1991 Brodie Sovereign
- Thread starter pw_pw_la
- Start date
pw_pw_la
Senior Retro Guru
pw_pw_la
Senior Retro Guru
Ooooo, where did you find that?
I like the idea of it in the original color too, but I don't know if enough to get it repainted.
At least not yet!
Never say never though, of course. I might get bored in a. few years and fancy revisiting...
pw_pw_la
Senior Retro Guru
pw_pw_la
Senior Retro Guru
Right then, time for a bit of an update...
This is gonna take a minute, so bear with me.
(I've said that before!)
Anyway, back in the summer, not too long after my last round of updates, I took a tumble on a group ride trying to avoid a pedestrian suddenly crossing my path. (I trashed my ride on a Total Trash ride!) And this spill sadly resulted in a bent hanger, the derailleur failing so badly it got caught in the spokes, trashing both the wheel and the derailleur along the way.
Luckily, I was fine. But all this meant the bike would need some pretty major work to get it back on the road. Not in any great need or rush with the Bontrager just recently finished, I decided to store it away for a few months while I collected the parts I'd need, as well as few others I planned to swap in for the few things that were still bugging me about the previous build.
The idea was to spruce things up a little with a few extra touches of WTB and Ritchey, and then install the custom ICR stem Paul Brodie had agreed to make for me as part of another batch he was doing.
Well, as you may have heard, Paul has been very unwell recently, to the point of a long hospitalization, and although I believe he is now out and recovering, and well-enough to have made a new YouTube video, he's still not in good enough shape to return to the machine shop just yet. Honestly, I don't know if he ever will be, or what this means for the stem, but any worries about any of that truly pale in comparison to the joy of knowing that Paul finally appears to be doing a little better, and home now at least.
Like many, I'm wishing him all the luck and good health in the world. I know what it's like to be fighting off a serious illness and how that can take every ounce of your strength, as well as its own mental toll.
Anyway, what do with the bike in the meantime?
Well, nothing was the plan. I had other projects on the go, and no real need or reason to move forward with the Sovereign anytime soon.
But then I got more sad news: my preferred LBS here in LA (a place that has really made me feel at home over the past year) would be closing its doors at the end of this year.
In fact, is closed already!
However, luckily, I've developed a good friendship with the mechanic there, Mauricio, and he'd told me on that ill-fated Total Trash ride to bring the frame in sometime to have the hanger realigned, so I figured I should at least get that ticked off while I could.
But the thing with Mauricio is, once he gets going with something he loves to just keep going! So after a bit of back-and-forth and encouragement/pressure from him, it was decided to make the rest of the changes/upgrades I had planned, and I would think about a stem at some other time.
I'm currently, half-heartedly, looking for a nice ti McMahon in 1 1/8", just in case I don't get a chance to add the custom Brodie. As I think it would make a nice pairing with the rear MRC Powerlink. I'd also planned to build a new wheelset, using a pair of NOS WTB classic hubs, but so far my hunt for a pair of equally minty 36 hole rims has proved fruitless.
Still, I'd hit on another nice wheelset a few months back that I was thinking of using on the Merlin eventually, but decided those could go on the Sovereign in the meantime instead!
All-in-all the following changes have now been made:
1. The WTB SST saddle has been replaced with a lovely black perforated Turbo (an actual eBay bargain in 2022!)
2. Some (second, third generation?) Phil Wood hubs laced to Mavic 261s (with a monster 7 speed Sachs freewheel) have replaced the mix-match and battle-scarred original wheels.
3. An NOS XT headset in black has been installed, to match the rest of the group.
4. A minty set of (Dia-Compe made) Ritchey Logic brake levers in black and silver have also been added. Which is nice callback I think to the beat-up black ones the bike originally came with.
5. A WTB titanium bar with a little more back sweep has replaced the previous, slightly straighter version.
6. Ye olde faithful American Classic bottle cages in black went on, replacing the King cages which have found a new titanium-heavy home!
7. A Brodie u-brake booster was installed to the rear McMahon Powerlink, from a fresh batch Paul made this summer for the Vancouver bike swap. This one curtesy of @Warhorse, who was kind enough to pick one up and ship it down to me! I've always loved these, and was thrilled to be able to add that extra touch of Brodie excellence!
Other than that, everything is pretty much as it was. The QR skewers on the bike right now are temporary parts bin specials that I added some orange o-rings to in order to feel better about! The only other silver skewers I had on hand were a set of Ringle Holey's, which, while they matched the aesthetics of that brake booster nicely enough, didn't seem quite right for this bike. And are currently earmarked for another project besides!
I actually quite fancy a set of Campy MTB skewers for this bike, if I can find some?
Anyone?
Be nice if only to match the dust caps that came with the crankset.
Oh, yeah: the crankset!
Along with the beautiful brake levers, my fairy bikemother @RetroRider_IT supplied me with an absolutely mint, presumably NOS, set of Ritchey Logic cranks, complete with matching rings. I'd wanted an all silver crankset for this bike, and had been nervous to ride those Topline cranks anyway. So this felt like the perfect solution. As well as very much in keeping with what I was hoping to do with this bike in general: a handful of hopefully low-key yet choice changes and upgrades that still felt in line with the soul of the bike as I'd inherited it.
Hopefully I've still managed to achieve that?
Anyway, some photos of all the above will be attached to a subsequent post, but I'm awaiting a quiet weekend over the upcoming holidays to apply the decals I've had on hand for a while now before taking a few overview shots of exactly how the bike sits now.
Those with a keen eye may well spot the direction I'm going with for those decals tho...
This is gonna take a minute, so bear with me.
(I've said that before!)
Anyway, back in the summer, not too long after my last round of updates, I took a tumble on a group ride trying to avoid a pedestrian suddenly crossing my path. (I trashed my ride on a Total Trash ride!) And this spill sadly resulted in a bent hanger, the derailleur failing so badly it got caught in the spokes, trashing both the wheel and the derailleur along the way.
Luckily, I was fine. But all this meant the bike would need some pretty major work to get it back on the road. Not in any great need or rush with the Bontrager just recently finished, I decided to store it away for a few months while I collected the parts I'd need, as well as few others I planned to swap in for the few things that were still bugging me about the previous build.
The idea was to spruce things up a little with a few extra touches of WTB and Ritchey, and then install the custom ICR stem Paul Brodie had agreed to make for me as part of another batch he was doing.
Well, as you may have heard, Paul has been very unwell recently, to the point of a long hospitalization, and although I believe he is now out and recovering, and well-enough to have made a new YouTube video, he's still not in good enough shape to return to the machine shop just yet. Honestly, I don't know if he ever will be, or what this means for the stem, but any worries about any of that truly pale in comparison to the joy of knowing that Paul finally appears to be doing a little better, and home now at least.
Like many, I'm wishing him all the luck and good health in the world. I know what it's like to be fighting off a serious illness and how that can take every ounce of your strength, as well as its own mental toll.
Anyway, what do with the bike in the meantime?
Well, nothing was the plan. I had other projects on the go, and no real need or reason to move forward with the Sovereign anytime soon.
But then I got more sad news: my preferred LBS here in LA (a place that has really made me feel at home over the past year) would be closing its doors at the end of this year.
In fact, is closed already!
However, luckily, I've developed a good friendship with the mechanic there, Mauricio, and he'd told me on that ill-fated Total Trash ride to bring the frame in sometime to have the hanger realigned, so I figured I should at least get that ticked off while I could.
But the thing with Mauricio is, once he gets going with something he loves to just keep going! So after a bit of back-and-forth and encouragement/pressure from him, it was decided to make the rest of the changes/upgrades I had planned, and I would think about a stem at some other time.
I'm currently, half-heartedly, looking for a nice ti McMahon in 1 1/8", just in case I don't get a chance to add the custom Brodie. As I think it would make a nice pairing with the rear MRC Powerlink. I'd also planned to build a new wheelset, using a pair of NOS WTB classic hubs, but so far my hunt for a pair of equally minty 36 hole rims has proved fruitless.
Still, I'd hit on another nice wheelset a few months back that I was thinking of using on the Merlin eventually, but decided those could go on the Sovereign in the meantime instead!
All-in-all the following changes have now been made:
1. The WTB SST saddle has been replaced with a lovely black perforated Turbo (an actual eBay bargain in 2022!)
2. Some (second, third generation?) Phil Wood hubs laced to Mavic 261s (with a monster 7 speed Sachs freewheel) have replaced the mix-match and battle-scarred original wheels.
3. An NOS XT headset in black has been installed, to match the rest of the group.
4. A minty set of (Dia-Compe made) Ritchey Logic brake levers in black and silver have also been added. Which is nice callback I think to the beat-up black ones the bike originally came with.
5. A WTB titanium bar with a little more back sweep has replaced the previous, slightly straighter version.
6. Ye olde faithful American Classic bottle cages in black went on, replacing the King cages which have found a new titanium-heavy home!
7. A Brodie u-brake booster was installed to the rear McMahon Powerlink, from a fresh batch Paul made this summer for the Vancouver bike swap. This one curtesy of @Warhorse, who was kind enough to pick one up and ship it down to me! I've always loved these, and was thrilled to be able to add that extra touch of Brodie excellence!
Other than that, everything is pretty much as it was. The QR skewers on the bike right now are temporary parts bin specials that I added some orange o-rings to in order to feel better about! The only other silver skewers I had on hand were a set of Ringle Holey's, which, while they matched the aesthetics of that brake booster nicely enough, didn't seem quite right for this bike. And are currently earmarked for another project besides!
I actually quite fancy a set of Campy MTB skewers for this bike, if I can find some?
Anyone?
Be nice if only to match the dust caps that came with the crankset.
Oh, yeah: the crankset!
Along with the beautiful brake levers, my fairy bikemother @RetroRider_IT supplied me with an absolutely mint, presumably NOS, set of Ritchey Logic cranks, complete with matching rings. I'd wanted an all silver crankset for this bike, and had been nervous to ride those Topline cranks anyway. So this felt like the perfect solution. As well as very much in keeping with what I was hoping to do with this bike in general: a handful of hopefully low-key yet choice changes and upgrades that still felt in line with the soul of the bike as I'd inherited it.
Hopefully I've still managed to achieve that?
Anyway, some photos of all the above will be attached to a subsequent post, but I'm awaiting a quiet weekend over the upcoming holidays to apply the decals I've had on hand for a while now before taking a few overview shots of exactly how the bike sits now.
Those with a keen eye may well spot the direction I'm going with for those decals tho...
Last edited:
pw_pw_la
Senior Retro Guru
I actually took the bike out on a pretty extensive trail ride right after these photos were taken, and I have to say: it rides every bit as nicely as I remember, and these changes make me love it even more.
And I still don't hate the completely random Ibis stem, either.
In all its weird, pop of colour glory!
And I still don't hate the completely random Ibis stem, either.
In all its weird, pop of colour glory!
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