Bassi Le Montréal (58 cm) – Cantilever brakes, quill stem, and cotton handlebar tape

Dec 15, 2025 Svante Oxblod

Le Montréal is a mechanical hero

As the bicycle industry continues to move towards internal gearing and electrification, we are happy when manufacturers like Bassi offer classic frames for cables and mechanical parts.

There is something special about the combination of cantilever brakes and a quill stem. Add cotton bar tape and as many silver components as you can, and it’s hard to go wrong. We wanted to make a bike that will always look good without compromising performance.

The frame is designed in Canada, a place with a climate similar to Sweden’s. Many claim that disc brakes are necessary, but we think differently. A pair of well-adjusted rim brakes of good quality work more than well enough. Here we used Paul Component’s Touring model, which costs about as much as a cheaper bike frame, but they are also the best! With a little love and replacement of wear parts, this bike will last a lifetime. When the wet season comes, it’s easy to mount full-length fenders and a rack for a more commuting- or touring-oriented build. As Surly says: "Make it your own".

Mechanical front derailleurs are also on their way out. Here we have an example of the more beautiful kind from Suntour, early 80s. It shifts between 42- and 26-tooth chainrings using a friction shifter, the best way to shift front gears. Of course, some experimentation was required to get the crankset right since it’s an older Sugino for triple chainrings. It’s not always successful, but here it worked with a combination of spacers and testing different bottom brackets. The largest cassette sprocket at the back is 34, giving us a lowest gear of 26x34. That’s 6 km/h at 60 cadence, a bit faster than walking pace. As you know, cycling is more fun, and with luggage on the bike, we recommend gearing like this. 42x11 gives you a speed of 50 km/h at 100 cadence, more than enough!

Black bikes need color. In a perfect world, we would have used the cable hanger in purple, but it wasn’t available at the time. Here you also see a relatively high quill stem to raise the handlebars to saddle height. Imagine if we had used 6-7 cm headset spacers instead on a regular 1 1/8" fork—not nearly as stylish... Why quill stems should still have a place in the cycling world.

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