Just got word from Brad over at KirkLee that they’ve been burning the midnight oil on new designs, and the first to see daylight is a new 29″ hardtail.
“We sat back and thought about what do we want in a hardtail 29er, the things that turn us on,” said Cason. “What you see here are independent seat and chain stays that are ovalized and hourglassed for heel and chainring clearance. The dropouts are custom made for each frame and in addition to relaying structural forces between the stays (non drive side) the drive side (and frame) has provisions for Di2/EPS wiring.”
It uses a tapered integrated seatpost (ISP), but it’s round and can be cut and run with standard 31.6 seatposts at anytime.
The head tube uses the Cannondale integrated OPI stem/steer tube system with headset bearings pressed directly into the frame and a 1.5″ steerer tube holding a Lefty front fork.
The bottom bracket is a 73mm PFBB30. Top and down tubes are mountain bike versions of their road bike tubes.
Rear brake hose runs internally for a super clean look.
The carbon layup in the stays is designed to offer good bump absorption. No yoke on the chainstays helps provide clearance for up to 2.5 tires. Dropouts are custom machined from 6061 billet, and they’re specific for each frame size.
Like all of Kirklee’s bikes, it can be built full custom with any geometry, and it can be built around a conventional fork. Claimed weight for the 21″ (25.2″ top tube) bike you see here is 18.8lbs without pedals and the ISP frame is 1200g. Every part of the frameset is made in the USA. MSRP is $5,000 frame only.
