Lead Paratrooper ...well, it's heavy anyway...
 

Not the bike's fault, of course. I changed/added parts to help it survive my journey from over 370 lbs to where I am now (see my "Finally!" thread for progress there, in the Clyde forum).

When I bought the bike from an aviation supply catalog, it came stock with a cheap crankset with riveted rings... that bent the first time I tried a mid-level hill on an Austin bike path. I took the bike out of service for a bit, replaced that 'set with a Hussefelt downhill crank, and set aside the stock wheels in favor of a 36h set of Rhyno-Lites. A longer seatpost and a VO leather saddle also went on, with a pair of leather ergo grips... eventually.
Anyway... Today, in order to help my older brother get everything in order with his fledgling bike habit, I picked up a fish scale so he could record the exact weight of his bikes. He wanted to use the online factory weights, but you all know that bikes get heavier. I didn't think about my Montague being anything other than the (IIRC) 28 lb beast it was supposed to be in the beginning, but after I recorded the weights of his 4 bikes, I went out and tried it on my Paratrooper.

34 lbs!!! Holy Excrement, Batman! ...and this is after I replaced the heavy, cheap suspension fork with a cro-mo rigid one.

I guess, now that I'm lighter, once I've gotten my JtS dialed in, and finished cleaning up the tandem, I need to put Sarge on a weight loss regimen. No wonder I get such a good workout riding the thing. :D

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...0c08878bba.jpg

It certainly looks ready for action!

It really is. When I left on this trip, I decided to take the Cruze for its fuel economy. The Montague folded up and went in the trunk with plenty of space to spare.
While it isn't as light and lively as the Cannondale F-something I sold a few years ago, it's a sturdy and reliable... and portable... machine.

You've lost over 100 pounds? Congratulations, sir. That's absolutely AWESOME! Way to go!!!!

Thank you very much.

Nice set up. Ah, the feel of leather. looks great
I had higher hopes for the Montague, but with its folded bulk and low end components and weight they are fighting to compete with standard 26"real deals with their bars turned and wheels off for compact stowage.
If the monty is a good fit, perhaps, but a narrow range where that appears to be.
Foldies are best seen in context of where they are folded into.
Is it a good trunk fit with the Cruze?

Gobs of space in the Cruze. The bike, wheels, toolbox, and my travel bags all fit nicely.

Handsome bike, and congrats on the weight loss!

Well, I gotta say, heavy as it is... this is by no means a "bad" bike.

This morning I took a quick ride in a nearby neighborhood. I felt heavy and draggy, figured there was just more climbing than I'd initially thought.

This afternoon, before going on a local group ride of about 17 miles, I checked the air in my tires (which felt ok, I thought, this morning)... I was only running about 20 psi.
I hadn't messed with the pressure since I last rode the bike in NM, at over 4000 feet... over a week ago. Also, I have a habit of letting a bit of air out if I'm leaving the bike in a car for any length of time during the Summer, especially when traveling to different elevations.

Anyway, on the group ride, everything felt fine. Though it was a 'casual' ride, about halfway back from the turnaround, there was the normal breakaway group. I was able to join it, keep up, and got back to the bike shop with the leaders.
...who were on road bikes...
:D (I passed one when we got to a heavily cobbled section of road. My 2 inch tires made short work of that)

I know I have a long way to go, bike fitness-wise, but that felt pretty good. By the way, I did swap out the big, heavy VO saddle for a lighter Charge seat. It's a familiar shape, and did pretty well under me. A lot more nimble feeling, but the VO saddle would probably work quite well on the tandem.

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Looks good! Going by the fold lock, you have the older style of Paratrooper, which evidently was heavier and less refined than current iterations (I've considered one myself, though now I'm leaning more towards their pavement bikes - once money clears up again, anyways). I think the real winner here, though, is that guy with the pizza bag there in the background.

It's about a 2005 model, with the mullet brake arrangement. I've been eyeballing the Navigator off and on, as a possible reward purchase for my Healthywage.com winnings, which I've earned, but won't get a payout until Oct. I figure on putting drop bars on it if I do get that one.

The pizza bag belongs to a gal who works at the bike shop (Redemptive Cycles, B'ham AL), and is a pretty good rider. She's still faster than me anyway :) . Note the cheeseburger seat bag, and she has ketchup and mustard water bottles. Her bike looks delicious!

My wife thinks those bags & bottles are adorable :)

I was originally going to go for the Navigator but some folks kinda talked me out of it due to the disc brakes apparently being sub par. Not having any personal experience with disc brakes, I moved over to the Urban instead. That said, that frameset still has disc brake mounts so if I upgrade in the future they are an option.

I've been meaning to upgrade the front disc on my paratrooper for a while, but just haven't gotten around to it. It was more of a concern when I was over a hundred pounds heavier.
It'd still be nice to have better braking, but it's safe enough for now.

I remember seeing those foodie-bags on a few websites. I know they come up on the Bay from time to time.

Looks like you have a disc brake on front and a rim brake on the rear?

Try the TRP Spyre disc brakes.
They have dual sided actuation and have less issues with disc rub.

I have been using them on my Change 650b bike and there are no issues with rub and alignment when taking on/off the wheels

Yeah, I guess, for a few model years, it was easier to run a disc fork. Eventually they changed the frame to allow for a rear disc too.
I'm ok with running mullet, but it can make finding a wheelset a little more of a challenge... but not too bad.

It's been a few months on this one, but I think I've gotten to a decent stopping point on this bike.... for now. :D

New wheelset (Xt/DB spokes/Mavic 177), swapped Bontrager Race seatpost back on, and replaced the DH crankset with an M770 XT 'set and BB.

I'd actually gotten it up to over 35 lbs with a suspension seatpost, but now I'm at just about 30 even.
That's pretty much on par with many of the hardtails at my bike shop (though they tend to have suspension forks), and it certainly feels lighter and more nimble.
As a big chunk of the weight came from the wheelset swap, a short test hop in my driveway felt like ol' Sarge wanted to fly. (relatively, anyway)

Though I've entertained the idea of using this bike as a MTB again I think we're gonna go in a gravel/bikepacking direction.

I really didn't mind the bike in its earlier form, but I like to tinker. :) ...and I've lost both of my jobs to this Covid thing, so it beats TV and snacking.

Pic: With new wheels, still sporting thudbuster seatpost and Hussefelt crank. The leanin' tree is gone now. I had to take it down as the beetles cored it out, and as you can see in the pic, the woodpeckers were enjoying the buffet.

PS: I looked around, and swayed a bit by some advice given above, I picked up a TRP Spyke front brake. Works great!

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...c50fcda18b.jpg

Test ride today! I've been letting my legs get a little slack over the last couple months or so, and am looking to use some of this unexpected free time to get a few miles under my chamois.
While I didn't do anything worthy of note in Strava (due to the above fitness lapse), the bike did feel a lot more sprightly... mostly due to the wheels and tires.
Playing around with the gears on my ride, I'm toying with the idea of going with a 1x drivetrain. It won't take weight off the bike, but I've gained a great appreciation for simplicity.
I'd just single out this XT crankset, maybe add a bash ring... and ride that for a bit with the current rear setup, then maybe hit it with a wider range...maybe 10 speed... cogset/der/shifter.
Again, probably won't mean much performance-wise, but I'm sitting on my front porch eating peanuts... and that tends to get me in marital trouble, bike/idea-wise, so better to tinker with what I have.

Later, after completing my current Healthywage challenge, maybe I'll check out the market for a 'better' MTB, keeping Sarge as a trunk monkey.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...acfbd59856.jpg

I think this will do for a while. Today I went through and got all my bikes (except for the tandem) into a ready-to-ride condition.
Sarge made a bit of a creaking noise on the above test ride, so today I took the crankset and BB off, cleaned/lubed everything including the chainring bolts, and put it all back together.
A couple laps around my house in the woods, and it seems to be fine now. I did notice the crankarm bolts were loose. Not sure whether I'd failed to tighten them when I installed the crankset, or whether they came loose. If they do it again, I guess some mild loctite is in store.
Frame bag and a stem mounted bottle holder are now here to mitigate Sarge's lack of mounting points, and I keep my Mtn. Morph pump on the one set of braze-ons. I had a bottle cage on there once, but it sticks out badly when the bike's folded. I do have (somewhere... seem to have misplaced it) a QR bottle cage mount that I'd like to try. If I like that, the pump will get strapped somewhere else. Maybe on a fork leg, or under the frame tube.

It was fun bopping around between the trees. I'm more of a roadie, but this could be fun. I think I'd rather learn to MTB on a rigid anyway. Kickin' it old skewl.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...226fe2a1b9.jpg

My 2 cents
 

Very nice work.

This will be at LEAST a very good back up bicycle for years to come.

As a little joke, you never know when the Zombie Apocalypse hits us!

Years ago during my time in Healthcare the CDC issued a poster about the Zombie Apocalypse!

YES, for real!

Anyway, congratulations to a pretty useful bicycle.

Take care

One of the un-planned duties of Sarge is "escape pod", aka Bug-home bike. :)
I kept it in the trunk for that reason, and it was real handy when I found myself near a decent route with time to kill.

I mounted some new wheels, with narrower high pressure tires, for a little bit, as I wanted a quickly deployable bike I could keep in the trunk (not visible from outside), for my base miles.
But... as my only mtb at the moment, I went ahead and re-mounted the Honey Badgers on my Ryno LIte wheelset, so I can start hitting a couple nearby trails. 2.2 inches doesn't leave a lot of clearance on the sides, but riding through the greenery around my house, they feel really good. A lot better than the Krisps (smooth with side lugs) in the soft.
No suspension right now, so the fatter rubber helps.
The rear brake cable was in sad shape, so I slipped in a new one while I was at it.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...6d0e0e17a3.jpg
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