Oddity Cycles’ collection featured big tires all around this year, from “plus” (aka baby fat) to real fat, including a 20″ fat bike for the builder’s kid.
They also had this new front end. Called the Squidfork for its resemblance to a squid’s tentacles coming down and grabbing the wheel, it’s made of titanium and claims to weigh less than Niner carbon fork. They also say it handles vibration better than a standard fork because of the multiple, thinner tubes. And it gives a little over bumps without diving during braking.
Lastly, it uses a standard tapered steerer, making installation easier than their truss forks that clamp onto a steerer tube above and below the headtube.
Lots more to see below the surface…
The curved inner top tube is mostly for looks, but it also helps keep smaller frame bags in place.
This 20″ fat bike is for Sean Burns’ son.
It, too, gets a Squidfork.
Their other fat bike was adult sized and showed their traditional truss fork.
The BB shell wasn’t overly wide, but the BB spindle was.
Burns uses an adjustable chainstay to set chain tension for belt drives and single speeds. If this and the truss fork look familiar, it’s because he used to work for fellow Colorado brand Black Sheep Cycles before shooting off on his own with Oddity. Note the bottle opener on the underside of the chainstay.
This 27.5+ bike shows another use for Niner’s 29er fork by cramming 27.5×3.00 Maxxis tires in there.
The frame’s designed for the long haul. Not just by fitting a massive assortment of bags, but also by using a bent seat tube and stays to allow for a bit of flex.
All of the frame bags are by Andrew the Maker.
APPLEMAN
Appleman Bicycles had three bikes on display this year; these two gravel/cyclocross bikes and the 24″ fat bike he told us about in our pre-show interview series.
The owner of the gravel bike, which is in the foreground of the top pic, couldn’t decide between Matt’s options of wood, titanium or carbon logo treatment, so he combined the wood and ti for this downtube banner. On the back of the seat tube is a silhouette of the owner’s home state. Do you know which one it is?
The drivetrain is a mix of TRP’s excellent Hylex hydraulic singlespeed disc brake set up and a Di2 XTR rear mech. The display screen is hooked up to the climber switches, which conveniently fit into the Hylex levers.
A Rotor crankset with 1x chainring handles the rest.
His ‘cross bike showed off a few build updates that smooth things over nicely.
One of the challenges small builders have faced is what to do with the rear brake and shift cables as they transition from the top tube to the seat tube. If the brake and/or drivetrain layout was such that they couldn’t run through the downtube and into the chainstays, more often than not you ended up with a bit of cable popping out in front of the seat tube only to duck right back into the stay. To keep it hidden, Matt simply moved the seatstay’s mounting points wider, letting the tube run around the seat tube enough that any cable or wire could easily be snuck directly into it without having to see daylight. Now, they pop out just in front of the caliper or rear derailleur.
The water bottle bosses are now flush with the tubes, too. Lastly, new ovalized and tapered top and down tubes come on his road, cyclocross and XC bikes (basically everything he makes). They start bigger up front and narrow slightly as they move backward. It’s an aesthetic change, but there is a whole new layup that’s about 10% lighter and it’s stiffer in every way – laterally and torsionally.
Both of these bikes are “wide tired adventure road bikes” that can really be anything you want since everything’s full custom.
This 24″ fat bike was built for a customer who wanted a race oriented fat bike frame, so this one comes in at 1,000g and gets a short wheelbase, short stays and aggressive riding position.
DEMON FRAMEWORKS
Demon Frameworks has shown us some impressive lugs in the past, and we thought he was a shoe in for Best Lugs this year (Dinucci stole it…again). He builds lugged steel bikes, cutting and creating all of the lugs in house, each a real work of art. He only brought one bike this year, and it was enough. Enjoy…
