29+ and full suspension - BRAAP

Yes, correct saddle height. I'm a freak.

A few days ago I posted a quick picture of the bike I'm calling "BRAAP". I'll let you decide if that's an acronym, and if so, what it stands for (Big Rowdy Alces Alces Proletarian?) But I can say that taken as a whole, it stands for super, super fun. And yes, full custom full suspension frames are now officially available (priced the same as the Ventana/WW configuration for now at $2500 w/shock), drop me a line for details.

First, the basics. Here's the bike:

BRAAP!

The executive summary here: modern XC geometry, 100mm travel, lots of standover, pretty darn short stays, pretty darn low BB. Designed to just *barely* allow the use of a Thomson dropper post with the saddle clamped at full ~28 degree downward tilt.

I wanted a long-day go-anywhere bike that would be fun for exploring rough/undeveloped trails, as well as snappy and responsive enough to be fun on a lunch ride. It's built super beefy (all Supertherm all the time!) because 1) I wanted to be able to loan it out to buddies/customers without worrying about how big they were, and 2) I crash. Sometimes hard. There's also the fact that honestly, being a weight weenie about a 3" tire bike when you're approaching 40 and have 2 small kids is ridiculous. If I wanted to be faster I'd drink less beer and ride more. The complete bike weighs about 28 pounds with fairly nice but not crazy parts.

And, I'll be blunt: I got what I was going for. And then some (with some inevitable tradeoffs, of course). This is my favorite full suspension bike ever, and I must have owned 30 or so by now.

Loads of Chupacabra clearance

I'll do another post next week for those folks who are interested about the nitty-gritty of the swingarm and seatstays. Suffice to say for now that they're a mixture of straight-gauge 4130 and 304 stainless (for bearing fittings) along with a LOT of probably unnecessary work to attach everything to the dropouts (I'll use rockers next time and for customer bikes - much simpler/lighter/cleaner).

So, how does it ride?

In a word, it's like having a short-travel DH bike on the downhill, and a really capable (albeit not all that light) XC bike on the climbs. It has insane gobs of traction in even the worst off camber gravel type situations. It wheelies and manuals and pops around really nicely (though not as nicely as Stupidmobile, since that bike has a wheelbase that's almost 3" shorter!) It's extremely capable on steep terrain going up or down - no wander on slow techy climbs, tons of confidence on steep roll-ins and rough fast descents.

There are tradeoffs, of course:
-3" tires are pretty slow going uphill unless the terrain is really rough. You won't be getting any Strava PRs on your local dirt road climb on this bike.
-I wanted a very low bb, because I love how low bb bikes ride. In technical stuff when pedaling, pedal strikes can be pretty frequent (and potentially dangerous if you're going fast!)
-They are intact so far, but the bike demands to be ridden really fast on rough gnar, and I'm guessing I'll eventually shred my probably too-light Chupacabra tires.
-Chupacabras (and 100mm travel) aren't great for going off big drops or hitting big jumps at the bike park. To be fair, though, this bike was never intended to be a full-on DH sled and doesn't have the travel or geometry to be ridden that way.

Curved bridge next time!

Some people will also find the combination of larger tires and suspension to be just too much damping out of trail feedback - the ride can feel "numb" on smoother sections of trail and while you might be going really fast - in some cases it actually doesn't feel very fun because the bike is doing so much of the work. That's a line that everyone has to find for themselves, though, and on the trails I tend to like best (rough XC) this bike is perfect.

I'm pretty excited about this bike, not just because it's a blast to ride, but also because I can now do really fun and weird stuff with full suspension bikes (FS fatbike? FS 29er with 400mm chainstays? Super low/high/long/short/fat/whatever? All doable) and let the geek flag fly. Not everyone is going to prefer 29+ (or even fit on it) but that's the nice thing here - I can do 27.5+, 26+, 24" fatbike, 20", mixed wheel sizes... anything.

I'm not about to stop riding Stupidmobile (currently set up as a rigid singlespeed with, natch, a Chupacabra on the front) since Park City has a metric ton of trails that are way too smooth for any form of suspension at all. But when I wander into the shop, this is the bike I usually grab.

Happy Weekend...

... says Stupidmobile 2: Non-Electric Boogaloo.

Details and more photos to come, but some numbers to clue you in: 29x3, 100mm, 42.5cm, 69 degrees, 30.9, goes to 11.

#braaap

3" tires? 425mm chainstays?

There are some caveats, but man this thing is going to be fun when it's done! And no, that swingarm won't be attached to this frame. I just bolted it up to play around and give it a little night ride test.

2001 LX cranks are still awesome. Cable guides? Who needs cable guides?

I love my job...

Backyard dual slalom

Gal's FR 29er

Sorry, I meant "enduro"

MUNI!

Another ~400 or so reasons to come visit and build a frame...

Dream build 2015!

Feel free to criticize my choices in the comments!

2015 Dream Build
$5700 geared
$5100 singlespeed
$6700 full suspension

Frame	Waltworks Custom
Fork	Rockshox Pike
Headset	King
Stem	Thomson X4
Handlebar	Enve DH or XC
Shifters	XX1
Rear derailleur	XX1
Chain	XX1
Cassette	XX1
Crankset	XX1
Cables/housing	Included
Seatpost	Thomson Masterpiece or Easton EC90
Brakes	SRAM Guide RSC
Skewers	Inlcuded
Wheelset	DT 240 hubs/NOX rims, any axle configuration/size/rim or Notubes Valor
RimStrips	Included
Tires	Bontrager XR series Team issue
Grips/tape	WCS
Saddle	None

2015 Build Kits: Dirtbags rejoice!

Everything good enough to ride like you mean it, but nothing blingy. Monday: Dream Build!

2015 Dirtbag Build: No pedals, no saddle, shipping not included. If you already have some parts you want to use you're not obligated to buy the full kit, as always.

Geared: $2900
Singlespeed: $2700
Full squish: $3900

Frame	Waltworks Custom
Fork	X Fusion Slide or Velvet
Shock	None/hardtail
Headset	Cane Creek 40
Stem	Kalloy Ultralite
Handlebar	Truvativ aluminum flat
Brake levers	FR-5
Shifters	GX
Front derailleur	None
Rear derailleur	GX
Bottom Bracket	w/cranks
Chain	GX
Cassette	GX 10-42
Crankset	GX w/BB and 32t ring
Pedals	None
Cables/housing	Included
Seatpost	Kalloy
Brakes	Avid BB-7
Skewers	Included w/wheels
Wheelset	ZTR Crest/Arch/Flow
RimStrips	Included
Tubes	None
Tires	Maxxis Ignitor folding
Grips/tape	WCS
Saddle	None

A couple from Carey

Finally built up and dirty (a little dirty, anyway) after the epic powdercoat delays of the spring.

Geometry for the bored and/or nerdy here.

 

WW vs AK

Alaska. I think the Kalashnikov would win if that was the AK I meant.

Thanks to Steven for the photos

Riser bar, upside down stem?

Oh, what the heck... one more

Sarah's (not my Sarah) new 29x4" bike. Featuring BB wrench counterweight and no shock bushings yet! It's friday...

No decals either? Walt's not even trying...

Pretty normal modern XC geometry, dropper post compatibility, and remote lockouts and adjustable travel out the wazoo. Sooner or later I gotta modernize my own stuff, my own FS bike looks pretty darn obsolete these days.

This thing would fit me pretty well if the seat tube and head tube were both 2" longer

And another one!

We squeezed Carey onto a 120mm travel 29er... not nearly the squeeze job that Sam's bike is, of course, but still a little work to make him fit.

And no, I didn't finish all these bikes within a few days of each other. They are all just ending up being done or shipped out around the same time because of the vagaries of powdercoating (especially now that the Powderworks of UT guys have, well, fired themselves).

Carey's is more on the XC/all around side (in both geometry/travel and components) than Gal's longer-travel, slacker version. But it's pretty capable of being whatever you want it to with the right fork.

When the weird turn pro...

With apologies to Hunter S.  Sam is pretty small in stature. 4'10", to be exact. She wanted a bike that could, as much as possible, do it all (ie XC, trail/enduro, maybe even huck?)

If you go more compact, the seatstays hit the collar!

Even with 26" wheels, 100mm travel was pushing standover too high for comfort... until we went old school (props to Cannondale) and threw the usual front triangle configuration out the window. We also got one of the excellent new Syntace Flatforce stems (*excellent* for folks struggling with handlebar height) Result? Plenty of standover, 100+mm travel, and an appropriate geometry for someone on the short side.

415mm chainstays. Eat your hearts out, tall people.

Here's the print:

Flatforce stem gets the bars level, not shown here.

Gal's Slack/Short/Long FS bike... done!

Well, it still needs cable guides. But mostly done.

Really squeezing to get everything to fit with those short stays!

DBinline is hot hot hot - 140mm travel here.

And, of course, the geometry (with magic invisible rear end). No sag shown here. Gal also has a fun 29+ hardtail I built for him a few years back.

Short rear end, slack, long travel... sound familiar? 

Sunday Quiz!

Which frame is for a 6'10" rider, and which is for a 4'10" one?

Hint: Purple=normal size person.

Dust it off...

Don't call it a comeback, I've been in the basement for years.

Pulled Sarah's first (ok, only... she's a hardtail gal) FS frame out of the basement today to get it ready for a trip to NM in May (these FS frames are great for travel because you can unbolt the whole rear end and pack them up in an S&S case super easily). First time it's been out in... maybe 6 or 7 years?

Funny to look at it now - no tapered steerer, no through axle, front derailleur mount (this was one of the first direct-mount front derailleur frames on earth, I think), 27.2 non-dropper seatpost... things have certainly moved on.

But in many ways it was ahead of it's time. 69 degree HTA (now sort of the norm for XC bikes), 43cm chainstays. The geometry is still totally appropriate for all-around XC. It'll be fun to see what Sarah thinks of it after all these years.

And by "fun" I mean that Sarah will probably hate the fact that the rear suspension functions at all and have me pump the shock up to 300psi. Sigh.

Apparently I'm too fast - also Danny's frame back from powdercoat.

No, not at riding bikes. I'm getting slower and slower at that.

I'm too fast at getting work done, apparently. As those of you who follow the waitlist may have noticed, the official wait time is usually listed as 6-7 months. You may have also noticed that I'm often 4-6 weeks or more ahead of that (there are also occasional projects that get delayed for a variety of reasons and take longer, of course).

This has become a bit of a problem, believe it or not, because some folks aren't actually ready for me to design and build their bike ahead of schedule. I think perhaps most people expect their bike to take a lot longer than I estimate, just because the custom bike "industry" seems to operate that way in many cases.

In any case, public service announcement: Get your fit info to me within a month or two of when you put down your deposit if at all possible. You are *always* welcome to update/modify the fit sheet and when I'm ready to design I'll use your most recent version. Please don't be surprised if I contact you to start design work well ahead of the published wait time (don't be surprised if I'm not ahead of schedule either, of course). If you need more time to save up the balance to pay for your bike, no problem - just let me know as far in advance as you can so that I can bump you down a few places on the waitlist if needed.

In actual bike news, I got Danny's frame back from the powdercoater a few days ago (it'll ship out on Monday, about 1 month ahead of schedule). It's a neat orange color that probably the photo doesn't do justice to - kind of an orange creamsicle thing. More about it here and here for folks who are bored.

This is a 120mm travel aggro-XC bike for the woods of NC (ie Pisgah).

Geometry:
-69 degree HTA and 97mm trail (with the TALAS fork at 120mm, at 95mm subtract 1.5 degrees and 10mm of trail)
-66.9cm front center, 43.5cm chainstays
-72 (because everyone knows it's more awesome) seat tube angle
-35cm/13.75" BB height (unsprung)
-3100g (6.8#) with seat collar and all hardware/shock, which IMO is not bad for a bike intended for abuse on some seriously rough trails.

Lee - Complete!

Thanks to Zack for the photo. Enve, XX1, King, Easton, etc. 23# without pedals. Bling! Backstory here.