Bikes of BBP & Their Humans: Meet Saxton!
Happy to be here for another installment of Bikes of BBP & Their Humans. Saxton’s bikes are so cool. You’ve probably scoped tons of pics of his daily rider but might not have seen intel on some of his other rides. I’m excited for him to share about his Bontrager with you today…
Name: Saxton Turner
Pronouns: He/Him They/Them
Role at BBP: Bike Shop Manager
Bike make & model: Bontrager Race Lite. I choose to believe Keith welded it but theres no evidence i’m aware of to support that.
When did you build your bike?: I believe I built the first iteration of this bike at the end of September 2019. It is my BBP 1 year build, and I’d been scheming awhile so I wasted no time throwing it together.
Your bike name: I call it the Bong Rager but it has no personified name
What’s the story of your bike?: This frame showed up at BBP shortly after I started working on the building team late in 2018. It came in as a mostly complete bike adorned with some of the flashiest, blingiest vintage components I’d seen at that time. Paul brake levers, Caramba cranks, 90’s cnc porn stuff. All the best bits were broken, as that era of American-made bike parts tend to find themselves. Even the frame was in a state that the shop wouldn’t sell. Another LBS (local bike shop) managed to rip the derailleur hanger off while trying to helitap it. However, I will give them, their repair is pretty clean (aluminum hanger tapped and bolted in place). Being pretty smitten with the frame and having little concern about the derailleur bugger, I squirrel-holed it and considered what it could be.
I decided what it could be is the best winter rig. My scheme was to build a 26” fixed gear (twentiesixie fixie) with around a 1:2 ratio, studded tires, and front & rear v-brakes. This was mostly inspired by my friend Ben’s commuter/mountain bike. He rides an old High Sierra with a fixed cog. The whole thing is on the edge of exploding, always, and he rides it everywhere. Truly motivating.
Some months passed, and a Bontrager switchblade fork (coveted stuff!) showed up at the shop. It was the correct steerer tube diameter and length so it went in the hole with the frame. They’re held together with an old tange headset, it may have come with the fork or frame, I don’t recall. Popping out of the steerer tube is an old SR slingshot stem clamping down some dirt bike bars I got at the moto-scrap yard that used to be down Chinden. They’re 840mm wide, weird flex but whatever.
To accommodate to vertical dropouts I had to find myself a white industries rear hub, which is eccentric, to allow for chain adjustment. Lucky for me, my buddy Teague had recently laced said hub and an xtr front to a set of rhyno-lite hoops (ryhno-lites are the rim of the Proletariat) and was willing to part with them for a fair price. I’ve got a Surly cog and lockring married to a surly chainring via ⅛” kmc chain that was donated new to the shop. The cranks are some ancient Race Face square tapers that have the length hand etched into them (172.5.) Those are spinning around an old Tange cup’n cone bottom bracket. We didn’t get much snow this winter, nor was the final build ready in time, so the supple tan walls have made do.
I’ve got my fair share of accessories strapped to this bongrager, most noteworthy being the hite-rite hangin on the zoom seatpost and the weird little bell that former BBP mechanic/current roommate/forever tight homie Nic made from random bits with a cute lil cowboy drawing on it. I’m pretty brand loyal to King Cage so I fitted one of those on my seat tube and used my other bottle cage mount for a plastic stash bottle (it’s all above board, don’t @ me). Because I don’t know how to leave my house for the day without packing everything I could possibly need to survive the next week I usually have a frame bag, stem caddy and Carradice Bagman support so I can move around with layers, food, water & skateboard. At this time, I will not go into the front derailleur on my forks.
What’s your favorite feature on your bike?: The bars. They are wide enough to concern, confuse and, offend people and color match the frame
What’s your favorite ice cream?: Chocolate & peanut butter
What does Jimmy (Executive Director) appreciate about Saxton?: “Since the day we hired Saxton, he’s always been willing to walk with one foot in the ‘stretch zone.’ When there’s a challenging situation, he’s the first to step up. When he doesn’t know the answer, he goes searching for it. When he’s missing a skill, he learns it. That’s a rare quality, and because he embodies it so visibly, it rubs off on others and helps us all grow with him. He’s also a freaking weirdo, rides weird bikes, and make the rest of us weirdos feel right at home.”
What does Jason (shop mechanic) appreciate about Saxton? “I met Saxton a couple of years ago when I first started coming to the BBP. One day I was looking for a weird sized seat post. When we couldn't find one in the shop, Saxton offered to fabricate one from a piece of pipe, at home, in his free time for me (some random guy he had just met). That's the kind of generous person Saxton is. He would literally give the poncho off his back to a person in need. He is an awesome mechanic and I learn a ton from him every time we work together. I feel very fortunate to know Saxton.”
What are you currently doing during our shop closure?: Learning how to run a bike shop/service department and surfing a wave of existential dread.
