My Bikes

This space is where I will introduce the bikes I ride and the bikes I build. While some of the bikes I ride are commercially available, others are hand made by me. All the bikes that I build myself use the '9 Lives' branding and cat face makers mark as well as cat themed naming.

1974 Fuji Roadracer Tourer

My first road bike. As with many of my past bikes, this one was saved on it's way to the recycling bin. This is the low end of the Fuji range from the 70s. Built like a tank with a weight to match, I love this bike, but it's not ideal for long trips. This was unfortunate since for much of my recovery after my knee replacement, this was the only bike I had access to.

1976 Carabela Semi-Pro

Made in Mexico with butted Columbus chromoly tubing and Cinelli style lugs, while this bike shares an era and general style with the Fuji, it is an entirely different animal. Relatively light weight for the era and equiped with an unusual mix of quality components, this bike is a joy to ride and a great vintage tourer. It is a very uncommon model, only ever sold in North America, so it is very likely this is the only one that exists in Japan.

2018 Specialized Allez Sprint DSW

This bike was brought into being after I took the Fuji on a nearly 300km ride through the mountains of Hokkaido. My friends who rode with me saw how I struggled and upon realizing how heavy it was they banded together with their unused and uneeded parts, and thanks to their kindness I have a truly excelent bike now. The incredibly light DSW aluminum frame equiped with Vision carbon wheels, 105 brakes and rear derailluer, Ultegra crank and front Derailuer. It's the first truly modern road bike I have ever owned and I could never ask for a more capable bike.

9 Lives Alleycat

The first bike frame I ever made. Made to match NJS specs with a basic lugged fixed gear design but with added brake mounts to make it street legal. This bike is light, nimble and fun. Unfortunately, I'm a bit of a masher and with its thin butted tubing, I tend to flex the frame so much on launch at the BB that the wheel scrapes the inside of the chain stays. I'm already working on a more robust fixed gear frame to become my new commute bike.

9 Lives Bobcat

This bike is a bit of a wild concept. Inspired by the shape of my dad's old radio bike, falling squarely into the klunker revival trend, this bike has a few oddities that make it stand out. Made from a mix of Columbus and Tanke butted chromoly tubing, the frame is suprisingly light for a mountain bike. The bull moose bars were also made by me specifically for this bike complete with a cantilever brake cable stop. Yes, this bike has 1980s Shimano cantilever brakes and levers. The wheels are custom made 29 inch wheels with a machined brake track for the canti brakes complete with Kenda 29x1.95 Small Block 8 tires. Finish it off with a 32t chainring matched to a 11-36t 8 speed cassete and a 1980s Suntour 3 pulley derailluer driven by a Paul Thumbie friction shifter. Truly a one of a kind full rigid trail bike.

9 Lives Caracal

This was my 3rd handmade bike frame. It was made to be a relaxed, but responsive adventure bike frame. This bike pairs a sub-compact 2x crank with an 11-38t 9 speed cassete. Throw a rear carrier, panniers, Kitchen Sink bars and a fork with triple mounts on it with a pair of 27.5x1.95 tires and you have a phenominal touring and bikepacking bike. It's slower than it feels, but when you're still feeling fresh and comfortable after 6 hours in the saddle, you don't care that it's not that fast.

9 Lives Pantera

This bike was a challenge to make. I didn't have access to a proper pipe bending rig, so I had to torch bend all the curves in this frame. This was tough since I chose to use butted tubing with a wall thickness of 0.6mm. This frame was inspired by the Hummingbird from Cherubim and is reasonably light for a steel frame. While not as aggressive as the position on my Allez, the forward lean is noticeable and really prods you to ride like you have someplace to be. The bike puts a smile on my face to ride and the older silver components I managed to track down really make is a classy little steel rocket.

credits

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