Nonchalant Pedaler - A Second 2nd life Build Story

1990 Grisley Wasatch – 2nd life

This project came about after running into an old friend at a music event in February 2025. He had expressed an interest in finding a vintage 26″ MTB to ride around his neighborhood in San Francisco. He’d grown up in Marin County, where his musician dad hung out and would partake in certain herbs with the local Klunkerz mountain bike pioneers and innovators ; Otis Guy, Tom Ritchey, Gary Fisher et al. His best friend Jeff lived next door to Joe Breeze and another friend ZuZu had Joe Breeze as his neighbor, so he was surrounded by their creations and would witness the garage-built inventions being pedaled around on test rides with fresh welds on their wild looking futuristic frames. It was the epicenter of this movement. His first Mountain bike experience was atop a team color Ritchey Ultra that Tom Ritchey himself had put him on. He went all of half a mile and realized that the bike cost more than his parents’ car, so he walked it back to the shop. He ended up getting a Fisher Montare a few years later while working in Fairfax, California.

We had a quest now and during the next couple of months, we exchanged texts and emails with listings of different bikes for sale from the usual suspects with late night on-line digging. I would share ideas and details from past builds on how to treat them to a fresh rebirth. Some had potential, but none seemed quite right for something outstanding, or they were the wrong size, too far geographically etc., so we remained patient, until I found this ad for an unusual bike that I’d not heard of before. It seemed well ki[ed out with Deore XT components and an incredible color way. It was in a shocking state though, more from the elements rather than the sins of abusive riding and poor maintenance and I was confident that it could be rescued.

It had a French brand “Look” sticker on it and the name Grisley and Wasatch on the down and top tube. The “paint scheme” reminded me of the wild creations turned out by @savethepostalservice, but it was somehow anodized into the aluminum frame . I was excited by this prospective and let my friend know that I had found the bike for him, but couldn’t share any details until I had figured out how to seal the deal and get it to LA. I had been let down and ghosted on a couple of other occasions and didn’t want my friend to share that same feeling of disappointment.

The seller lived closer to San Diego, so I asked another friend if he’d be able to add a stop on one of his visits to his Mum down that way. He said yeah and was going to visit her in a month’s time around Easter, so I floated this scenario to the seller and did a bit of haggling on the price. The bike was cheap but I knew we needed funds to improve a good number of things and the seller was happy to sell to someone that would appreciate the bike. They had bought it new in 1990 for around $1800. The rendezvous was arranged and I was then able to reveal to my friend, the only poor non-drive-side photo from the original ad for the Grisley, along with my shopping ideas and reference images to help understand the potential for this prospective build. I said to hold off on any purchases unOl I had the bike in my possession and could give it a proper look over and determine what it really needed.

It’ll buff out :

It was a good time to pore over the details and decide what to change. The internal routing for the shifter cables was fairly simple with a plug screwed into the bottom bracket shell, but the rear brake cable along the top tube needed to be treated with care, as there was no inner guide sleeve. This cable met up with the most fantastic solid rod cantilever stirrup, that I have not seen before. The original owner couldn’t recall its origin.

It seemed like the bike on its last journey had been ridden off road and then left in that state. A bit of rust, old grease crud and oxidization on the aluminum parts.

Mercifully my friend was really into the marvelous appearance of the bike, lurking under the old grease and grime . He could see all the potential it had to create a unique looking bike with some sympathetic restoration. I strive to keep the theme fairly faithful to the styles of bikes and the

available upgrade options they had back in the day. I do allow for a fair bit of artistic license and freedom for sake of durability and expense as I want my friend to not treat it to a pampered polished life and actually use it as much as possible without it being too painful financially. We are fairly similar in height and I felt the original bars and their stem had quite an aggressive down slope stance. This cockpit would need to be raised up significantly as we had agreed to go with drop bars and a Charlie Cunningham style set-up. Those Cunningham creations have always been an inspiration for leftfield looking bikes.

This set-up required finding a suitable stem that would work with the 1 1/8″ threaded steerer. This slightly short-lived standard makes choices slightly limited, compared to earlier 1″ threaded and the current threadless headsets. Thankfully the Japanese brand has addressed the need and came up with their 1 1/8″ threadless adapter built to high quality. I then sourced the Grand Cigne stem from Velo Orange , their version of Steve Po[s designed LD – limp dick or Gooseneck style riser stem. VO told me that it needed a longer/taller adapter to fill the 55mm tall void in their stem, so I found a shim that was cut down to satisfy the extra 9mm needed.

I would trawl far and wide for original parts, or compatible components that would lead us in the right direction. Together we would weigh up the pros and cons with aesthetics and prices and narrow down the best options. As most vintage bike owners might know, it is never quite straight forward when kittng out these old bikes with odd sizes and standards cropping up and scuppering ones plans and ambitions. Compromises and sacrifices must sometimes happen when the bike Gods aren’t being kind. The choices for much of the color way was helped by the original pink and teal anodized colors on the frame and the Grisley head badge revealing a sparkling brass finish, which encouraged us to get a few accents in the details – cable ends, washers, crank dust- cap covers etc.

In my forage for the right and suitable parts to complete this set-up, I had come across some images of gravel bikes using Gevenalle brake lever/shifters on their drops. They ticked so many boxes for something wild looking to complement the bike while also having great functionality. I have done bar-end shifters, inverted thumbies and wing shifters on some other drop bar bikes before, so I was eager to try something a li[le different and new to me. I shared some images with my friend and we agreed that these levers were the right path to happiness. The Gran Compe edition with the gum color hoods and drilled levers would feel period correct and not look out of place and modern. I wanted the Marin County OGs to approve of the finished build and wonder if these could have come out of one of their own peer’s garages back in the day.

Links and shopping carts started to fill up in phases from different parts of the globe and I began to take on the disassembly and the deep clean began on the bike’s existing components that would be kept. My friend’s credit card did the other necessary heavy li1ing for the project. Sim works, Blue lug, Riv bike works, Allez bike shop , eBay etc. stocked up some lovely trinketry. We then discovered in late April, that the Gevenalle levers were sold out, but a new batch would be coming in early June. We wanted to hold out and reached out with eager requests to Gevenalle for any updates while we mulled over going from 7 speed to 8 speed on the rear . The more the merrier, while considerations for pedal options, cable colors, saddle, Ore choices, bottle cages etc. were still being deliberated.

In the afternoon on May 15th, I received a text and a screen grab from my friend with his order confirmation for the Gran Compe edition shifter/levers from Gevenalle. He had pulled his car over heading down the coast near Solvang and secured a pair of the “naked” levers that we had been patiently waiting to get re-stocked. The bike gods were smiling down on us this time. Our next choice would be what shi1 levers to use with them. We had changed to an 8 speed freehub and cassette on the rear and needed something compatible for that range. The Gevenalle website has a nice display of tried varieties of levers that will work, from my favorite Simplex retrofriction levers to Sun-tour downtube and some bar-end lever options. It would appear that almost any style lever would likely work. I thought a stubby lever would be be[er to use, so it wouldn’t cover up so much of the brake levers. My friend was not that familiar with friction set-ups but options like nice Dura ace indexed bar ends seemed incredibly expensive for a decent pair. I didn’t think anything too worn or scratched would look right with the new levers, handlebars and stem. I had used a pair of Rivendell x Dia-compe thumb shifters on another bike and with their delightful ratcheting mechanism, I reckoned these would be just the ticket and scooped up a pair from Riv bike works.

I would stalk my mailbox and make the postman quite nervous as I anxiously awaited all these shipments to arrive. The day had come when all the ingredients were together and I arranged them for an overhead photo-op, as testament to the sum of all the parts. Now assembly could begin. (Super Yummy tires wouldn’t fit – tubeless 26″ rims only ** – went with the Homage )

I sent a few pics over to Gevenalle when the levers were in place and I was cabling them up. I needed to get it right, as the prospect of having to re-do the harlequin bar wrap for the aerobrake cables under the wrap, was not an appealing thought. They recommended shortening the rear shift inner cable, so as not to have the lever go past a horizontal position. I decided to get some downtube stop washers from Riv bike, to prevent them going too far and a1er that they worked great, without any slack in the cable in the highest gear.

Within a few days and much fussing, the bike was all together and ready for its first shakedown ride. Oh heaven, was this one nice bike to ride and the way the levers felt and the ease with the shifts that felt so intuitive. I couldn’t help shi1ing more offen than I normally do, enjoying the precise upshifts as the grade of the terrain would increase.

I found this lovely Buick parked up in Elysian Park near Dodger Stadium.

My friend is going to love this bike and be as stoked as I am by it . He’ll make quick sense of how friction shifting operates. This style will be highly recommended for future drop bar bikes and still feels in harmony with any vintage offerings. Anyone in SF bay area, keep your eyes peeled for this beauty.

Sincerely,

Parts breakdown