The difficult third post, right? One day I’ll get the hang of making regular emissions…
I’m seeing double, everywhere I look there are way more tubes than there should be! As promised, here’s the juice on the how and the why Part III:
Details, details…
This design was always going to be a bit schizophrenic, is it a road bike, is it a mountain bike? The Jekyll and Hyde personality extends through the design and into the build.
I’ve already mentioned the mountain bike 110/148mm Boost width Hope hubs paired with some nifty Nextie carbon gravel rims. These hubs had a Sram XD driver so I splashed out on a nice light XX1 42-10 tooth 11 speed cassette to give a good range of gears without adding too much mass.
Tyre wise I knew I could accommodate some monster mudders but for daily use I wanted a fast rolling all rounder with a comfortable volume. In the end I plumped for some Schwalbe G-1’s in Allround flavour and 2.25″ width. The minimal round nobbled tread isn’t too draggy on the road and can get you a surprisingly long way when you’re off it.
A pair of Sram X01 carbon MTB cranks were spotted in the sales and added to the build. The stock 32 tooth chainring would have spun out rather easily so I swapped in a 38 tooth Superstars Components direct mount ring. This was matched to a 72mm mountain bike bottom bracket in the latest T47 flavour courtesy of Wheels Manufacturing.
Keeping with SRAM for the brakes and gears saw me switching to road components. SRAM Rival hydraulic brakes were picked for slowing down duties and paired with a Rival CX rear mech that could handle the wide MTB cassette.
Sit down next to me: those points of contact in full.
For that essential steam punk chic there could only be one choice of saddle – a classic leather Brooks B17 narrow. This is probably the most controversial part of the build. Considered the saddle to have by adventurers everywhere it’s notorious for needing to be broken in so it can mould to the shape of the riders own sweet buns. How did I get on with it? Stay tuned to find out!
Big wide, flared, bars were needed for this bad boy and Salsa Cowchipper’s looked like they fitted the bill nicely. I picked the carbon version to shave a few grams and to give a little extra vibration soaking comfort. These were then wrapped in Brooks bar tape, matched to the colour of the saddle.
Sling a leg over it then!
If you’ve just stepped off a CX bike, this one is going to feel, well, big! The bike is stretched out with a longer wheelbase and the tyres are fatter. It feels more like piloting a drop bar 29’er mountain bike, which isn’t too surprising really.
The tall front end brings the brake lever hoods up to a comfortable height for cruising duties. The drops provide a slight aero advantage, but it’s off road where this position really shines. The flare in the bar kicks your elbows out for extra stability and you only need one finger to affect maximum braking.
The ride is comfortable too, using smaller tubes in parallel gives the opportunity for vertical movement without any side to side compromise and you can still sprint out of the saddle without things getting flexy.
This bike really hoons the rough stuff with a level of comfort and control that a squirrely CX bike can only dream of, I’ve been able to nab a good few off road Strava KOM’s as a result!
So it must be rubbish when you ride it on the road then? Well… Surprisingly it’s pretty good at that too. I gravelled it down to meet up for coffee and cake with a group of chums on road bikes and then took the tarmac route back home with them. I kept up pretty well with the group, the main advantage being that I didn’t have to swerve all the cracks and potholes on the back lanes!
Ultimately though the overall weight, around 24lbs, and upright position will be the limiting factor for all out speed. Much better to relax and enjoy the scenery passing by.
On the equipment front I’m a big fan of the zero backlash SRAM gears and the brakes are good too, but the stock pads started squealing like banshees after a moderate amount of use and will need swapping out soon!
Butt sling!
That saddle, right? OK, I’ll admit that I didn’t treat it the best as I managed to get soaked with an unexpected shower on my first ride out – getting a leather saddle wet is a big no-no as it can cause the leather to stretch and deform.
I left it to dry out and vowed to treat it better in the future but sadly with little success. The main problem is that it’s not the most uncomfortable saddle in the world, indeed on some off road sections it proves to be the most comfortable butt sling I’ve ever had the pleasure of! It’s just unfortunate that those moments are few and far between.
Will your mileage vary? Might you be able to tame one? I can’t say for sure but it’s now been swapped out for something a bit more normal! There’s probably a good reason why stretched leather saddles are no longer as common as they used to be 😉
Squid you like?
The other big feature on this bike is the Quadpus fork, and I’m pleased to say it rocks! Tracks well, is comfortable and generally acts ‘forky’. Weight is a reassuring 2.5lbs so you know it’s going to be along for the long haul – literally as there are supercage and fender mounts a plenty!
And Finally…
I was pretty nervous about this project, there were so many untested ideas that it presented a big risk. Would the factory read the drawings correctly? Was it even possible to make my design? Some of the welding was insanely tricky!
Even if everything did go to plan would it be stiff enough? I’d done my homework but there was always the risk it would turn out to ride like a flexy noodle!
Thankfully I needn’t have worried. It normally takes about three goes to really nail a design but I’m happy that I got this one 99% right first time. As a package it rides really smoothly and gives a blend of on and off road performance that I just wasn’t getting from an off the shelf build.
Next time? Well it would be good to get more heel clearance on the seat stays, but that would involve a custom former to put all the necessary bends in the tube. Oh, and I’d be more careful about where I placed the sandblasted graphics on the seat tube mast!
Other than that – it rides superbly and looks amazing. I’m super pleased about how some of the details turned out, like the cable ports on the twin top tubes.
Of course it’s not the most sensible design in the world but it was made to turn heads rather than make sense! Singletrack and Grit.cx kindly took it for a spin too, you can read Hannah’s thoughts on it over here.
Would you like one? You mad person! Have something sensible instead, drop me a line to ask me how.
