbled upon, saddle is just a good ol’ C17 (I’m too lazy to take care of a real-leather one), and Sim Works seatpost to match the cockpit. If you haven’t noticed, this bike is 100% Shimano-, SRAM- and Campy-free (except for the Campy skewers I got for the lolz, if you know me you know). Although it wasn’t a goal from the get go, I’m kind of proud things turned out that way. All of these companies make really good products, but sometimes I feel like it’s too easy to rely on them and not look at what else is out there. I am seriously in love with this bike. It’s as good a trail bike as it is a commuter. I’m perfectly satisfied with this build, but I can definitely see it undergoing many changes in the future, if I want. Julian did an amazing job designing this frame, making it a very playful, do-it-all and fits-with-everything bike that can take you wherever you want. I haven’t had the chance to take it on a bikepacking trip yet, but I’m planning on riding in Newfoundland next summer! Pics by our K0DaK kId @jochhoo
Justine's Bassi Double-Double
Justine got to know C&L through her first Bassi, a classic white Roma-Tokyo. After a few months wrenching for the shop, she added a fun Hog's Back build to her stable. Seeing them side by side in all their glory is a rare occurence, with their fun mirror image bar tape jobs and tasteful component choices. Thanks for sharing, Justine! For hi-res pics, open in a new tab Your name and the bikes' names: Justine, and my bikes don't have names but I often affectionately call them bécane one and bécane two Your favourite Montréal resto: Tough one, either Banh Mi Banh Yiu for the sandwiches or Robin des Bois for the place's concept Your favourite shop tool: Frickin' love them 4-5-6 affectionately nicknamed shuriken by Marcel, otherwise a crank puller, real satisfyin'! Your favourite meal: Depends, but I adore a good grilled salmon with an olive fougasse Your favourite part on these bikes: Cotton Brooks C17 #heaven & my Dia-Compe blue casing clips #goodstuffisinthedetails Pics by #lightbro bike pic guru @jochhoo