After I wrote my original review of the Nature Boy, I got a lot of emails asking why I had chosen to set a singlespeed cross bike up as a townie. Initially I felt like I had good reason then after putting on a Nitto Campee rack, my once-light cross bike was rather heavy and bulky. Then I bent a fender and I felt like it was time to ride this thing how it was intended to be ridden.

Check out more photos below.

While I enjoyed the fenders when it was raining, I hated the overlap and noise when it wasn’t.

Now the bike looks a lot better in my opinion and rides a lot nicer. It’s lighter and begging for bigger tires.

I put my trusty Unicanitor #2 on it and wrapped the Salsa bars with the Mike Giant Cinelli tape.

Since switching the bike over, I feel like I ride it a lot more. I’ll take it on my morning route, logging around 30 miles with no problems. I even took it a bit off-road the other day.

My hopes are to actually make it out to a cross race and compete. After all the work I put into getting the Nature Boy into townie mode, it was fighting me to be a proper cross bike. It rides a lot nicer and I think it’s a lot happier. I can’t wait to cover it in mud!