The best bike company?

I've spent a fair bit of time waxing rhapsodic about my two Crust Cantilever Lightning Bolts. Best bikes (of their kind) in the world. No offense to the great Constructeurs, past and present, but though their bikes are undoubtedly more beautiful, prestigious and coveted, I can't believe they perform substantially better than the Lightning Bolt, the best production version of the classic Rando bike.   

https://crustbikes.com/blogs/builds/black-bolt-in-bethesda

https://crustbikes.com/blogs/builds/peggy 

Bikes are supposed to be fun, aren't they?

But buying, assembling and owning a "special" bike like this means more than the average consumer acquisition. I've owned Treks, Specialized, Fuji and Giant bikes. In the process of owning these bikes, I have had the good fortune to form relationships with folks at local bike shops, which I would generally recommend over direct-to-consumer purchasing, though LBS folks run the gamut from helpful to scornful, and in some cases, seem increasingly to be shills for the company store (I'm talking to you, Trek). Still, I've found these companies to make good products and generally back them up through what sometimes seems like their increasingly short lifespans (I'm talking to you, carbon fiber). 

I once snapped the derailer hanger on a USA-made Trek Madone Project One, and was amazed when Trek covered the entire repair under warranty, along with shipping to and from Wisconsin. No questions. No hedging. Kudos to Trek. A great consumer experience, facilitated by my local Trek dealer. 

Despite these positive experiences, I have never felt a sentimental, personal attachment to the designers and builders responsible for making the bikes. John Burke? Mike Sinyard? Undoubtedly interesting guys with rich backstories and impressive credentials, but even owning several of their products, I've never gone to any trouble to learn a thing about them or their companies. Likewise Fuji and Giant. Crust is different. 

Maybe I'm just biased toward small, quirky, boutique companies that make niche products (I am). Perhaps I fancy myself an iconoclast who resists popular trends (I do), or I'm too easily influenced by the cool kids who go against the grain (I am). Or maybe I have fallen completely under the mesmeric sway of the vélo-Svengali Jan Heine, the über retrogrouch Grant Petersen or Sheldon Brown, patron saint of fun, practical cycling. All true. Nevertheless, I maintain they are all correct in their assertion that the mainstream bicycle industry places too much emphasis on the "sport" cyclist, at the expense of all the rest of us who want bicycles that are practical, fun, durable, inexpensive and easy to maintain. In short, against the enshitification of bicycles. Examples:

• Does your bike use proprietary parts or standards supported by only one or few companies? Shitty
• Does your bike need batteries to operate? Shitty 
• Does your bike need hydraulic fluid to stop? Shitty
• Do you need a mobile app to tune your bicycle? Shitty
• Is your crank limited to a single gear? Shitty 
• Does your bottom bracket make incurable, ungodly creaking sounds? Shitty 

There are a few small companies still making non-shitty bicycles, and though Rivendell is probably the preeminent example, Crust is among them. Unlike Rivendell, most Crust bikes are designed for disc breaks and 1 1/8 inch head tubes, and all the appurtenances that go along with them. And of course you can choose to put electric shifters on any multi-geared bike if you want. And carbon fiber forks are starting to work their way into the lineup. But they also still make all-steel, rim brake bikes designed to use technology that has stood the test of time and will likely survive much longer than proprietary press-fit bottom brackets or battery-powered shifters. And they'll be cheaper, more comfortable and look better doing it. All hail the analog metal bicycle! And thanks to the companies that still make quality versions of them. How can you not form an emotional attachment to such non-conformist characters?     

As you know, I recently assembled my second Lightning Bolt (Peggy, short for Pegasus - above). I had planned to get a set of Pacenti Brevet wheels for the bike, as that's what I have on my other Lightning Bolt, but while personally picking up the frameset at Crust International Headquarters, I spontaneously decided to pick up one of Crust's dynamo 650b wheelsets. What I didn't recognize was that the wheelset I got was for 135mm rear spacing, while the Lightning Bolt has 130mm spacing. Apparently Garrett didn't notice either. Even Travis Evans from Just Riding Along Bike Shop, who did some of the initial assembly on the bike (headset, bottom bracket, etc.) didn't notice; or at least didn't say anything. At first I thought, well, whatthehell, I'll just leave the wheel in the frame and eventually it'll cold-set to the new size. What could it hurt? That was just me being lazy. But it was also me being stupid - why modify a brand new bike because I bought the wrong wheels? 

Crust 135mm rear wheel

I had no intention of actually cold-setting the frame, and the wheel was wedged into the rear triangle so tightly that removing it to fix a flat was damn near impossible and took a lot of paint when I tried. So I resolved to reach out to Crust and see if there was any way I could resolve the situation without having to buy an entirely new wheelset. They only sell assembled wheels as complete sets and I only needed the rear wheel. So I reached out to Garrett who immediately responded, "Woah, dang, really!? Could you send me a photo of the hub???" We went back and forth a couple of times, but ultimately, he sent me a new wheel and a return label for the old wheel. Just like that. Another satisfied customer. 

So I have two very satisfying experiences. One with the megabike corporation and one with the little boutique company operating out of a cinder block hovel in South Richmond. Why do I feel affection for Crust, but not particularly for Trek? Partly it's to do with how I came to discover Crust and my subsequent identification with the personalities at the company and my growing affinity for the "alt" bike online community with which it is often associated. 

Of course, it all starts with Grant Petersen. He's been floating around in my consciousness for so long, I can't possibly recall when or how he got there. But he was there long before I could afford a Rivendell, and has remained a guiding light of sanity as I made my way through what I presume to have been a necessary infatuation with bicycle racing and racing bikes (call it my 30's and 40's). The next catalyst for my transition away from racy bicycling was Eben Weiss, the venerable BikeSnobNYC, whose writing I almost certainly encountered first in his column in Bicycling magazine, a publication that used to mysteriously show up in your mailbox after joining the League of American Bicyclists (LAB) or making certain bicycle related purchases. Back in the late oughts and teens, I was also reading Lovely Bicycle which was covering the low trail/650b trend. I'm pretty sure that lead to a subscription to Bicycle Quarterly and Jan Heine, godfather of the trend. 

I was riding a Trek Madone Project One at the time, but starting to dream about these curious, classic steel cyclotouring bikes with fatter tires and the ability to carry more stuff - it was a return to my original dream of traveling by bike - should've bought that Trek 520 when I had the chance! I was skeptical about having a bike custom built (and wouldn't have known what I wanted anyway) and there really weren't any inexpensive "production" options available. I fiddled around with an '86 Fuji Allegra I bought on Craigslist, but really only managed to assemble a bike that looked like what I wanted. It's geometry was still a typical Bike Boom sport bike's and I wasn't enough of a mechanic back then to do a proper conversion to 650b. 

1986 Fuji Allegro

Then came the BQ review of the Cycles Toussaint Vélo Routier in 2014. It wasn't exactly a glowing review, but more of a, "want to try low trail/650b without spending a lot of money?" type review. I hemmed and hawed long enough to miss out on the first version, but snapped up a DIY build when v2 came out. It helped that I had just destroyed my Madone driving into a parking garage with it on the roof rack. So that was my first foray into this exciting new world of unconventional, Randonneuse bikes. I liked it, but the Vélo Routier still didn't rise to what I was beginning to suspect were the unrealistic expectations Heine created in describing the classic mid-century Rene Herse bikes and subsequent custom frames he was advocating. It was good, but not great. Then came his glowing review of the funky looking Crust Lightning Bolt. I mean it was an uncharacteristically positive review. And of course, if you were looking for a second opinion online, you were definitely going to run into the piece by the Radavist. This is where shit got weird. How could it not, encountering Ronnie Romance for the first time in his speedo.      

I bought a bike from this guy? Ronnie Romance puts the Alt in Alt Cycling.

Meanwhile, I had been watching YouTube videos from Path Less Pedaled. Party Pace? Sounds right to me. I'm not likely to be found riding a bike wearing Crocs, but the reminder that riding bikes is supposed to be fun was exactly where I was in the arc of my cycling life, and what has come to be known as Alt Cycling was, and is, really appealing to me. A couple of versions of the Lightning Bolt came and went and then came a model in glittery galaxy black. It took me about 10 minutes to pre-order one. The rest, as they say, is history. 

Pegasus soars

You may recall that in September 2024, in a fit of FOMO, I bought a Crust Lightning Bolt Cantilever frame in Light Sea Green. In my most recent post, I noted that I was nearly finished assembling the bike, and I can now confirm that I have achieved a state of substantial completion. It's been a longish process, and I'm glad to be [nearly] finished. All that's really left is tinkering with some of the very minor details, such as where exactly to mount the headlight. I think otherwise, the bike has turned out exactly as I hoped. 

Crust Lightning Bolt Cantilever Light Sea Green - XS

The bike is very close to the ideal randonneuse as long described in the pages of Bicycle Quarterly magazine. When interviewed by Russ at Path Less Pedaled, Crust's founder Matt White said, "shake the pages of Bicycle Quarterly and this fell out." Jan Heine himself validated the bike in BQ 70 writing, "The Lightning Bolt takes much of the performance, handling and versatility of our favorite bikes and makes them accessible to a greater audience. That is a cause for celebration." 

I, for one, am definitely celebrating.  

You may recall that this is, in fact, my second Lightning Bolt. Back in 2022, I bought the one in black. It's been my main bike ever since, and I honestly think it's the best bike I've ever ridden. I kept Blackie light, without lighting or fenders. There's a rack, but no decaleur, so I tend to use small bags like the Zimbale in the afore-linked bike check, or the Berthoud Alex Singer Mini Bag. But I wanted to have a full-blown randonneuse, outfitted with fenders and dynamo lighting, so when Crust uncharacteristically put the frames on sale in September, 2024, I had no choice but to grab one. Come on, $975 for the finest steel production frameset ever made? Fuggetaboudit. 

Now it's finally come together after a year and three quarters. As before, I had Travis at Just Riding Along Bike Shop (JRABS) prep the frame and install the headset and bottom bracket. This time though, I let him run the cables and housing and set up the whole drive train. In retrospect I should probably have done the cabling myself, since after fiddling with fenders and the rack, I ended up having to redo it anyway. But I was a bit nervous about installing the front derailer clamp, so I just had him set up the whole thing.  

Campagnolo Veloce 10-speed front derailer

As mentioned in my previous post, I spec'd this bike very similarly to its doppelgänger, looking to create essentially an identical bike for poor weather and winter riding. I stayed with the same drivetrain, featuring MicroSHIFT MTB 2 x 10 bar-end shifters, and their "Mega" rear derailer, paired with Velo-Orange's 46/30 crankset, shifted by a Compagnolo Veloce front mech. The headset is the same 1-inch threaded Campagnolo Record, but the bottom bracket is an Origin8 TorqLite square taper. Pretty much exactly the same set-up as Blackie.   

Origin8 "Classique" levers with MicroSHIFT MTB 2/10 friction shifters

MicroSHIFT "Mega" rear derailer. 47 tooth capacity

The cockpit is where components are just a hair different. I scavenged the 80mm Soma Sutro stem from my old Fuji, and paired it with a pair of 44cm Nitto B132 Grand Randonneur handlebars I bought some time ago. This makes the bars 2cm wider than the 42s on Blackie, just a touch higher and 20mm farther forward. I suspect it all works out in the wash; at least I haven't noticed much difference between the two setups in the admittedly short shakedown rides I've done so far. I also opted, as you'll note in the picture below, for a shiny Japanese Crane bell procured from the local shop Terrapin Bicycles, rather than the spiffy Spurcycle bell I have on my other Crust. 

Soma Sutro stem, Nitto B132 handlebar, and Crane bell

 I used the same Soma Mini Champs-Elysees mini front rack, but here's where I first ran into trouble. There isn't room between the fender and the bottom headset cup to fit the "diving board" rack strut. I had the same issue with both my Cycles Toussaint Vélo Routier v2 and my previous Lightning Bolt. Sorting out the Vélo Routier took some fancy metal bending, owing to the presence of the center-pull brakes, but for the Lightning Bolt I took the lazy way out and just turned the strut upside down. Not by any means the best solution, but it worked and got me on the bike without having to make another trip to the hardware store. I also didn't have to fiddle with the angle of the brake's straddle cable. 

Tire clearance; who needs it?

For the green Crust, that solution wouldn't work, because the fender is in the way. So I bit the bullet and bought a chrome spacer that moves the strut forward enough to clear the headset cup. Everything about the solution is superior. The diving board didn't need to be bent much, it doesn't interfere with the fender, and it generally just looks more "right". I've subsequently added a spacer to Blackie, so both bikes are set up the same, i.e., correctly.

1/4 x 1/4 inch chrome spacer pushes out the rack strut from the fork crown

At the sharp end of the fender I mounted a Busch + Müller IQ-XS dynamo headlight using the included mount, taking advantage of the Crust dynamo wheelset I bought with the frameset. I'm not crazy about how far forward it puts the light, and may end up trying to mount it below the rack using a Nitto lamp holder (#7), or the très cool DIY chainring solution. 
 

Busch + Müller IQ-XS dynamo headlight

Though I had initially planned to use a plastic chainstay protector, I ultimately decided to use bar tape to match the handlebars. I had contemplated wrapping the chainstay in that cloth tape/twine Rivendellian way, but abandoned the idea because I'm just too lazy and don't have any cloth tape or shellac and am not inclined to wrap my handlebars that way. Also, I had bought some cheapo "celeste" tape on eBay and completely hate it - it won't last on the handlebars for long - so I had a bunch of it at the ready. So, I'll peel off the adhesive and keep it around to wrap the chainstay. I might even try it on Blackie, just for shiz and giggles.   

Crappy bar tape works fine as a chainstay protector

Crust says, "The Bolt's Fork features our new Gran Trajet Fork Crown meaning they suit a 48b tire perfectly, and will fit 42s with fenders. The Gran Trajet fork crown is designed to perfectly mimic the arch of a fender like the Honjo Smooth 62, to leave you with a seamless look." I'm not a fan of smooth fenders, since they tend to show the inevitable scratches and dents. I thought I might get away with the SimWorks by Honjo Turtle 58 fenders, which have that traditional "hammered" texture, but they've been out of stock the entire time I've been looking for them. 

On my two other fendered bikes, I've used Velo Orange fenders and have been pleased with them. Though I was extremely hesitant to go with the Wavy 58mm model, fearing they would just be too weird looking, they were immediately available and seemed like they'd be the right size. In the end I'm glad I did. The bike has a typically Crust-ian funky aesthetic, with its ridiculous Cooper lettering and the odd doodles all over the frame, so I figured what the hell, might as well lean into the funkiness with the mind-bendingly psychedelic wavy chrome. Thrown on a Blue Lug mini triangle reflector for some alt-bike cred, and I think the whole package looks pretty good. Plus, they went on with relative ease. No issues with the front derailer. No funky drilling needed. I did have to do just a bit of metal bending to squeeze the front edge of the rear fender between the chainstays, but nothing you'd really notice. And they integrated with the rack perfectly, so there's a bolt fastening the two together, which gives them both a more solid structure. AND, I got the fenders on sale for just over half what the Honjos would have cost. Score! 

Reflective Blue Lug energy!

Speaking of the bike's doodles, I presume the figure to the left of the decal is Zeus, but does anyone know who the woman to the right is? Hera? Aphrodite? Astrapè? And what about the constellations and urn on the inside of the non-drive side chain stay? Anybody got any ideas about possible meanings? Anyhow... 

Zues and a mystery woman adorn the Lightning Bolt's downtube

So now the bike itself is in pretty good shape, with all the functional bits working. I added a pair of Velo Orange Moderniste stainless steel bottle cages, a Silca Impero Ultimate II frame pump, and what turns out to be one of the last Acorn Medium Rando handlebar bags (they just announced their retirement). The saddle is an old Specialized Avatar I had in the bin of unloved saddles, and the Shimano PD-M540 pedals were scavenged from another bike. 

All dressed up and ready to go

Of course what self-respecting Crust owner wouldn't "virtue signal" with some enamel pins, so the bag got one each from The Satanic Temple of Salem, Massachusetts, Crust and Blue Lug's famous Tobidashi kun.

One of the last of the Acorn Rando bags

 Now there's nothing left to do but ride. Time to let Pegasus soar! See you on the roads. I'll be the one with the goofy grin on his face.  

Pegasus, carrier of Zeus' thunderbolts 

 Build List

• Handlebar: Nitto B132 Grand Randonneur (44 cm)
• Stem: Soma Sutro (80mm)
• Shifters: MicroSHIFT BS-M10 MTB Bar End (2/3 x 10) 
• Brake Levers: Origin 8 Classique Sport Road Levers
• Front Rack: Soma Champs-Elysees Stainless Mini Rack 
• Front Bag: Acorn Medium Rando
• Computer: Garmin Edge 25 (discontinued)
• Bell: Crane E-Ne (chrome)
• Brakes: Avid Shorty Ultimate Cantilever Brakes (set to "Narrow")
• Crankset: Velo Orange Grand Cru 50.4 BCD Crankset 46/30, (165 mm crankarm)
• Bottom Bracket: Origin8 TorqLite (68x118)
• Pedals: Shimano PD-M540 SPD Clipless Pedals Silver 
• Front Derailleur Clamp: Venzo 28.6 Braze On Adapter - Silver 
• Front Derailleur: Campagnolo Veloce (9/10 Speed)
• Rear Derailleur: MicroSHIFT XLE RD-M62L
• Cassette: SHIMANO CS-M4100 Deore Cassette 10 Speed (11t - 42t)
• Seatpost: Nitto S65 (250 mm)
  
• Wheels: Crust WR Rim Brake (dynamo)
• Tires: Pacenti Pari-moto (42 mm) 
• Pump: Silca Impero Ultimate II frame pump
• Bottle Cages: Velo Orange Moderniste
• Saddle: Specialized Avatar (discontinued)
• Front Cable Hanger: Crust 1" 24 Palms Headset Spacer + Cable Hanger Kit (silver)
• Rear Cable Hanger: Nitto AS-1

New Crustation

Remember this? Well, it now looks like this:

2024 Crust Cantilever Lightning Bolt, XS in Light Sea Green

The build is nearly complete - just got to sort out the front rack, and wrap the handlebars and drive-side chainstay. It's pretty similar to my black 2022 Lightning Bolt, though I'm using Crust's dynamo wheelset, a Sutro Quill Stem from Soma Fabrications, and of course, have added a set of Velo Orange wavy fenders. 

Once I get it complete, I'll provide details and a bit more context about why on earth I have built a nearly exact duplicate of a bike I already own. More anon...