Reader’s Rig: Jimmy’s 1993 Ross Minotaur

Words and photos by Jimmy Hallyburton

My name is Jimmy Hallyburton, and I am the founder and former 16-year executive director of the Boise Bicycle Project (BBP), a nonprofit bike shop that makes refurbished bicycles and DIY bike repair available to the community regardless of income. During my time at BBP, our staff and volunteers fixed and distributed over 20,000 bicycles to the community and helped transform Boise into the vibrant bicycle community it is today. My greatest privilege during that time was welcoming thousands of refugees to my hometown with a bicycle: an international symbol of freedom and opportunity.

Learning from and building relationships with people from around the world was an honor I never could have imagined. Today, I teach at the local community college, I’m the chair of the League of American Bicyclists, and serve as a three-term Boise City Councilmember, where my love for bicycles and building a stronger community is as alive as ever. I continue to commute by bike every day and dive into afternoon, weekend, and extended bike adventures whenever I can.

This Ross Minotaur, a 700c hybrid bike from the mid-1990s, was donated to the Boise Bicycle Project in 2015 with a perfectly faded neon green paint job, a stuck seatpost, and a bent front fork. BBP volunteers removed all the parts that weren’t stuck to/in it and threw the frame into the metal recycling pile. I couldn’t bear to see this bike’s journey come to an end, so I rescued the Minotaur.

Over the last 12 years, this bike has been a lot of different things, sported half a dozen different handlebars, and rocked countless rack/basket/bag arrangements. During COVID, I taught myself how to braze. Eventually, curiosity set in, and I fillet-brazed a diag-tube in from a wrecked Bridgestone, some internal cable routing (for no good reason), external dyno routing, and some extra rack braze-ons (because why not?). Most of the frame is raw steel now, but you can still see some of the wonderfully faded neon green paint and logos. It’s ridden from Boise to the Oregon Coast, across the Alvord Desert, and on thousands of miles of logging roads in Idaho, Oregon, and Nevada, and it remains my daily commuter and mellow-ish dirt-road rig.

• Frame: 1993 Ross Minotaur (fillet-brazed-in Bridgestone diag-tube)
• Fork: Soma CX 1″ threadless fork with some home-brazed top eyelets
• Rims: Velocity Cliff Hangers 36h
• Hubs: SONdelux wide body (front) / Shimano XTR M900, first gen (rear)
• Tires: Teravail Washburn 700 x 47mm
• Handlebars/Stem: Stridland Bullship Bar
• Headset: Kyoto Loco Double Row Threadless Headset 1” by Tange
• Crankset: Race Face Turbine
• Pedals: Suntour XC-II “Bear Trap” with aftermarket brass caps
• Cassette: SRAM “nothing fancy” with 34T
• Derailleur(s): Shimano RX100 (front) / Shimano XT M735 (rear)
• Brakes: Paul Mini Moto
• Shifter(s): Suntour XC Power Brake + Thumbshifter Combo
• Saddle: Brook B17 Special
• Seatpost: Zoom Lightweight Steel 26.2mm
• Front bags: Swift Zeitgeist (sewn in Seattle era) supported by home-brazed bag support
• Frame bags: Homemade, baby!
• Rear bags: Wald 139 mounted to home-brazed rack
• Accessory bags: Nittany Mountain Works Manything snack bag
• Other accessories: PDW Owl Cage stretched to fit a Nalgene (secret hack), Widefoot CargoMount Classics

There are lots of parts to highlight, especially those orange Race Face cranks and bombproof Suntour XC MTB brifters, most of which I picked up second-hand from BBP over the years. The real highlight, however, is the creative canvas and value that these old steel “throw-away” bikes can still have, especially if you can find a 700c hybrid that squeaks in a 47mm tire. I have some great newer and more expensive bikes these days with better tire clearance and fancier components that make some of my adventures easier and, honestly, ride noticeably better, but they don’t bring me as much joy as this bike does, and I’m not sure I have more fun riding them. If I had to keep just one, the Ross Minotaur would still be it. The stories it continues to accumulate with every mile ridden are reminders that fancy tech and expensive parts are not what make meaningful adventures and amazing rides possible.

I post my bike adventures on Instagram, somewhat regularly, but perhaps not as often as I used to. When I do, my goal is to make bikepacking/camping/touring, or whatever people want to call it, a little more accessible. I want people to know that regular people, on regular bikes, with regular gear, can still go out there and have a lot of fun. I often say, “start with what you have, do what you can, and learn a little each time.” The new stuff is totally rad, but so is getting creative and adventurous with whatever is in your garage or what you can revive from your local community bike co-op.

You can see more from Jimmy on Instagram.

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