I am totally delighted with the bike, It’s very playful and comes into its own on winding single track!
As a bonus it’s also the most comfortable hardtail I have ever ridden!
And you can’t ask for a better review than that.
Jeff approached me as he had a yearning to rekindle an old flame. He fondly remembered his 2Souls QuarterHorse, and how they once upon a time skipped down the singletrack together but sadly drifted apart over the years…
Jeff had seen other bicycles in the meantime but just didn’t seem to click with them. And when looking for his first love he was devastated to learn that 2Souls were no longer trading. And we all know what that means, it’s time to go custom!
He approached me to try and recreate the 2Souls but in finest titanium. There were aspects of other bikes he wanted incorporated but the overall design would stay true to the super short chainstays and trail friendly geometry.
At first I was a little nervous – 420mm chainstays, clearance for chunky rubber and not having to deflate the tyre to fit the wheel? Other people were offering something similar but I wasn’t sure if it was all possible. The only way to really know for sure was to go for it and have a frame made!
We went with a variation on the tried and trusted SYD frame, but less stretched out and with slightly more upright ‘trail’ geometry. Jeff had previously tried a Pipedream Moxie and knew that long, low and slack wasn’t for him.
We were able to incorporate some nifty features like the bolt on down tube guides, and zip tie mounts on the chainstay bridges, to keep the cables and hoses under control.
The dropper post hose also took a nifty route – under the bottom bracket then through a hole in the chainstay plate before going into the back of the seat tube.
Unwrapping the frame and checking it over I couldn’t resist popping in the enduro wheels from my SYD – complete with 2.5″ Wide Trial Minions:
Wow! I’d only designed the frame for smaller 2.3″ tyres but the chunky Wide Trail’s fitted and had a surprising amount of clearance. Not only that but the entry angle of the dropouts was fine, no need to deflate the tyre to get it in the frame!
Everything else looked perfect so I carefully packaged the frame off to Jeff for building up. The results were… awesome!
True to the original brief we were able to meet Jeff’s exacting requirements for a nimble trail ready machine:
I am totally delighted with the bike, It’s very playful and comes into its own on winding single track!
As a bonus it’s also the most comfortable hardtail I have ever ridden!
Indeed Jeff is so fast now not even the camera can keep up with him 😉
If you’d like to be like Jeff and commision your own Spanner Bike machine then drop me a line via the contacts page or via andrew@spanner.bike
For more info head over to http://www.spanner.bike
