Bombtrack’s Hook gravel family has provided years of versatile options for on & off-road adventure riding, but now a new EXT Ti titanium frame takes it a step further. Developed as an accessible premium bikepacking & gravel platform to last a lifetime, the new Bombtrack Hook EXT Ti is just waiting to be build up into your own vision of the ultimate adventure gravel bike.
2021 Bombtrack Hook EXT Ti titanium gravel bike frameset
After years building steel Hook all-terrain cross & gravel bikes, Bombtrack decided to go bigger with the Hook EXT extending clearance for even bigger volume adventure-ready tires. With EXT success they decided to build a carbon Hook EXT-C to go faster and lighter. Then, a more advanced Hook ADV with a suspension fork.
Now, they return to EXT and metal with an even more premium Hook EXT Ti to last a lifetime…
A lot of people buy Bombtrack gravel bikes because they’ve built a reputation for no-nonsense, solidly-made, solidly-spec’d and relatively affordable bikes – mostly in steel, but sometimes also in aluminum or carbon when appropriate. This new bike isn’t for those type of people.
This is a bike for the people who buy a Bombtrack because of the passion of the people at Bombtrack. This is a small company, where everyone from the graphic designer to the number cruncher to the guy who dials in the geometry & little details, rides these bikes and loves these kinds of bikes. And their passion shows through when they decide to create a small batch ti adventure gravel bike like this.
Because, let’s be honest… you don’t need this bike. (Get a steel Hook EXT or carbon Hook EXT C if you need an adventure gravel bike.) This is a bike that you want!
The Bombtrack Hook EXT Ti just hopes to be the gravel bike you buy now, and never stop riding. Designed with plenty of big tire clearance – up to and probably beyond 700x40mm or 650x52mm – and enough bosses to mount all the bottles, bags, racks & fenders you could need, plus a lightweight full carbon EXT V2 fork with even more space inside.
Future-proof Adventure Gravel – Tech details
The Hook EXT Ti is welded from 3Al-2.5V titanium. It features mostly round tubing, but a subtly flatted toptube, tapered S-bend chainstays, and a tapered headtube so you get to use classic external headset cups for the 1.5″ tapered steerer fork.
The frame features internal cable routing through the front triangle and chainstays, exiting to go around the bottom bracket. The bike has two sets of 3-pack anything cage mounts in the main triangle, a standard pair of cage bosses under the downtube and on top of the toptube, plus rack and fender mounts in the rear.
The painted-to-match blue fork also gets a set of 3-pack anything cage mounts on each leg, plus internal dynamo cable routing and internal brake routing.
The frame and fork both use 12mm thru-axles, and get flat mount brakes with clearance for 140mm or 160mm rotors. The rear derailleur gets mounted with a SRAM UDH hanger, and cable routing exits directly out of the back end of the chainstay.
The Hook EXT Ti (like all other 2021 Bombtrack gravel & adventure bikes) uses a threaded T47 bottom bracket in a 86.5mm wide BB shell. Electronic & mechanical routing is provided for a front derailleur. But it uses a band clamp around the 31.8mm round tube, so 1x setups will still look clean.
A machined chainstay yoke maximizes tire and chainring clearance, freeing you to pick up to road compact 50/34T, or up to 1x 44T gearing. The yoke slightly complicates rear derailleur cable routing, but it includes slots to securely mount the cable with zip-ties.
A plethora of modular downtube cable routing ports provide flexibility for 1x, 2x, mechanical & electronic drivetrain setups.
And while Bombtrack officially says the bike tops out at 700x40c tires, this is a 42c tire on a 21.6mm internal Stan’s Grail Carbon rim. Thanks to that machined yoke, there’s enough space to spare, even around that GRX front derailleur.
Hook EXT Ti – Adventure Gravel Geometry
The bike’s gravel adventure & bikepacking-ready geometry is technically designed around 650b wheels with 2.0″ tires, but the same geo can be duplicated with 700c wheels too. The max 650×52 & 700×40 tires that Bombtrack lists for the bike come out to essentially the same outer diameter on their respective rims.
The frame uses a standard bolt-on 31.8 house-branded seat clamp (the fancy Tune one doesn’t come with the frame) and a regular 27.2mm seatpost.
The made-in-Taiwan Hook EXT Ti isn’t cheap, and not super light either – claimed 2060g for this large frame with rear axle & derailleur hanger (another 600g for the uncut fork with axle). But really, anyone serious about buying this is thinking of the possibility for a buttery ti ride, and a frame that will last longer than your current fascination with adventure bikepacking racing.
(Don’t worry, this is most likely a versatile enough frame, that it will happily morph into your 21st century balloon-tire, all-road touring bike in fifteen years, after your beer belly grows from a couple decades of too many microbrew IPAs. You know, if that happens.)
How will you build up your forever gravel super bike?
Since it’s only being offered up as a frameset, Bombtrack figured they’d build up their first production Hook EXT Ti into a premium gravel super bike. With a Shimano GRX Di2 2×11 groupset, they gave it a bunch of fancy Tune green ano bits & crazy light Speedneedle saddle+carbon post combo, plus a Rene Herse x Nitto Rando bar, and Tune gravel wheelset with Stan’s Grail Carbon rim & Tune KillHill/ClimbHill hub (previously King/Kong), wrapped with 42mm Rene Herse x Panaracer 42mm Hurricane Ridge tires. Total weight in the end for the complete Large bike was 9.06kg (19.97lb) without pedals.
We’ll try not to think of how much this gravel superbike build would cost you.
2021 Bombtrack Hook EXT Ti – Pricing & availability
The new Hook EXT Ti is only available as a frameset in five stock sizes (XS-XL), for $3500 / 3000€ together with the full carbon EXT V2 adventure fork. More than just that you have to figure out how you would build it up into your own dream bike, it’s also going to be a bit tricky to get ahold of. Bombtrack says just 50 framesets will be available for 2021, with the first making their way to partner shops starting next month. Reach out to your local dealer if you just have to have one.
