South Salem Cycleworks Museum:
Owner Michael Wolfe's Jamis Sputnik bicycle
Owner Michael Wolfe's Jamis Sputnik bicycle:
The Sputnik's original factory specs (our bike is modified):
- 46x16 drivetrain with flip-flop fixed/single-speed hub, FSA Vero cranks
- Reynolds 631 size-specific tubing
- Ritchey Comp cockpit
- Made in sizes: 50, 53, 55, 57, 59 & 62cm
- Weight of 57cm: 18.9 lbs
Components:
- Avocet O2 Air 40R Ti saddle.
- Dura Ace 7400 27.2 seatpost.
- Louis Garneau Mini-Expando seatbag.
- Zefal HPX4 frame pump.
- Elite Ciussi Gel cages.
- 3T Mutant 13cm x 1 1/8” stem.
- Cinelli Contact 42 c-c x 26.0 bar.
- Cinelli Cork wrap.
- Dia Compe Royal Compe front caliper.
- Mavic 440 Aero brake levers.
- Campagnolo Super Record 175mm crank w/42t ring. Including dust caps & bolts/washers.
- Campagnolo Centaur 68x115 bottom bracket.
- Time Sport TBT pedals.
- Aheadset C2 headset.
- Formula 32h fixed/free hubset, cartridge bearing.
- DT Revolution 15/17/15g radial spokes, alloy nipples, Mavic iridescent label Open Pro rim front wheel, Rox UltraLight rimstrips.
- DT Revolution 17/17/14g 3x spokes, alloy nipples, Mavic iridescent label Open Pro rim rear wheel, Rox UltraLight rimstrips.
- Surly Dingle cog, 17/20t
- Sachs PC 80R chain.
- Veredestein Fortezza TriComps, 700x23.
- Michelin AirStop tubes.
In ’79, I started my first job as a bike mechanic in a Eugene, Oregon, shop. Green as can be, I was lucky to have fellow wrench take me under his wing. MicMark Edwards was studying as a percussionist for orchestra at U of O, but was a cult cyclist. Sometime during those years, I signed a poster found in the back of the shop with “To my pals at Hawkeye’s the Good Life, Eddy Merkx(!)”, MicMark won a French Follis bicycle that had been left for repair for over a year. Nice Reynolds 531 with Campagnolo dropouts, he won the drawing and paid the cost of the repair to own it. He converted it to a fixed gear – which I couldn’t understand as you could have the possibility of at least 5 gears on the rear wheel, and 6 wasn’t uncommon. He explained how the greats of European racing used fixed gears to maintain their fluid pedaling style in the winter. I got the concept, but as a wrench, it was all I could do to afford two bikes and pay the rent!
In the late ‘90’s, the single-speed frenzy occurred, and every manufacturer had a “track” style bike on their line. I decided to build and ride one so as to relate and become familiar with the nuances of riding a fixed gear. I ordered the Jamis as a bike, but the only parts I retained were the Formula cartridge bearing hubs and the Easton EC70 fork.
I initially rode it to pick up my stepdaughter when she ended her school day a couple miles away from the shop. Returning from home to the shop was on the arterial that ran in front of the shop and using street shoes on TBT pedals, I slipped off the pedals on a slight downhill, but using the front brake, regained their position quickly. Navigating the corners in the neighborhood streets found me acutely aware of the potential of catching the pedal, and rode the bike through them in a more upright fashion than I was accustomed to.
On one of our Saturday morning rides of 35 miles with some hills, a Portland volleyball player rode with us on her track bike. She was totally exhausted when we returned to the shop, and my first ride was on that route, was with some apprehension on my part. To my surprise, I was a little more tired than when riding a multi-geared bike, but not extensively so. And on some of the less steep inclines, I felt I was faster in the ascent.
After getting accustomed to riding fixed, and with the Dingle Cog allowing me to switch to a 20t cog, I was dared by my riding companion, Tom Stuck, to climb the backside of Skyline. It’s a long tedious climb, with a switchback that requires some oomph to remain in the correct travel lane, and the top 600 yards forces some riders to walk. I’d ridden it many times on multi-geared bikes, with 39/23 or 39/26t, and always appreciated the lower gears. I’d ridden both sides of Summit Loop using the fixed gear, so I had some confidence, a little, perhaps, that I could climb Skyline.
I nearly went into the ditch navigating the hairpin, praying that a car wouldn’t descend and force me off the road. I knew I wouldn’t be able to disengage the TBT pedals at that rate of speed and inability to coast. Though I managed to climb the last, steep 600 yards, of the climb, the hairpin was the scariest! I never attempted to climb Skyline from that direction again.
I began riding the local Monster Cooke each year on it, and eventually the Peach of a Century. I could take a very short break at the front of a paceline, but with a 42/17t combination, was spinning furiously to maintain the pace, and would drop off at some point. Riding on Saturday morning rides was more fluid, where I might zoom up a hill, only to be passed on the descent as I “back-pedaled” and applied the front brake. I would catch up on the flats without their waiting for me. A different dance than the synchronization of all riding multi-geared bikes.
One Saturday morning, I rode out Skyline with Katie Troxell, a part-time employee, who’d rebuilt a Trek with a Campagnolo drivetrain and her hand-built wheels. We’d successfully descended Skyline and crossed the Independence bridge, and were headed south to cross the Buena Vista ferry before returning to the shop. It’s Tom Stuck’s favorite ride!
Before getting to the Buena Vista Road turn-off, I notice that she was no longer visible behind me. I turned and found her standing next to her bike, where she explained that the pawls in her freehub no longer engaged – she could pedal both forwards and backwards freely. Not exactly what Armstrong referred to as “chainless drive”, as she could not propel the bike forwards. I went back down the road to a nursery, and they allowed me to borrow a rope, which I tied one end around my seatpost, and towed her back, almost to the shop! I barely made it through the railroad overpass where Orville empties on to River Road South. We followed River Road until reaching Madrona, where I knew I couldn’t pull her up that slope, and so left her returning with a car to get her back. Turned out that the pawl spring in her freehub had a rust spot on it that had failed. I’ve never seen one since, and it had to be pre-assembly of the hub at the factory.
On another Saturday morning ride, I was encouraging a customer to climb and descend hills, and had hoped to sell her a Torelli with Campagnolo components. We climbed View Crest, but as it turned into Kuebler, she began to have misgivings about the descent. The Sprague high school kids refer to it as “booyah hill”, and I’ve hit 55mph on a multi-geared bike. I’d stopped at the top with her, changed from the 20t to the 17t, and she insisted I go first. There is some concern as you reach the bottom of it, as Croisan Creek Road intersects Kuebler there, but there is a wide bike lane on Kuebler to offer some refuge.
I spun off slowly, attempting to put pressure on the pedals backwards while applying the brake, but after reaching the bottom letting go to get as much momentum to climb the opposite side, and having to pedal to reach the entrance to Sprague High School. I turned around and waited for her appearance, squinting as it’s a long way to the top. Several minutes went by, and I became worried that she might have crashed – there was a patch of blue near the top on the shoulder. I changed to the 20t cog, and began the ascent.
I know riders who can climb this hill seated using a 39/21, but I’ve felt that a 39/23 was a pending crankarm failure, preferring a 26t cog. I slowly chugged myself up the hill on my 42/20t, only to find, as I neared the top, she was going down the hill in a car! She’d called her husband to come get her, as she was too frightened to descend.
I enjoyed riding the Jamis Sputnik so much, that I ordered a Mondonico fixed in Columbus Spirit tubing, but that’s another story.
Side view
The bike turned around to show its other side.
Angled front view
From behind
The "Sputnik" model name decal on the top tube.
Closer view of the front of the bike.
The Dia-Compe Royal Compe front brake caliper.
The Reynolds 631 tubing decal on the seat tube.
The bike's cockpit
Front view of the cockpit.
One of the Mavic 440 aero brake levers
The bike's 3T Mutant stem.
One of the shaped ends of the Cinelli Contact handlebar.
The bike's Aheadset/
Pump peg on the back of the head tube.
The bike's Avocet 02 Air 40R Titanium-railed saddle
The Avocet saddle is attached to a Dura-Ace seat post.
The Garneau Mini-Expando seat bag.
One of the bikes two Elite Ciussi Gel cages
The right rear dropout with chain tensioner
Close-up of the double cogset, making this bike a "Dinglespeed".
Looking down on the rear hub and Dinglespeed cogset.
The bike is equipped with a Sachs 80R chain.
Definitely not stock: A Campagnolo Super Record crankset.
Close-up of the beautiful Campagnolo crankset.
Atteched to the cranks arms are Time Sport TBT pedals.
The radially laced front hub,
The wheels are built with Mavic Open Pro rims.
Mounted on the Mavic rims are Vredestein Fortezz TriCompe tires