Reynolds 853 30th Anniversary SSCX Bike
2025 marks 10 years of framebuilding for me, as measured from my completion of the titanium course at the United Bicycle Institutes Portland campus (RIP). As such, I was already in a nostalgic mood Chris of Firsthand Framebuilding offered up Reynolds 853 tubesets to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the line being launched in 1985.
I started to think about what bikes I was into back in 2015 when I decided to pursue this craft. Canti-braked SSCX rigs were very much in vogue back then, and I spent a lot of time ogling them.
853 is a great tubeset for a cross bike, it’s light and strong with some really attractive tube profiles. I went with a 35mm downtube to match the 36mm head tube, a tapered 28.6-31.8mm top tube, and an externally butted seat tube for the right mix of light and tough. Straight chainstays keep the rear end responsive and some custom bent seat stays line up perfectly with the old-stock canti studs. The fork is also Reynolds 853, with tapered blades and a segmented crown.
As this is a show bike I wanted to get a little weird, so I built the bike around a T47 bottom bracket shell to house my new t47 square taper bottom bracket. This BB takes full advantage of the larger shell to house massive cartridge bearings and a stainless steel spindle.
I also machined the chainring and cog that makes this bike a “dinglespeed.” By having rings and cogs that are both 3 teeth apart, the same chain length can provide two fixed gear ratios. There’s also a White Industries double freewheel with the same tooth count as the cog for coasting.
Perhaps the most unique feature of this frame is the seatmast, which is also a dropper post. I had an old DT Swiss 232 dropper in my parts bin that I’d always wondered if I could integrate into a frame. The dropper slides over the seat post as opposed to within, so after I reverse engineered the internal components I reproduced them and added a wedge feature, which allows for saddle height adjustment and serviceability.
Instead of the seat post that came with the dropper, the frame has a stainless steel seat mast of the same diameter that the dropper slides on. The cable for actuating the dropper runs along the top tube next to the rear brake cable. Both enter the seat mast, with the brake cable exiting through the back and the dropper cable being routed up into the latch mechanism.
The dropper is very much a prototype, and the 60mm of drop is just enough to make fixed-gear cyclocross a little easier, but I had a lot of fun figuring out how to make it work. Look for this bike at our local race series this fall!