I've had my `95 Specialized Rockhopper for twenty years now; figured it was time for a makeover. I didn't have a ute bike yet, and I wanted to make my runs to the farmer's market and grocery store on a bike, so that's where I decided to go with this build. I found the baskets in the housewares section of the local big-box store ($13.99 each, on sale), and I set about lining the bottoms with wood slats, then painting the whole thing(s) with clear lacquer, applied quite liberally in order to weatherproof them. Try to buy anything like this purpose-built for bicycles, and you would spend hundreds.

Anyway, once those were mounted, I took a hard look at the old drivetrain, and I decided to see if I couldn't update that a bit. I put in a new bottom bracket, a Sugino crank with Wolf Tooth Components "Drop-Stop" 34t chainring, a Praxis 11-40t 10-speed cassette, and a new XT long-cage derailleur. Now I ride around pulling cars out of ditches!

I've tried to keep it as "organic" as possible - after seeing how nice the baskets turned out, I bought some walnut fenders to go with them. Leather Gye's saddle and Brooks leather grips, Soma alloy platform pedals, you get the idea; I've taken great pains to keep plastic to a minimum on this build. Anyway, here it is:



It's a bit heavy, but the gearing covers that. What's the hurry, right?

Ride well,
DQR