My wife and I have been married for 15 years this September and she lives with my bike passion every day. This website. Grease on the floor. Bikes hanging from the walls. Half the basement is overrun with frames and parts. She puts up with it all, and for her 45th birthday, I wanted to do something special.
Late last winter, I spotted an old Kona on the side of the road, a common way of discarding bikes here in Victoria. It was an early '90s tan Hahanna. Neglected and forgotten, most people would have walked past, but I saw potential. I called Brigitte, excited. Her reply was simple. “Not another bike project.” I hauled it home anyway.
I stripped it down and wasn't surprised to find that most of the parts were way beyond any safe usage. However, the frame and fork survived. Once it was cleaned up and ready, I hung it on the wall and promptly forgot about it for months.
In the spring, I realized it would make the perfect gift for my wife's 45th. A bike she could casually use. Something to ride with me, the kids, or just around town. It was also intended to be my first 26er conversion project.
The Hunt
At first, there was a lot of excitement on my part, and many late nights scrolling through Facebook Marketplace. I found some classic mid-90s XT derailleurs and shifters, the very parts I used to drool over at my local shop as a kid, and there they were, just mere dollars. I bought them immediately without knowing what I did not know.
I was gunning for a mid-level build. Not cheap and not too fancy. Brigitte had always wanted a pink bike, and we looked at the Bassi Hogs Back and the Massacan Paula, which are both fantastic bikes but a bit out of the price range for the project. Visually, I was hoping to add pink accents and chrome bits to the tan frame, along with matching tanwalls and a Brooks B17 women’s saddle to top it all off.
The Build
As usual with all birthday gifts, I procrastinated a little too long and found myself under pressure to get the bike ready for the rapidly approaching date. I turned to Fort Street Cycle. Adam, the manager, and I brainstormed while I dumped all my ideas on him in a very rushed session, hah. I brought the XT parts. I mentioned the Brooks. The chrome. The pink. Adam and his team made it all work. In the end, the XT was left out, and instead they built it with a wide range 11-speed CUES drivetrain. They found a new crankset and added lovely chrome Sycip Wonderbars and a Wald 1372 basket.
Anyone who has done a 26er 1x conversion will tell you that it is never as straightforward as it looks. The final bike turned out exactly how I had imagined. A mix of bargain bin parts and shiny new bits. A platform we can build on forever... almost like our marriage.
I cannot thank the Fort Street team enough for the effort that went into the birthday bike.
The Reveal
When I finally gave Brigitte the bike, I could tell she had already guessed. At first I thought the kids must have spilled the secret, but she just noticed the frame was missing from its usual spot on the wall while it was at the shop.
Still, when the bike rolled out in front of her, she lit up. She was proud to have a bike built just for her. She loved the tan frame with pink grips and immediately asked for even more pink. We talked about a basket, and now a HMPL pink-walled bag is soon to be in the works. She did pause at the flat bars, a little apprehensive, but she is slowly warming to them. Drop bars may come later, but for now, the flats make sense.
It wasn’t the build I first pictured. I never really got my hands dirty or learned as much as I thought I would, but calling in the pros was the right move. The bike came together beautifully, and in the end that mattered more. Plus, I still have that old XT set on display in the shop as a reminder of where it started.
The Kona is just right for rolling into town, grabbing groceries, riding with the kids, and sneaking onto the trails with me. But the real gift is that it lets me finally share some of this bike obsession she’s been putting up with for the past 15 years.
Love you, Brig,
Barry
