Memories of STAs Past

**WARNING** THIS POST MAY CONTAIN NAME-DROPPING

This is going to be kind of like Taj's blog post about all his old bikes except for the fact that a) these are only my STAs (and not even all of them), and b) I'm not Taj. Other than that, exactly the same. But hey, that new STA got me reminiscing, and I figured I'd give a brief rundown of my STA past.

Oddly enough, I don't have any photos of my first STA. I'm pretty sure it was a '95—it had the dimples in the chainstay for tire and sprocket clearance and only the one gussett up front. When I got it, it was covered in some sort of industrial-strength reflective tape, which, when I pulled it off, took the paint with it. So the frame wound up mostly finished in that odd aqua primer Standard (or Waterford, I guess) used. Eventually the rear end bent (a fairly common problem with those, I think—the first time I met Ralph Sinisi he was riding a badly bent chrome STA), and I sent it back to Standard. They not only welded on a new back end, they re-painted and re-stickered it at no charge. I wound up selling it for $100 or something, as I'd already bought a new one. This was the time when Glenn Milligan was doing their videos, so it was possible to get a new Standard at cost. I jumped on that, and got a navy triple-gussett 21" STA:

This is the oldest photo I have of it, I believe. Note the monstrous Serfas gel seat, the cleverly re-arranged Standard sticker, and the ever-popular Dirt/V-Monster combo. And brakes! Those wouldn't last long.


And the sticker population continues to grow. The Sun-Ringlé ZuZu's Pedals broke and were replaced with an NOS set of Shimano DXs, and somewhere along the line Animal started making sprockets. Note also the Kink double clamp, and the dual chain tensioners. The bars were an old pair of PrimoPros that Grimaldo Duran bent and bent back. I never had a problem with them. (I feel like I've posted this bike before. Oh well.) Hüsker Du, the Misfits AND Sick of It All?

That frame served me well, and is currently residing in my parents basement sans most of the stickers. The only reason I bought a new frame was because the R-Model came out:



The initial build was easy enough—I just transferred everything over (and got a new seatpost). The R was 14mm, though, so I actually used those Kink step-down chain tensioners. It's reasons such as that why I have roughly 10 sets of chain tensioners in my parts box. Apparently I went back to Sun-Ringlé pedals, too—probably because they were black. Sigh.

My first cassette wheels! 36-hole Profiles laced to Hula Hoops...with a 16-tooth 3/16" cog. This is what we called being dragged kicking and screaming into the future. Note the first generation Skavenger sticker on the toptube. It's the one next to the Venom sticker.



Hey, it's almost modern! Apparently Standard/Waterford didn't see fit to primer the R-Models (litewait!), so the paint came off with the stickers. The Profiles broke somewhere along the line, so I went to the indestructible welded/CNCed GT cranks. And the pink DXs were just the right touch. This was probably my favorite Standard setup. (The Pixies and Celtic Frost. Yet another interesting mash-up.)

But then I found out you could get a custom frame built without mounts. So I placed a call to Pat Schoolen at Flatland Fuel and waited:

Hm, this could almost pass for a current bike. Somewhere along the line I'd been contacted by Chris Cotsonas at Odyssey, who'd started to provide me with some parts. (Another STA I have no photographic evidence of was an old black triple-gussett 21" with roughly milled 14mm drops and ground-down stays that was built with more or less the entire original Odyssey "group"—14mm Hazard 48s, a chrome Dirt Fork, Milk Bars, rear brake, Gyro, etc. That thing was a monster.) That's 28/10, NOS gold DXs (I had a pretty decent stash at one time), a Solid stem I bought at Ramp Rats in STL, and Bullitt Bars cut down to 23".


I'm not sure whether this was the last build on that frame before I got my first Edwin, but it's definitely the latest photo I have. This is right when the Jim Cs first came out. The white fork is a Dirt Fork because I wasn't sure whether the Race Fork would be strong enough. ("For what???" you may correctly ask.) That frame's in the basement now too, along with a chrome '96 and a raw '95 that's never been assembled. I didn't include those in the timeline because I never actually rode them—thanks, eBay!

Here's the one shot I have of the chrome one—I had just put the 1.5" wheels on it to roll it home.




At one point I actually had a brand-new chrome one that I bought from Dan's when they were still auctioning off obsolete product, but that's long since sold.

Man, it's gonna be awfully tempting to get a new one.

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