This week’s Readers’ Rides comes from the person behind Cars-R-Coffins, Mr. Hurl Everstone with photos by Billy Sinkford. We love a good classic homage on a modern bike, so read on below for the full story, written by Hurl!
This bike took a flight back in 2015 when I was selected to ride for the Breadwinner team at the Rouge Roubaix, as part of the Framebuilders Challenge. Eagle-eyed viewers might recall this photo from that weekend by Mr. John Watson.
In the past 6 years, I’ve raced & ridden & toured on this beauty in Louisiana, North and South Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. By the end of last season, the frame was showing some beauty marks, including a little surface rust under the downtube so I sent it back to Breadwinner early this year for a repaint. Rather than a straight redux of the white/baby blue, I knew I wanted something fresh. I grew up racing BMX, then graduated to mountain biking. Back then road bikes simply meant “ten speeds” and held no allure. However, like many, I was intrigued by John Tomac’s drop-bar mountain bikes, and stoked to see images of North Dakota native Andy Hampsten in the snow on the Gavia in the ’88 Giro.
I quickly developed a penchant for long, exploratory days in the saddle, which ultimately led me to the realization that road riding is about as punk rock as it gets, Being a lover of all things bicycling, I found few things quite as liberating as riding drop bars in the dirt, dipping into rogue single track connectors while on a 5-hour ride. Back then if you could stuff a 28c in your road bike you were lucky. I started with a Bridgestone RB-2, then a Surly Pacer, and eventually picked up an Eddy Merckx Corsa that could fit 32c Vittoria file treads.
Anyone who’s ridden a classic steel Eddy Merckx can tell you that the ride is just sublime, the perfect blend of resilience, acceleration, and comfort evenly matched. That Corsa frame moved on to a good friend of mine, and I did briefly actually own, then sold a 7-11 replica Merckx w DA 7400, but I later scored (and still have and ride) one of Andy Bishop’s Team Motorola Merckx frames, built with 25th Anniversary Dura Ace. When it came time to repaint the B-Road I bounced a few ideas back and forth with Ira Ryan, an equally obsessed fan of classic cycling style.
An early contender was the Team Z Lemond bikes, but then I had an epiphany: the classic, elegant 7-11 paint job is just too good to resist. I emailed a photo to Ira and, *boom* we both agreed that was the one. Ironically, this all transpired before I took the job at Sugar Wheel Works and moved to Portland, where I now get to see the magic happen on a daily basis at Breadwinner. When the Bready Merckx came back from the painter I was basically picking my jaw up off the floor, then set to work tracking down a crucial silver 105 kit.
The white Onyx Racing hubs were already waiting in the wings, along with my favorite tires, Panaracer Gravelking Slicks. An 20-year-old OG Moots seat post made the cut, along with a silver Whisky Parts Co. cockpit. But I think the piece de resistance is really the Paul Component Klampers (silver, natch) with the custom green + red dial adjusters. I finished assembling it and taped the bars at midnight on Friday the 13th, then rode it 104.7 miles the next day at the Swift Summit 100.
This thing is a work of art and I’m grateful and thankful every time I throw a leg over it. xoxo. – Hurl Everstone
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We’d like to thank all of you who have submitted Readers Rides builds to be shared over here. The response has been incredible and we have so many to share over the next few months. Feel free to submit your bike, listing details, components, and other information. You can also include a portrait of yourself with your bike and your Instagram account! Please, shoot landscape-orientation photos, not portrait. Thanks!
