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A Slice of Chico, California Framebuilding History: 1984 Fillet Brazed Mountain Goat WhiskeyTown Racer

Radar

A Slice of Chico, California Framebuilding History: 1984 Fillet Brazed Mountain Goat WhiskeyTown Racer

I’m not sure what got into me this year but I’ve been on the hunt for some vintage bikes. A few months back we looked at an Eddy Merckx Corsa Extra I built up with Dura-Ace 7400, an arguably pretty bike yet it’s nothing special per se. Now this project will be even cooler. It’s a 1984 Mountain Goat Whiskeytown racer I just picked up from Second Spin Cycles

A Downright Functional and Stylish Do-All Bike: Dax’s BTCHN’ Bikes Cruiser

Reportage

A Downright Functional and Stylish Do-All Bike: Dax’s BTCHN’ Bikes Cruiser

Last year I was visiting the BTCHN’ Bikes shop to shoot some process photos for the Sierra Explorer project and got stopped in my tracks as soon as I walked into the door by a different frame in a stand. This frame was totally unlike any design I’d seen before, and there was so much hard thought and problem-solving that went into making it a reality that I couldn’t even open that door of my brain and had to just stay on target with the bike I was actually there to shoot.

An Interview with Tyler of BTCHN’ Bikes About His New Raw Mullet Gravel Prototype

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An Interview with Tyler of BTCHN’ Bikes About His New Raw Mullet Gravel Prototype

 Most of you know I’m attracted to weirdos and eccentric people, so of course I love stopping by the BTCHN Bikes shop here in Chico to see what Tyler is welding on. He’s spent most of his life racing all types of motorcycles at insane speeds, and has been adapting the hyper-analytical engineering he’s learned in the motorized world into pedal-powered machines he pushes to equally scary speeds. He’s also one of the most enthusiastic people I’ve ever met, so imagine that he’s yelling and gesturing wildly with his hands as you read this interview about his latest prototype.

BTCHN’ Bikes: the Latest Chapter in Chico Framebuilding

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BTCHN’ Bikes: the Latest Chapter in Chico Framebuilding

BTCHN’ Bikes, the latest chapter in Chico Framebuilding
Photos and words by California Travis

The small college town of Chico, California has been home to a few very notable framebuilders over the years. Jeff Lindsay starting out building road bikes is 1972, and was one of the first pioneers to create mountain bikes under the name Mountain Goat in 1981. Bob Seals (inventor of the Klean Kanteen and Cool Tool amongst other things) took modern geometry and quality materials, combined them with classic curvy steel cruiser aesthetics and founded Retrotec Bicycles in 1992. Mitch Pryor of MAP Bicycles took custom randonneuring frames to the next level of meticulous perfection in Chico and then Paradise.