BoTM Bike of The Month February 2025 "lugged special", now taking entries

[Guigui58]

Great theme for this month!

Here’s mine : @Guigui58 1985 Miyata Ridge Runner SE.

The Ridge Runner SE shares the same triple-butted, lugged frame as the standard Ridge Runner. However, it came equipped with a full Deore XT groupset and extra braze-ons, including mounting points for a third bottle cage under the downtube and mid-fork mounting points (at least in North America).

I love this bike; I’ve been using it as my daily commuter for the past year! I’m trying to keep it as original as possible. Unfortunately, some parts were beyond salvaging, such as the rear XT derailleur with the infamous Super Plate. I did my best to replace them with high-end, period-correct (ish) parts.

No build thread, unfortunately.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

full Deore XT groupset

Black Deerhead thumbs!!!

 

[27motorhead]

Already sweet entries this month, I may as well add another Japanese made beauty.

Dr Dremel´s 1988 Bridgestone MB-1 Comp

No build thread unfortunately, as this is largely original. So here´s a little backgound: This was my father´s bike which he gave me when he stopped cycling some years ago. He told me he did 10k kms on it, but judging from the condition of the rims - cool story bro

Apart from a full service to get rid of the old grease in every bearing, all I did was replacing the sticky grips, changing back to a fresh set of Ritchey Force Duro K WCS tires (from the IRC city tires which he had mounted from new), mounting Koolstops to get rid of the hard as glass OG XT pads and replacing the 0deg 150 Ritchey Force stem with one with more back friendly ergonomics. Even the inner tubes are still Bridgestone branded. I´m sure there was even some air from ´88 in them when I changed the tires

It´s really eye opening when you ride a bike that fresh, especially the 730 XT drivetrain. That satisfying "clunk" makes you almost wonder what all the hype around HG was about. Contrary to the "Comp" moniker it´s not a nervous race machine. I mean It´s no slouch and can handle technical terrain just fine, but lacks the pop and "telepathic" handling from later NORBA geometry bikes. It gets ridden regularly and I´m pretty sure in the mean time I did more (real) miles on it than my father ever did.

So that´s the story, here´s the pics

View attachment 925665

View attachment 925666

Cheers
Dr

Amazing story and bike!