Bridgestone MB-6

A few weeks ago, I picked up a Bridgestone MB-6 on Facebook marketplace. It had been rescued from the back of someone’s garage (I think) and restored by Joe at Mead street cycles and was in good shape. I liked the colorway and was looking for a new bike in this genre for commuting and grocery-getting, and so I decided to make the purchase.

Here is a pic of how it was set up when I got it:

After some research, my best guess is that this frame is from 1992:

Though it was in good shape to start out with, I wanted to make some changes for some combination of reasons – some practical, some aesthetic, some just for fun. I’ve been working on my fixed gear, and so the Bridgestone presented a chance to learn about a new set of things – rear casettes, derailleurs & shifting systems; threaded headsets & quill stems; cantilever brakes. Here is where the build is currently:

A log of some changes I’ve made so far, and some notes about the processes/reasonings:

• My first change was to swap out the stem, since the reach was a little long for me. I picked one up at Broadway Bicycle and tried polishing it up with some sandpaper and then Mothers polish, which worked fairly well. I had to re-rig the front brake with a brake hanger. Cantilver brakes are tricky, but are also growing on me for a few reasons. First, there’s an aesthetic appeal of the tensioned cabling. Second, it’s cool that they are so tuneable. I believe it’s the original stock brakes that are still on the frame, so that’s a nice piece of tradition as well; though maybe I will swap them out with something nicer eventually.
• I polished up the cranks and seat post, both of which I think are the originals. The latter was pretty scuffed up, but cleaned up pretty well.
• I swapped out the chainring and pedals mainly for aesthetic reasons, since I like silver components. The pedals are MKS sylvan pedals, which I like so far. Incidentally, it seems that the nicer MB frames came with similar MKS pedals back in the 90s.
• I put on a Brooks C17 which I got for cheap on FB marketplace.
• I put on some fancier silver brake levers mainly for aesthetics; this was a good chance to learn about setting up cantilever brakes.
• I put on some silver swept-back bars for comfort and vibes. This is a casual, comfortable kind of set up.
• A slightly bigger change for me is that I converted the setup to friction shifting with the Silver shifters from Rivendell. I haven’t run friction before, but it seemed like a good fit for this build for a number of reasons. I like it a lot so far. As you may know, there’s a connection between 90s Bridgestone and Rivendell via Grant Petersen, who is also an advocate of friction shifting. In the same 1992 Bridgestone catalogue displayed above, there’s a whole write-up about friction shifting, which I am sympathetic to. Hopefully I will write more about this at some point, but in general I think that friction shifting is a nice example of a more general set of tradeoffs around “abstraction” in technological development.

It’s funny to see that friction shifting was being called obsolete and archaic as far back as 1987, approximately 40 years ago. I guess it all depends on what your priorities are.

I’ve left the wheelset on for now, though I might upgrade it eventually. Based on the specs from the Bridgestone catalogue, I think it’s the original wheelset from Araya. I think they could use some trueing. I am taking a wheel-building class at Broadway Bicycle, so maybe I’ll try to build a new wheelset myself if I can. I’ll perhaps change up the tires too at some point.

Anyhow, for now I am enjoying the bike in look and feel, and have learned a fair bit from experimenting with it.

For future reference, here’s the full set of original specs from the Bridgestone catalogue: