Andy's Forever Gen 1 Piolet

Hey near neighbors!

 

I'm writing to you from nearby Washington DC about my first generation Piolet I have had since buying the frameset new in July 2017. I picked the bike up as part of my journey from roadie to dirtbag, in preparation for a couple big off-road bike touring adventures I had planned for spring 2018. Originally built with 650b wheels and 3'' tires, jones bars, and a 1x11 XT drivetrain built around a new-at-the-time MUSA Endless Bike chainring. I rode this bike through the sand and swamps of central florida as part of the 2018 Huracan 300 bikepacking race and 500 miles across rugged New Mexico backcountry riding the New Mexico Offroad Runner bikepacking route on my way to putting more than 1200 miles onto the bike in its first year. 

 

Since then it's become the venerable parts bin bike and has seen 29'' tires, drop bars, oddity bikes moto bars, and all manner of rack and bags. It has served as my in town hauler and grocery bike, super commuter, snow bike, and bike camping rig. Today it is a dedicated coffee wagon, and still gets ridden at least once every other friday to Coffee Outside DC, which we believe is the nation's longest running coffee outside gathering (since 2015!) I ride it with the same jones bars and thomson post and stem it started with, 29'' wheels, and an 11 speed sram shifter and BB7s. Amazingly, the Endless Bikes 34t chainring has never left the bike, being part of every iteration and build since new. The chainring, like the frameset, work as well today as when new. 

 

I've never once thought of parting with it, and thanks to liberal use of framesaver, all the abuse I have thrown at it has only resulted in a few small dings and some surface patina.  

 

anyway thanks for a great bike and a lot of memories!