(click link for photo album)start at $110
(and up, depending on features)


Everything Bag (click link for photo album)
- one bag only - $50
- one bag with p clamps or hose clamp mount - $60

Bar bag with pocket $75

Check out the Product Picture Album
Contact me at jeremycleaveland@gmail.com for questions or to order.

Payment can be sent via paypal to this email. I do not accept credit cards. Cash/check is fine too. Prices include shipping to the 48 continuous states.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Fatigued Fisticuff

Way back in 2009, Vassago had their legendary Black Friday sale, and I picked up a Fisticuff.

Last month, after about 11,000 miles, I noticed a 1 inch long fatigue crack in the weld at the top tube - head tube junction.  Rather than risking a catastrophic failure, I contacted Vassago (now under new ownership). They still carry the same crash replacement policy, so I picked up the latest Fisticuff and built it up to replace my old Snickers Brown friend.

Here's some of the adventures the original Fisticuff survived.  The write up will finish with a brief comparison of the new and old Fisticuff frame sets.

The build up was very simple, dinglespeed with mostly spare parts.  I even ran a v brake on a Mavic A317 disc only rear rim.... and it worked great.

The bike was inspired by the spare parts pile and the screaming deal, and as a commuter/do everything bike.




The bike was soon clad in my third or fourth frame bag ever.  My first ever seat bag came along for a 120 mile ride in January from Lake City to Gunnison, CO.



Then a great deal on a Phil Wood bottom bracket and DT/S-Works rear hub led to a remake of the bike - new handbuilt by me wheelset, gears,.....



During the summer of 2010 a soft tissue over training injury in my left calf inspired the development of a one legged bike system.  It turns out that a 31.8 mm stem clamps perfectly onto the downtube of normal steel bike frames.  Then cut the steerer tube off an old junk fork for a peg for the left foot, add a toe clip on the right pedal, and you've got it.





And then I went back to school for Mechanical Engineering and needed a commuter bike.  I swapped the 32 mm cross tires for 35 mm slicks, an Old Man Mountain rack, and (embarrassingly) a math study sheet.
I soon found out that the math study sheet was distracting while biking in traffic.



The Old Man Mountain rack was "graced" by a Cilogear 40L backpack rigged up to be a pannier (freshmen do weird things... especially former mountain guide freshmen).



Somewhere in there my calf healed up well enough to go back to a normal two pedal bike.  I also got smart and made myself a pannier bag/pack.





There were two advantages to the Snickers Brown paint job....
An uglier bike is less of a thief magnet.
The bike looked best covered in mud.



Cold hands on a wet road/dirt road ride?  No problem.... just find some scrap plastic on the side of the road.



















And then, soon after making a new frame bag for the Fisticuff, I noticed the fatigue crack.... oh no!



Vassago customer service (the new owner himself) responded within hours to my customer service request and set me up with a new frame at a nice discount via the crash replacement policy.

The new frame fixed everything I didn't like about the first version.  The color options (graphite or white) are much better than Snickers Brown without being too flashy.  The rear dropouts were much improved by including built in chain tensioners and an adjustable disc brake mount for the singlespeed crew.  The head tube is taller and the top tube and down tube are spread apart more for better aesthetics and reduced fatigue stress in the junction.
The parts swapped over seamlessly from the old bike and the bike rides really nicely.
As a nice bonus, the frame bag also swapped over nicely.  Not a perfect fit, but good enough to not make another one.




So there you have it.  The first edition Fisticuff did everything you could ask for from a multipurpose adventure/commuting bike (unfortunately most of the miles are commuting).  The bike worked great and without the fatigue crack I would have kept on riding it indefinitely.  The second iteration of the Fisticuff fixed all the problems I had with the first version.  Anyone who wants a steel do everything adventure/commuter/cyclocross/road/dirt road  bike and wants the flexibility to run ANY type of drivetrain or brakes should take a serious look at the new, improved Fisticuff.  This combination of options is not found on any other cyclocross style frame to my knowledge.

Yesterday I rode the new Fisticuff 14 miles (each way) to go on a 12 mile trail run in the snow.






Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Cleaveland Mountaineering Christmas Sale!



Cleaveland Mountaineering Christmas Sale!

Custom frame bag base price - $90 (save $20).
Everything Bags - $50 each WITH P clamps (down from $60) or $45 each without P clamps.

Things in stock right now:

1 new blue VX42 seat bag - $90
1 used blue VX42 seat bag - $70
2 new blue VX42 Everything bags - $100 for the set with P clamps
1 really really used(9,000 commuter miles) black VX42 frame bag for a 54 cm cyclocross frame (Vassago Fisticuff) - has new #10 WR main zipper, tapered front, left map pocket.  $30.
1 gently used frame bag for a 15" Motobecane mountain bike, main zip and reflective only.  VX42 white side out.  $40.

The two used frame bags MIGHT fit your bike too - I can get you frame measurements so we can compare the fit.

Here is the black used frame bag next to its replacement for my daily commuter bike.



And here is the commuter with the new frame bag - tapered front, fully padded, dual compartment, map/lock pocket, white side out for better visibility, and bright green webbing and reflective for more visibility.



Friday, October 25, 2013

There and Back Again, A Moots Tale

Here's a fun little story my wife and I wrote about her new to us Moots YBB frame.  Its a major testament to Titanium as a frame material that it lived at the bottom of a lake for about a decade and emerged in great riding condition.

Check it out over at the Moots blog:
http://moots.com/afternoon-ti/there-and-back-again-a-moots-tale/

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Bike Access Adventure Climbing

Recently, two other bearded adventurers and myself headed off to seek our fortune and celebrate self reliance and the Freedom of the Hills.

Our bikes were laden with just enough climbing gear and provisions for about 600 feet of adventure climbing.  We set off down the road well after dawn so the sun could warm up the crag.


The bikes were stowed and we racked up for the climb.  We took two 65 meter ropes to combine a few short pitches, a small rack, and not quite enough food and water.

As they say around here, all you need is "A rope, and a rack, and the shirt on your back."

Bar bags work great for carrying a climbing rope if you make the rope coil short and tight.  My harness, shoes, and personal gear fit nicely in the seat bag, with more slings and such in the frame bag.




We cranked out a few pitches of fun climbing, including a brief bit of vertical bushwacking, and I remembered what it felt like to be higher off the ground than the chair at my desk in the engineering building.  We proceeded to the top and our rope gun had me lead the final easy pitch to the summit just to make sure I still could.




The descent involved some really fun bushwacking and scrambling back to the bikes and some casual dirt road riding back out to some great soup cooked in a dutch oven over a camp fire by my wonderful wife.


















Friday, August 16, 2013

Alpine Wanderings

The last two weekends, we got up to the mountains.  First we went to Telluride with my wife's dad and explored an old mining building at the end of a long hike.  The next weekend The Beard and I hiked a couple semi-technical 13,000 foot peaks in Lake City.  We got hailed and rained on and got the 2x4 truck stuck on a 4x4 road.  My much more sensible wife hung out in town and rode in the World Championship Stick Horse Show.  Here are the photographic highlights.






This is love here folks.

Monday my senior year in Mechanical Engineering school starts.  The summer engineering internship was a blast.  I got to learn a lot of new skills, get my hands dirty in the machine shop, worked hard and had some fun.  Now for the last lap in academia.