1993 Bridgestone XO-1 Country Bike

Journal

April 6, 2023

1993 Bridgestone XO-1 Country Bike

I had been trying to buy this frameset for years from my pal, Hurl Everstone of Cars R Coffins fame. I almost nabbed it before he moved to Portland but he wasn't quite ready to let it go, and I wasn't quite ready to buy it with the parts and price he wished to sell it at. Fast forward a year and he had come into an XO-3 in a larger size and realized that he greatly preferred that fit to his smaller XO-1 and was willing to sell the frame and fork to me for the sum of $666 (natch).

I knew that I had no interest in a catalog build or one with moustache bars, I was going to build it into a Riv inspired "Country Bike." The parts kit is my favorite Shimano XTR M900 with Deore XT M732 thumb shifters with the "hidden" extra click so they'll index eight speeds. Not that I want to run them index, but it's there if I ever feel spicy.

All of the parts came from my bins and nothing was purchased specifically for this build with the exception of the front hub, spokes, and nips. We did build up the wheels fresh as previously the Sunrise Fade Mavic 217's had been laced to other hubs. Even if you don't care for the stance of my country bike, I think the parts selection is pretty spot on. The exceptions I'll grant you are the levers and the grips, but I have reasons... Namely, the levers have been with me since I bought them new in 1997 and I'm a bit attached to them. All the scars are marks of the journey they've been on with me. I may swap them out for some XT's as they would go with the bike better and present more cleanly, we'll see. The grips are merely placeholders because I want to make sure I like the stem length before mounting a set of foam grips which are a PITA to remove to swap stems.

There's still a lot of snow in Minneapolis so finding bare spots to shoot photos is a challenge. This is the reason for the grim backdrop. Sometime this Summer I'll shoot it frolicking in the wildflowers which will be much more suitable to the spirit of this country rambler.