Friend of Crust and all around nice guy, Joe Redbeard, swung by the shop last week while he was in town to take part in the Mountaincat 100. The Mountaincat is a 100+ mile singletrack-centric race held here in Richmond every summer. It features all of the local singletrack greatest hits, as well as some low-key cut throughs and a bit of gravel. Joe has a bunch of cool bikes to choose from to take on the Mountain Cat, including a rim brake Romanceür and an old Bridgestone MB. When it came down to it, he chose his chilleür bike, his Rivendell Gus Boots Willsen. The Gus has the perfect combo of comfort, strength, and stability to take on the 100+ miles of techy East Coast singletrack in early summer heat. He actually snagged his medium Gus from us back in December and has slowly pieced it together into the rig you see above. The build is pretty damn sick and features a smattering of excellent choice components. When he showed up to the shop with it I knew I had to shoot some photos of it before he left. He was kind enough to oblige, and I’m stoked on the whole set of photos. The Gus ended up carrying him a full 100 miles the day of Mountaincat, though he did end up having to deviate from the route just a bit, but hey, who cares!? Sounds like he had a blast atop this beauty of a bike. For all who care, here’s a little rundown of what Joe has on Gus based off me just looking at these photos:

For a cockpit he’s got a Crust Ron’s Ortho Bar clamped in what looks to be a 110-120mm Velo Orange Stem, wrapped in a bit of Newbaums, and some cork Ergon Grips. He’s got some Avid long pull levers hooked up to some trusty affordable Shimano v-brakes. His Microshift thumb shifters are hooked up to a couple Shimano derailleurs, the rear one being one of those coveted bluish-gray XTR rapid rise ones. Wrapped around his bar and stem are a couple of very nice looking offerings from Makeshifter Canvas Works. Under said handlebar bag you’ll find a Busch + Muller IQ-XS (the Eco-Friendly kind), that’s powered by his Velocity Dynamo front hub. That front hub, as well as the Velocity rear, are both laced to a silver 27.5″ Velocity Cliffhangers, wrapped in 2.4″ WTB Riddlers. He’s got some tubes in those tires, or maybe not, but the important thing here are the recycled skateboard valve caps made by our friend Kaleb over at themoregooder, check him out. I can’t remember what I’m missing here minus the Riv Silver crankset, the Brooks Professional saddle with a special bandana/ tool wrap from our buddy Todd, and the full length Zefal HPX frame pump, but I think the rest is pretty self explanatory or unimportant. This bike has a ton of character and is a blast to look at. Thanks again for letting me shoot it Joe!