Oxford Custom Gravel Cross Bike is One of a Kind

[@JimLangley1]

★ WATCH this video next for an extensive interview with Santa Cruz framebuilder Paul Sadoff of Rock Lobster kzbin.info/www/bejne/kKnOYqh9httrecU ★ WATCH this video next for another one of a kind vintage bicycle by Bob Jackson kzbin.info/www/bejne/bIvKeHV5fdWbqa8 ★ WATCH this video next for a review of my 2023 Trek Checkpoint SL 5 gravel bike kzbin.info/www/bejne/sJXNqYRorrh5nKc

[@Bikeops2021]

Awesome video Jim, the lugs on the Oxford... 😍

[@JimLangley1]

Glad you enjoyed the video and Jim Oxford's magnificent lugwork, Graham. Thank you for watching!

[@zundy5455]

Always informative. Thanks Jim, Love all the detailing. :)

[@JimLangley1]

I'm glad you enjoyed the video Mike!! Thank you for watching and the great comment.

[@davidburgess741]

Way ahead of it's time! I never knew about the Keith Bontrager carrying staples before. My 2003 Gt mountain bike has 1x 12-42 8 speed. The chain retention provided by the 20 and 42 chainrings that were left on. The worn out I drive fixed with a careful cleanup of the mechanism with the grease replaced with JB Weld. The rear shock spring replaced with thin steel tubing and JB Weld! Care was taken to align the sag setting dots for proper handling! No more noise from sloppy worn bushings. Actually I like my hardtail version better than the full sus!

[@JimLangley1]

Thanks a lot for watching and the great comment, David! I remember when GT hosted we journalists in Bryce National Park to see the i-Drive suspension and ride the bikes for the first time and I remember how nicely they rode. It's super cool that you're keeping yours running well and with JB Weld no less! I understand about the hardtail, GT made some super fast bikes back in the day, just ask Juli Furtado, one of the greatest of all time. Enjoy those bikes!

[@BuffsVintageBikes]

Very interesting and certainly ahead of the curve, thanks for sharing Jim 👍🏼

[@JimLangley1]

You're very welcome, Buff, glad you enjoyed the show! I enjoyed your channel, too - nicely done. I subscribed!

[@BuffsVintageBikes]

@@JimLangley1 Thanks Jim, welcome on board 😁👍🏼

[@Automobiliana]

I remember reading about those Oxfords of yours way back in Bicycling magazine. Always an event when the latest issue landed here in Stockholm, Sweden in the 80s / 90s.

[@JimLangley1]

Those were great times - thank you for remembering 🙏- and in Stockholm! Thanks for watching and commenting, you made my day❤️

[@thedford]

that is one awesome bike!

[@JimLangley1]

@@thedford thanks a lot for watching and commenting Thedford, I’m happy you liked the bike! 🙏

[@manresarods4947]

I raced cyclocross that year, too. Keith Bontrager made me a 26 inch wheel lugged frame cyclocross bike with cut down super champion rims and a prototype modular Bontrager fork. Pretty sure I had those 1.75 IRC tires, too. I had a standard road stem and handlebars and it had short, nimble geometry. As yours was, it was quite stable That year my mountain bike was stolen so this bike filled in as my mountain bike on many rides in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Gravel bikes have been around for decades.

[@JimLangley1]

Thanks for telling me about your custom Bontrager, Manresa, sounds like a wonderful bike. I know that Ross Shafer at Salsa was making some cross type bikes even earlier (he lived in Santa Cruz back then), and I believe he inspired Keith and Jim and other builders too. In this photo from my Santa Cruz Cyclocross History story, the guy going through the trees is Mark Michel and he rode a Salsa - very fast too. jimlangley.net/spin/art/cyclocross84Rin2_lg.jpg Thanks a lot for watching and the awesome comment, appreciate it!

[@ulrichr.487]

This is one of the cooles bikes I have ever seen, pretty interesting!

[@JimLangley1]

Glad you enjoyed liked it, Ulrich! Thanks a lot for watching and commenting, appreciate it 🙏

[@kyle_c936]

Sure is one of a kind, Jim, but fascinating - it's like, same principle, different interpretation of just about everything, but it all makes sense when you explain it. (I live just a short bike ride away from the original Bonny Doon, btw - the River Doon in Ayrshire, Scotland - the Brig o' Doon, the old bridge over the river, is less than ten miles away - just didn't ever know there was a Bonny Doon in California! The village where I live has about the same population - everybody says hello to everybody else because we all know each other.)

[@JimLangley1]

Thanks a lot for watching and the great comment, Mark, appreciate it! I visited Scotland in 1990 for a the KM150 cycling festival and wrote a story about it for Bicycling Magazine: jimlangley.net/spin/wheeling.html I've never been to the original Bonny Doon but Glasgow, Edinburgh and Drumfrieshire were spectacular and your River Doon sounds magical. So that you don't have to come here🙂 I made a video of a ride I took in Bonny Doon before the huge fire that burned so many of the trees there (they will recover eventually): kzbin.info/www/bejne/e6rboq2Hr8ZjrZI Thanks again - FYI my middle name is McLellan so I'm actually part Scot and proud of it.

[@simonsmith2794]

Beautiful Jim , very lucky to have such a machine x that headset arrangement is cool, does it have a threaded steerer all the way through or does it have a part threaded and non threaded section ?

[@JimLangley1]

Thanks for watching, glad you liked the bike Simon! The fork has a regular threaded steerer & headset, and at the top of the fork there's a non threaded tube inserted and brazed inside the steerer to attach the stem. That was Jim's idea for attaching the custom stem - though I am pretty sure bikes in the 1890s had that arrangement too or something similar, which could have been where he got the idea. Thanks again!