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NAHBS 2018: Lightweight new disc brake road bikes from Crumpton & Fifty One

Fifty One Cycles new carbon disc brake road bike available in full custom geometries using Kevin Quan designed rear end
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Fifty One liked their original road bike, so they wanted to mimic the design of it, but take advantage of the opportunities disc brakes offered. Wider stays, thru axles, etc. In particular, they liked the the Deddaciai split stays used on their rim brake models, so they tapped a few well known carbon experts to help them optimize for disc.

Fifty One Cycles new carbon disc brake road bike available in full custom geometries using Kevin Quan designed rear end

Kevin Quan, who’s done work for Parlee, Diamondback and others, did the design work, then Jason Schiers (original founder of ENVE) helped get them to production.

Fifty One Cycles new carbon disc brake road bike available in full custom geometries using Kevin Quan designed rear end

They designed their own dropouts and flat mount brake mounts, too, creating a completely proprietary rear triangle that fits up to a 33-34mm tire. Then they pair that with Columbus forks for road or the Dedacciai gravel fork. This orange bike was built as a “gravel bike”, though it’s limited to cyclocross tires.

Fifty One Cycles new carbon disc brake road bike available in full custom geometries using Kevin Quan designed rear end

Fifty One uses Plasma Appelation Treatment to zap all the epoxy off the top layer of the tubes where they bond tubes together, ensuring they’re supremely clean for a much stronger connection. They use ENVE and Dedacciai tubing thru the rest of the frame, using a tube to tube construction to make it fully custom. Frame weight is about 800-850g.

Fifty One Cycles new carbon disc brake road bike available in full custom geometries using Kevin Quan designed rear end

Fifty One Cycles new carbon disc brake road bike available in full custom geometries using Kevin Quan designed rear end

$7,500 frame fork and headset which includes full custom paint, as extravagant as you want…or you can go full monotone with paint-matched components. They’re all handmade in Dublin, Ireland.

Following Campagnolo’s lead, Silca ran a contest at the show for best use of their equipment. As such, there were numerous paint-matched floor pumps, but a couple brands took things to the next level. Fifty One matched both floor pump and frame pump, using a paint scheme inspired by sunset in Toronto and the way the light hits a certain well known building there.

Wanna see more? Check our pre-show interview here, then give ’em a visit at FiftyOneBikes.com.

CRUMPTON CYCLES TYPE 5 DISC

crumpton cycles type 5 disc brake road bike

Type 5 Disc is the result of the plastic prototype we saw two years ago. These are the first disc brake bikes he’s done, which took much longer than anticipated thanks to Nick’s ambitious aesthetic goals with little regard for manufacturability. He wanted minimalist dropouts that looked ultra clean.

crumpton cycles type 5 disc brake road bike

Working our way back to those dropouts shows off the cosmetic outer layer that keeps scrap carbon from going in the landfill, but also provides a boundary layer for protection that Crumpton says has some functional manufacturing benefits he’s reluctant to publicize, too. He rolls his own tubes -each bike starts as rolled up prepreg sitting in a freezer- and makes everything but the fork.

crumpton cycles type 5 disc brake road bike

Tire clearance is a healthy 35+ mm in the back, which means you’d have to consider a gravel road fork if you want something bigger than a 32mm tire in the front with the standard ENVE Road Disc fork.

crumpton cycles type 5 disc brake road bike

crumpton cycles type 5 disc brake road bike

The non-drive side’s flat mount brake section is virtually flush and hollow, yet designed to handle all the loads of disc braking.

crumpton cycles type 5 disc brake road bike

crumpton cycles type 5 disc brake road bike

Raw frame weight is 744g before paint, about 850g after clear coat and detail paint…for a size 55.

crumpton cycles type 5 disc brake road bike

Retail starts at $7,000 (for the disc brake model) with a seven month lead time as of this post going live. Get on the list at CrumptonCycles.com.

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EcoRacer
EcoRacer
6 years ago

That Fifty One bike frame looks nice, although it doesn’t seem like there is actually enough clearance for those tires they used to display the bike. Any hard cornering or accelerating and those tires are going to rub on the seatstays. Maybe they should have displayed it with 28 or 30mm road tires?

Matt
Matt
6 years ago
Reply to  EcoRacer

That is what I thought too. Both the fork and rear-stays are much to tight to handle normal riding let alone a hint of mud, dirt or debris. That beautiful paint job is going to be rubbed raw in 3 rides. The horror.

Blacksmith Cycle
6 years ago

Hey Guys! Looks are deceiving…there is clearance for 32-34 mm tires, and these are 30 mm tubulars. At least 2 mm of room on all sides…plenty of space 🙂

Steve P
Steve P
5 years ago

Plenty of room 32-34’s when there is only 2mm clearance on each side running only 30’s????? You’re joking right??? Sorry, but the other posters are correct, if you encounter any mud or debris at all when riding those stays are absolutely going to be rubbed hard and often. And they will also likely be rubbed on the road under any max type effort. Why would I blow $7.5k on a frameset like this when I can get an Open Up that can run bigger tires with shorter chain stays for less than 1/2 that silly nosebleed $7500 frameset price???? LOL

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