April's Secondhand Le Montréal

We really enjoy tinkering with and modifying bikes here at C&L. Our personal bikes are rarely the same from one year to the next, and we're happy when someone asks us to help out with making their more theirs. We do all sorts of bikes but it's extra heartwarming when it's someone's older Bassi.

April bought this Montréal V1 in 52cm last year, secondhand. The original owner had set it up with great parts, but they didn't suit all of April's ambitions, so after a year of riding the bike and letting ideas mature, she came to us to make it more comfortable, and more appropriate for longer touring rides.

When she first picked it up from its previous owner last year, she added a rear rack for touring panniers, a light-duty front rack, a comfy Brooks B17 'S' saddle, and a good and tall Nitto Technomic stem, along with replacing the original tires with cushy and reliable Panaracer Paselas.

This year was the serious work: her new Nitto Albatross handlebar is as comfortable as it gets for upright cycling over long distances and in the city, with lots of hand positions that still make it easy to look around. With that came the tasteful choice of Tarugata grips and Newmbaums bar tape, in complementary shades of teal. She also added a Wald 137 basket to her front rack, held on with Voilé straps so it's easy to remove if needed. For riding in all weather, a practical consideration in Montréal, we installed Velo Orange fenders. These 700x45 are the widest that will fit in this generation of Montréal frames, and we weren't sure ahead of time if it would do it!

Finally, as part of the general much-needed overhaul of the bike, we changed the 8-speed drivetrain to a 9-speed, and replaced the old road double crank with its 50/39-tooth gearing (too high a gear for anything but a road bike, honestly) for the extremely reasonably geared 46/34t Bassi Classic compact.

The bike's now ready for long summer days in the country rolling toward a camping spot, as well as for moving its rider in comfort and style all around town.