Written on August 13th, 2024 By Summer Hanson
When Justin brought this Bridgestone to our collection (after I had expressed my desire for smaller bikes to sell and my affinity for purple bikes), I sort of fell in love with it. It was a good fit for me, and I loved the curved handlebars, sturdy steel frame, good tire clearance, and various eyelets for racks and fenders. It was a perfect candidate for an all-terrain bikepacking bike, and I selfishly wanted it for myself! This was even before my love affair with Rivendell, which probably only would have made me want to keep it even more.
Justin challenged me to time myself and try to finish a tune up on it in a day, and I certainly didn't (Sorry Justin). This was my second bike project, so I was still pretty slow, and as this seemingly had a past life as a beach bike, I took it upon myself to clean the greasy sand from every crevice of every part of it.
I mostly restored all the original parts, swapped in some cushy GravelKing tires, and I consulted with Tori, our most cheerful barista and the creative mastermind behind our logo design and social media accounts, to help me pick the colors of the cable housing, which I wanted to be cute and match to accents found on the bike decals, but not look like ketchup and mustard bottles. Those turned out to be my favorite part of the bike, and Anne's too.
Anne came by to test out several of our bikes of a similar ilk, to transition from road riding to being able to ride on trails too. With none of them being quite right for her, I had her try this Bridgestone, before I had really decided if I was going to sell it or not. She fell in love with it, and I just had to let her have it. Luckily, bikes are abundant in my life and I still had my trusty Fuji that I've been riding since middle school to ride around in the meantime.
Not pictured is the matching red bottle cage I added as a final touch, and the new saddle that Anne swapped in after riding it for a while. Anne has reported back several times to note how much she's loving her Bridgestone, and I gotta say, it's further boosted my confidence and passion for bike building. Thank you, Anne, and happy riding!
-Summer