Industrious Hunting Rig - Nothing short of Outstanding

Saw this one at a clinical site I visited for school, specifically the Montana State Mental Hospital.  Unsure if this belonged to a patient or staff.  It's a little tough to make out in the photo but there are mounts for a long gun across the handlebars.  Tremendous.

1987 Trek 830 Antelope

Paid a little too much at the Good Samaritan.  They're a charity so sometimes I rationalize using that as an excuse.  This one sat there for awhile.  I talked to the bike guy and he went down half so I pulled the trigger. No plans for it yet... just thought it was cool.  I'm a big fan of steel frames and Trek is a longstanding company with a lot of good products out there.  Now it's mine.  What to do with it?

Early 80s Vitus 979 Dural Racing Bike

I was truly blessed to have been able to own this bike.  From France... Bonded Aluminum frame, almost weightless and super flexy... interesting and fun ride.  I built it with whatever I had around, 7 speed setup with downtube shifters and it rode like a dream.  It was a touch too small for me and had a weird size seatpost that was hard to find and expensive to buy.  Riding this bike was pure joy.  Frame and fork were given to me by a friend.  I would love to find one of these in my size someday.

2009(?) GT Peace 9er Multi

My new mountain bike... still in the honeymoon phase with this one.  Decided to join the 29er craze.  Steel frame and rigid, with disc brakes.  A nice upgrade indeed.  So far I really like this bike on our local terrain.  I'm not a very aggressive rider so it will work out nicely.  Of course, I'm still very interested in a full suspension rig...... someday.

1998 Gary Fisher Kai Tai

Bought this bike in 1999.  I believe it's a '98.  It was a rental bike at Colorado Bicycling Adventures in Estes Park, CO.  It gave me 11 good years of service.  Wheels and drivetrain are about to become part of the other GF in my collection.  Obsolescence is tough... sorry old girl... you gave me a lot of good years.  Replaced by a rigid 29er.

1985 Bianchi Stelvio

Traded a few bucks and some old ski gear for this frame and fork.  Built it up for Kate with parts I took off my first road bike (Shimano <gasp>).  Nice old steel.  I wish it fit me.

1991 Gary Fisher 16th Anniversary Hoo Koo E Koo

Another Festival of Cycles bike.  Built it up single speed and using it as a commuter.  Decided to trade around some parts and build it up for some years of service.  I really like this one.  I was lucky to find it.  I was on the lookout for a vintage steel mountain bike.  Got by cheap with this one.

1984 Peugeot PH-10L

Before & After.  Enjoying this one.  Bought a flip-flop single speed wheelset and some time trial bars and built it up.  Pretty happy with it so far, but didn't get much time to enjoy it before the snow fell.

1979 Peugeot U0-8E

Two of these showed up together at the Good Samaritan... this one and a much smaller one, but same model and interchangeable parts.  Combined good parts and came up with this.  Really enjoyed this one, but just a touch too small.  Built it up as a single speed and old it on Craigslist for $40.

Schwinn Criss Cross

Don't know much about this one.  Cro-Mo frame with 700c wheels.  I've seen these with drop bars and skinny tires too.  Frame geometry is a little more mountain bike than road bike.  Certainly a "hybrid".  I built this one up as a 1x7 speed for a friend.  

mid 70s Gitane 10 speed

$5 at the Good Samaritan.  Came with a Brooks B-72 saddle which alone is worth way more than $5.  I popped the Brooks off and replaced it with something I had sitting around, cleaned up and tuned the bike and sold it on Craigslist for $40.  Didn't ride very nice in my opinion.  It also was an incredibly cool color of green before years of sun and weather faded it out.  I took the $40 and bought the Schwinn appearing above this one in the blog.

70's Milano Sport - Campy Valentino Equipped

70's Milano Sport.  This one's compliments of my brother from Detroit.  A row of big old houses were declared eminent domain and going to be demolished, so Scotty went in and snagged a couple bikes from some homeless folks' stash.  Sweet.  Made in Italy.  This came with some early Campagnolo Valentino derailleurs and shifters.  Pretty cool old stuff.  Couldn't find much info on the internet about this maker.  Sweet old bike, rides pretty nice, too small for me... bummer.  Built it up fixie for a friend.

Late 70s Shogun 12 Speed

Terrible picture, sorry.  Another Good Samaritan find, $7.50.  Nice lightweight steel frame and Shimano 600 shifters and derailleurs.  Built this one up as a fixie for a friend.

Late 60's Columbia Tourist V

$15 at the ol' Good Samaritan.  Just needed a cleanup.  I put a new rear derailleur on too.  This one lives in Jackson, WY now.  Pretty bike.

1985 Raleigh Teton of the Mountain Tour Series

I like this one.  This is a very early mountain bike.  24" wheels so I think it's meant for youth.  I've always like chrome frames.  This one was pretty rough shape, not road worthy, but cleaned up pretty nice.  I'll hold onto this one and build it up for a kiddo someday.  I like the Raleigh accents stamped into the frame.  It's really similar to my Olympian... probably the biggest reason I bought it.  These are before pics.  There is no after yet.  

1983 Raleigh Olympian fixed gear

Very proud of this one.  This is a freecycles frame and fork also.  Rear wheel came from freecycles too.  Sometime after this picture was taken I got a matching front wheel.  Wheelset is Miche hubs with Ambrosio Extra 19 rims.  Nice vintage Italian wheelset.  I've always loved the way this bike feels.  To me it's a classic chrome-molybdenum steel feel.  Frame is a 58cm, so it could be a notch or two bigger to be perfect.  Right now I feel like this bike will always be as it is.  It represents my first build that I love and was a true successful build.  Good looking too.

1974 Schwinn LeTour - Opaque Blue

Came across this one at Helena's Good Samaritan Thrift Store.  Very original condition.  Built this bike up several different ways.  62cm frame which is about right for me, but never did like the way it rode.  The frame and fork now hang on the garage wall and are on the chopping block for my big upcoming downsizing event.  The pictured build is a single speed fixed gear attempt.  I always liked the way it looked... rode like a log wagon.

1991 Trek 1200

Once I found out I was having a kiddo, I decided I needed a road bike.  I thought buying parts and building it myself would be the economical route... found out differently once I started shopping.  I bought the frame and fork on ebay, wheels on ebay, got a hookup discount on some of the drivetrain parts.  Still spent a lot of money and commuted on this while I went to nursing school.  I enjoyed it but it fell out of grace for some reason.  I re-built it up for Dad, now he rides it.  He seems happy with it.

Viscount Aerospace GP

Freecycles was good to me.  I wandered in one day with some parts that I'd accumulated and wanted to donate and this baby sat there.  These bikes have a great story.  Currently hanging in the garage.  Hope to build it up again someday.

Volkscycle - The first solo build

I picked up this Volkscycle at the Missoula Festival of Cycles.  I took it all apart, sanded the frame and painted it.  Pretty poor paint job.  My philosophy on paint jobs has changed a lot since then.  I don't care so much what paint looks like anymore, sometimes the worse looking, the better.  I don't want a bike to look too good because thieves will think it's worth stealing.  Also, what you see there attached to the wall is a homemade PVC bike stand built by my friend Brandon, at my wife Kate's request for my birthday gift.  Awesome, thoughtful gift and served me well until I was given a wall mounted Park Tool bike clamp/stand which I use currently.  If I ever get a big enough shop, or start my own non-profit community bike shop, the homemade PVC stand will go up again.

It begins...

So I've been spending a fair bit of time on www.bikeforums.net and deriving pleasure from reading posts and looking of pictures of folks who just like bikes.  Some of those folks have blogs or websites where they post pictures of their collections.  I've found this inspiring to the point of starting my own blog.  I don't have pictures of all of them, but I make it a habit now to take pictures, often before and after, since my favorite pastime lately is getting them, tearing them down, and building them back up prettier and running nicely.  Ok... buckle up, here goes.  This will be neither comprehensive, nor chronological.

I should address where and with whom I got started.  I was lucky enough to live in Missoula, MT for three years.  A friend told me about MIST (Missoula Institute for Sustainable Transportation - www.strans.org) which is a non-profit organization.  One of MIST's arms is called Free Cycles which is a community bike shop where one could, at that time, show up and build a bike for free.  I went and did so, being unemployed at the time, and built up a Specialized Hard Rock from about '91 or '92.  It served me well for my time commuting to and from campus year round.  Great bike.  It started the saga and the addiction that continues to this day.  I don't think I have any pictures of that bike, sadly, but I learned a lot with that one.  I put myself together a little shop in my garage, bought a cheap tool set, and off I went.