When I decided to do AIDS/Lifecycle, I couldn’t. Lung was stoked to do it (remaining, until now, the biggest feat Team Lope has ever seen, going from no multi-gear experience to riding Toro 600 miles in a week, with 5 months of prep) but I had a family situation that precluded my involvement. The following year, I wanted to do it, but between Lung taking a year off and my baby arriving, you know, THEN, it wasn’t in the cards. But this year, we’re in it. And I’ve had a LONG time to think about it. I had been content to do it on my carbon Look road bike, but after his first ride, Lung came back super fired up about the few folks he saw out there doing it fixed. You may recall his notes on the journey here. He announced we’d be doing it fixed, and so we are.

I have a lot of bikes. I like to build them, and I like to ride different ones on different days for different reasons. Each one rides differently. When we agreed we were doing ALC fixed this year, I knew I had a couple of candidate bikes to use, but none were a perfect fit. Ghostal, by now complete, is a smooth fixed gear bike with track drops, allowing for cog replacement as needed, but is heavy by road standards. Villain, on the other hand, is built out of a carbon road frame and fork. However, with vertical drops and some slightly dodgy mods, it didn’t provide me with great comfort, thinking about being out there day 3 and having the BB jack up or the drop threads strip. And it would only allow for one other magic gear, and it wasn’t ideal. As light as that bike is, it’s not perfect for being relied on long-term over long-distance. Well, far be it from me to shy away from a fairly unnecessary new bike build challenge! So, I spent some saved cash (stay tuned for the resulting fire sale to make up those monies, ha) and for the first time ever, finally went whole hog on the track frame I’ve wanted since the day I saw it.

What ride is this? What mystery frame have I teased Lung about for a week now?
I think you know!
We marveled at it here, wondered at the guys riding them here(there’s some foreshadowing for you) and lamented the price here. And if you note my comments across those threads, I loved the frame, but was stunned they rode the TdC course on it, and assumed they would be impossible to get anyway, being in a limited run of 1000.

Well, I got one, and am stoked as you can imagine.

Lung and I have very similar tastes regarding bike stuff, as a general rule. This frame was, along with the Leader, one of the two I always fancied. Lung picked up the Leader and is riding it in June. So, our Team Lope Tyre Clubbe stable will be well represented.

The name? Crook
As in ‘by hook or by crook’
as in how I’m going to drag may ass to the end of that ride!

More to come!

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1. Bike Build Process Log: Crook – Front End Work
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3. Bike Build Process Log: Crook Type 3 Conversion