Recent Work

4x6 card / Design: Montague

11x17 poster / Design: Montague

A scene from the Montague Projects headquarters.

A Powder Coat Resurrection

I recently had an old bike of mine powder coated, it is a fairly cheap way to feel like you have a new bike. This is now my winter bike, set up with mustache bars, and a 3-speed coaster brake hub and long aluminum fenders.

New Life, a powder coated frame

I had an old frame of mine powder coated taxi cab yellow. It is a pretty profound transformation. I'll post the finished bike when the build is done.

My New Bike

I know this blog is mostly about books but, bikes also take up a big chunk of my brain. And right now I can't stop riding and thinking about riding my new bike. Three weeks ago I bought a complete Surly Cross Check in robin's egg blue. I switched out a number of parts immediately, including the handlebars, tires and saddle, and added long fenders, a rack, bell, etc. I also scratched off all of the Surly logos which, thankfully, Surly makes easy to do (it's a great company but their graphic design is not the best). Down the road there are all sorts of ways I could improve the components, but for the moment I'm very happy with this set up. Aesthetically I would love to have a Brooks saddle on the bike, but unfortunately my body seems to demand an "ergonomic" seat.

This is the bike I intend to use for long day rides and light touring, most of my around town riding is done on my Raleigh One-Way. The longest ride I have been on with this bike is 83 miles, I'm planning a ride to Toronto and back in a couple weeks, and that will be 108 miles each way.

Front Derailleur: Shimano Tiagra, FD-4500 Double

Rear Derailleur: Shimano Tiagra , RD-4500-GS Mid-cage

Crankset:Andel, Forged arms, Silver aluminum, granny ring compatible. 110mm BCD rings, 36 & 48t, ramped & pinned, Black

Bottom Bracket: Shimano , BB-UN54 68 x 113mm

CassetteShimano Tiagra , HG-50 9-speed 12-13-14-15-17-19-21-23-25t

Chain: SRAM PC-971 , 9-speed

Headset: Ritchey Logic Comp, 1-1/8" threadless

Handlebar: Grand Cru Course Handlebar- Classic Round Bend

Brake Levers: Tektro, RL340 standard levers on 52–62cm sizes, RL341 small hand levers on 42–50cm

Brakes: Tektro 992A, Black

Cable Hanger front: Tektro, 1271A

Cable Hanger rear:Surly, Stainless w/adjuster. Silver

Shift Levers: Shimano Bar-end type , SL-BS77. 9-speed

Pedals: MKS Sylvan Touring Pedals

Toe-clips: MKS Deep Steel Toe Clips

Seatpost:Kalloy SP-342 , 27.2 x 300mm. Black

Hubs: Shimano Deore , HB/FH590 32h, 100mm OLD front, 135mm OLD rear

Spokes: DT Swiss , Stainless Steel, 14g/2.0mm w/12mm silver brass nipples

Rims: Alex, DA16. 32h x 700c. Black

Tires: Schwalbe Delta Cruiser HS 392 Bicycle Tire (700x35, SBC Wire Beaded, Cream)

Fenders: Velo Orange Hammered 45mm Fenders 700c

Trunk Bag: Sackville Trunk Sack

Daily Book Graphics #601 / El Jarma

©11th edition 1971

Some Things About Cycling

This picture of me taken by Charles Lewis appeared today in the Buffalo News as a small picture announcing the weather section with the caption, "Sunday trek: Julian Montague of Buffalo rides his bicycle on an overcast Sunday in Buffalo’s Delaware Park." I was watching a Cyclo-cross race that was being held in the park. It was pretty cool and the yellow tape marking the 2 mile zig-zagging course would have been quite effective as an art installation.

The bike I use for city riding is a 2009 Raleigh One-Way (single speed 42t –16t) [my touring bike here] I've made some changes, adding long metal fenders and creme colored tires. Unfortunately, for ergonomic reasons I had to ditch the Brooks saddle that comes stock on the bike, a somewhat severe aesthetic sacrifice. I tried to ride a little of the course after the races but the mud was like a kind of paste, after a few minutes so much of it got jammed between my fender and tire that the wheel stopped turning.

Daily Book Graphics #142 / The Bicycle

This book has a lot of cool illustrations and photographs that document the state of cycling in the early 70s. Published: 1973, Illustrations: R. John Wray

My 2009 Winter Bike / The Slush Slicer 1.0

I like riding a bicycle in the winter. When I used to commute three miles to work each day, I enjoyed the challenge of trying to make it even under the worst possible conditions. Over the years I developed a good sense of what kind of bicycle works best for the urban winter environment. A lot of people assume that you would want a mountain bike for winter riding, this is not true. Fat knobby tires are useless in 90% of the conditions that you commonly encounter. Most of the time you are better off with a thinner tire that can cut through the snow to the pavement. And in situations where it is icy, knobby tires don't offer any additional traction. The other problem with mountain bikes, is that derailleurs quickly get clogged with slush and ice and stop working. non-disk brakes also stop working in such conditions. In really cold temperatures you're also more likely to have cables snap. In the past I found that Raleigh Sports three speeds worked well, because the gearing is inside the hub. But the breaking was still a problem, since the brakes on the Sports weren't that great to start with.

As a side note, I have an attic full of Raleigh Sports in various states of disrepair. My taste in bikes has moved on in recent years, but I still think they're cool. Check out this fantastic ad for the Sports from the May 1969 issue of Esquire:

Anyway, to get back to the main point, I think my latest winter bike has resolved the problems I had with the Sports. I stripped down an old ten speed Raleigh Sprite (probably made around 1976) and put a coaster brake on it. This is basically as good as it gets as far as stopping, plus there are no cables that can snap or get in the way. I was going to put a front hand brake on, but so far it has seemed unnecessary. The chain is on the smaller front cog so the gearing is about right, for riding through heavy snow or into a head wind. It is a little frustrating to not be able to go as fast as I am used to, but this is probably for the best given the winter conditions. I also use the largest BMX pedals I can find so that my big winter boots have plenty of traction. I really like the frame geometry of the Raleighs of the 60's and 70's, so I'm glad to be able to give this bike a second a second life. Hoepfully the rust won't be too terrible and I can use it again next winter.

Single speed with a coaster brake, the next craze after fixed?

The handle bars are the style that originally would have been on a Sports or Sprite, but flipped upside down. The metal fenders are the original to the Sprite.

The classic Raleigh head badge

Another side note:
While I don't have any desire to get into riding fixed gear bikes, I do like what the trend has done for bike design in the last few years. There seems to be an appreciation for the classic geometry. Many people are turning old bikes into fixies. On the site Fixedgeargallery.com people post images of their converted bikes, some of them are really great.

Snow Ride

I went for a bike ride in the snowstorm yesterday. While not the worst conditions I've ridden in, it was pretty close. The strong winds created white out conditions and a lot of drifting.

Bike Messenger 1913

Click to enlarge

I just found this picture on Shorpy.com (I highly recommend visiting this site daily). The photograph was taken in Dallas in 1913. This is the original caption by photographer Lewis Wickes Hine:

"Messenger boy in the heart of the Reservation (Red Light). Prostitutes run back and forth. Business beginning at mid-day. I saw messenger boys and delivery boys for drug stores from 15 years upward. Some still younger told me that they go there. This was in spite of a strong agitation being waged to close up the resorts."

What I find fascinating about this picture are the handlebars on the bike, they are incredibly wide and seem to consist of two separate bars bolted onto the stem.