Anaxyrus/Bootleg Commando/Crust Wombat

I won this Curst Wombat frame in a raffle that Dirt Toads held back in January to raise funds for wildfire relief. I considered a straightforward build but I wanted to take the opportunity to do something special with the frame given its origins. I've wanted a Ritchey Commando for a long time and thought that the Wombat could make for a good candidate for a bootleg Commando build. I didn't want to do a direct copy of the green Commando camo and I also wanted to do a nod to Max and Dirt Toads, so I decided to do a more reddish brown 'toad camo'.

While I do like a good singlespeed, my legs aren't what they once were so I wanted the option to have some gears. I dropped the frame off with Paul at Atomic Cycles to add a derailleur hanger (which he ripped off an old MTB frame). I was pretty confident in my ability to execute the Commando paintjob with my airbrush, but less confident about my ability to strip the frame and lay down a good base coat, so I had the frame powdercoated to get a good durable starting point (in retrospect, this may have been a mistake as paint doesn't adhere to powdercoat as well as it adheres to other paint). I picked a light tan for the powdercoat and did a lot of tests to pick my two camo colors. It took a lot of practice to get the application right but ultimately I was pretty happy with the result. Similar to the base coat, I didn't feel that I could spray a good clearcoat with my current setup at home (no big spraybooth) so I took it in to Hern at Montenegro for the final clearcoat since he's got a much better painting facility. The Stridsland Bullship bars had just come out when I was planning this build so I picked up a set of those and painted them to match.

I felt that the paint needed some good decals to go with it, and I chose the name Anaxyrus (after Anaxyrus Boreas, or the western toad, which is the most common native toad in CA). I drew up a downtube logo and headbadge as well as a set of bootleg 'period correct' ritchey decals, complete with a "Handpainted by Nate G" riff on the iconic "Handmade By Tom Ritchey" seal. The tubing decal also serves to mark that the frame is actually a Crust Wombat.

I didn't go with anything too wild for parts on this build, with the one exception being the wheels (which are an awesome build by Shawn Wolf from Allez LA with an Onyx rear and a Son28 front laced to Simworks Standalone Rims). I took advantage of the fork's internal dynamo routing and added front and rear lights (with wire routing that I'm quite proud of). I was also able to fit a 120mm dropper which helps drop the center of gravity some on this very tall frame.

This bike was featured on The Radavist's coverage of the 2025 LA Invitationl

Bonus pic of Max Trejo of Dirt Toads testing out the bike:

Other potential names include Combat Wombat, Battle Toad, and Stolen Valor (courtesy Christian Koons)

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