Cycle Monkey is the U.S. distributor and service center for Rohloff internally geared hubs, and what better way to show off the system than on a sweet custom project bike.
This one belong’s to CM’s Neil Flock and combines a standard 120mm travel Rockshox RS-1 shock with Maxxis Chronicle 29+ tires… which looks amazing, with side clearance to spare. As for bottom out clearance between the top of the tire and the fork’s crown? Well, I walked one of Rockshox’s PR managers over and he said they absolutely do not recommend this set up. Of course, folks were running 27.5 wheels on 26” forks long before the wheel size became dominant, the safety rule of thumb being to remove all the air from your fork and check clearance at bottom out. And then decide for yourself if you wanna run parts outside of their intended scope.
Check the details, plus bikes and parts from Gates Belt Drive, Kish and Cysco Cycles, below…
It may not meet ETRTO standards, but it sure looks cool! When the extra boyancy isn’t needed, standard 29er wheels and tires will fit just fine, of course. Maybe they should add a Boost RS-1 to the list?
Octopus style.
Down low, the dropper post hose runs out, then back in, while the rear brake cable stays outside the rest of the way.
A Gates Carbon Belt Drive turns the Rohloff hub.
GATES BELT DRIVE
In addition to the new composite, budget-friendly CenterTrack chainrings they just announced, Gates is working on oversized rings aimed at the track bike market.
No word on availability, just a new market they’re looking into.
KISH TITANIUM
Kish does what he’s always done, build quality, functional titanium frames. So, nothing over the top here, but if you’re near Carrboro, NC, and want something ti and custom, look no further.
This fat bike is for a buddy of ours and takes advantage of other local-ish parts from Thomson and Industry Nine.
Kish makes his own stems, too.
CYSCO CYCLES
In August 2014, new owner Clay Ellison bought the Cysco Cycles brand after working at Litespeed building bikes for almost eight years. The trademark twisted tubes of Cysco’s yore aren’t rolling off the jig like they used to, so the frames are bit more traditional looking at first glance. But this one’s secret lies in the geometry.
The owner originally ordered a recumbent after being in two IED blasts, but his PT cleared him for riding a normal bike, and in fact encouraged it, so Clay worked hard on the geometry to make it work. It has a much steeper 76.5° SA, which helps position his hips better after getting hit from the side in a Humvee in one of the blasts.
The top tube is decorated with the Valor, Bronze Star and the Iraq Campaign medals.
Some of the campaign details are on the driveside seatstay, name and rank on the opposite side.
Unit patch and rank on the seat tube. The frame was originally built with Di2 in mind, then switched to wanting a single cable running on the top of the downtube to eventually settling on internal cable routing for a 105 group. So, the extra bottle boss up front that was originally part of the cable routing is now an accessory mount for whatever can be bolted down.
Now, the customer will be doing Ride4Recovery centuries and more.
