Is the new Farr Twin-T a mountain bike? Or maybe a gravel bike? Let’s stick with calling it an adventure bike. Built from custom-butted chromoly, Farr’s latest old school BMX & moto-inspired, double downtube Twin-T is a fully modern off-road adventure frameset that mixes the best of 29er hardtails with gravel bikepacking capabilities. Build it up as an XC bike or as a gravel monster crossover, and either way it will be ready for adventure…
Farr Twin-T retro modern steel MTB & gravel off-road adventure bike
Farr calls their new Twin-T adventure bike frame “genre-blurring”. Designed as a mix of retro style with modern tech and geometry, they hope is can be a platform for all types of off-road riders to custom build a unique and fun bike – for anything from local singletrack trail riding to multi-day bikepacking trips.
Meant to be deeply customized, the Twin-T’s modern XC-ish geometry is designed around a 510mm axle-to-crown, 120mm suspension fork in mind. Dropping to something a bit shorter will steepen the angles, lower the bottom bracket, and shift weight a bit more forward for faster riding on drop bars.
To highlight the versatility, Farr enlisted friends at their local Perth bike shop The Bike Mason in Western Australia to build up to completely different versions of the Twin-T, both interestingly with the same Melody Wheels custom 29er wheelset and 2.3″ Specialized Fast Trak tires…
Custom mountain bike build…
The MTB build highlights the Farr Twin-T’s off-road chops, but it’s still not meant to be a trail bike. Instead, with frame Reaches more XC than Enduro, the 120mm upside-down Bright Racing F929 XCO fork is the upper limit of the frame’s trail intentions, paired with Farr’s own recent 70mm Headspace bullmoose stem (not the new shorter, 35mm clamp trail version) and a wide riser bar.
An NX Eagle drivetrain delivers an affordable wide gear range, XT brakes for stopping power, and a Fox Factory Transfer dropper to get down fast.
Custom gravel bike build…
The gravel build goes for a bit more distance, leaning hard into Gravel Monster Cross (GMX) territory. Dropping down to Farr’s noticeably shorter 483mm a-c Cromo Rigid Boost 29er fork steepens the angles of the Twin-T by 0.7°, and lowers the bottom bracket 5mm from the geometry table (above) – an ideal setup for more gravel according to Farr.
Those same big wheels & tires are there to roll over any terrain (as is the same Headspace stem & the Fox dropper). But a Supa-Wide 20° flared alloy drop bar that measures 70cm outside provides plenty of hand positions & leverage. A hydraulic disc brake Apex 1x groupset with an 11-42 cassette out back again delivers affordable gearing range and control in those wide drops – ready to add bags & lights for some bikepacking adventure.
Tech details
The unique Farr Twin-T bike frame is welded in Taiwan from custom butted 4130 chromoly steel tubing, with two sets of bottle cage bosses, one on a pair of struts between the two downtubes.
It features a 73mm threaded bottom bracket and tapered headtube for the included internal 1.5″ headset, with MTB geometry optimized for 510mm a-c fork, i.e. a 100-120mm suspension fork.
It gets full-length external cable routing & stealth dropper post routing for a 31.6mm post, and includes a CNC alloy seatpost clamp. The frame features Boost 148mm rear spacing with a set of 160mm post mount disc Paragon-style sliding hooded thru-axle dropouts (12mm thru-axle included), and is designed to work with 1x drivetrains – 30-36T chainrings recommended with a 52mm chainline.
The Twin-T is available in three sizes (S-L) and has room for up to max 29×2.4″ (on i30mm rims) or 27.5×2.6″ mountain bike tires. Claimed frame weight is 3.26kg before it gets painted (also in Taiwan) for a size M – unabashedly “so damn heavy” according to Farr. But that extra 800g or so ensures a “lively” ride feel, unquestionable durability, and the bike’s wacky good looks!
Farr Twin-T adventure bike frame – Pricing & availability
OK, now you’ve been inspired for either a custom gravel or mountain bike build, but here’s the rub… The Twin-T frame won’t be delivered until July or even August 2021! Farr admits that’s pretty frustrating, but COVID-19 lead time impacts are crazy, and an unavoidable reality for small companies.
Pre-order price is $895 (USD) for the frame now, in either Quantum gray or Duck Egg blue. Quantities will be limited in size & color combinations. Farr figured it would be best to get the bike out in front of anyone who might want one as soon as possible, to give plenty of time to round up all the components needed for your own unique custom adventure bike build – “the weirder and more creative the builds, the BETTER!!!”
