BOX DOG JOURNAL

If you knew me a couple years ago you would have thought I was particularly impatient with my bikes and had a bad ebay habit.  You’d probably be right.  I kept ebaying the term “Columbus tubing”  and bought nearly every road bike I could get that would fit me and cost between $100-$200.  They were all pretty cool; a handful of Japanese Schwinns, a Miele even a Canapus.  In the span of about a year I bought, rode, and sold rougly 10 80’s and 90’s steel road bikes.

I figured out the geometry I liked.  I got really into using down-tube shifters.  I realized I really like road bikes for city riding.  But I also realized my issue with them:  Usually you can’t put fenders on them; and you have to wear a bag to carry things, or brutalize the frame.  Last year when Gabe E. mentioned he was going ahead to order a run of bike frames for Bos Dog Bikes, I realized that his design was what I wanted.  Light like a road bike, but not Not an 80’s trek touring bike, or the convereted custom wet painted Bridgestone RB1 I was looking at on Ebay.  It took way longer than five to fifteen days to come in the mail and it wasn’t at a bargain basement price.  But I’m not going to sell it next week, next year, or anytime in the imaginable future.  And I’m going to ride it tonnes.  I have already.Here are some photos in its current incarnation:The moustache bars?  I do like them for city riding because I can ride upright, but I’m thinking about swapping ‘em for drops again soon.  Especially if I ride a tour from Mexico city to Baja this December (keep your ears open).  I haven’t put on the fenders because it hasn’t started raining this fall in San Francisco.  The nitto campee rack is versatile.  It enables me to carry stuff on the bike, not my back.  And with a load on the front, the bike rides great!  When I first put those red 80’s touring bags on my Pelican, I rode straight down to Box Dog Bikes and kissed Gabe E. on the kneck.  True story.