Hi Guys,
It’s been a great start to the new year up until NOW … the COVID-19 Virus has obviously changed the way we live , think, interact and all signs are that this will continue for quite some time!
So whilst many in Europe and other parts of the world are currently in lockdown, we are still working daily – with many of our vendors and suppliers in the East operational and back at work.
As our last blog update was quite a few months ago, we hinted at a new bike range and shared some early details of what we have coming. We would like to share some more details about what we have coming.
This process is of course taking quite some time and we are already in advanced stages of sample production of some of the bike projects.
First A.T.B sample frame
Above is our new A.T.B – a modern update of the original All Terrain Bike concept – think early “mountain bikes” which were all about riding offroad and just enjoying the trails. We are big fans of the early days of MTB racing in USA — riders like John Tomac, Ned Overend, Julie Furtado and many more.
John Tomac ( Pro MTB and Road Racer ) in action during the early 90’s
The world really does not need another mountain bike frame, so how / why would we even bother?
That’s a great question … and one which we pondered about for long and hard too. As bike geeks and enthusiasts the urge was just too great to not do our own bikes! Whilst inspired by many of the current boutique frame builders out there, we wanted to take some of those cool ideas and design-thinking and bring it to market in our own way.
So what is the A.T.B actually?
Here are a few things we think justify the project :
- 29er and able to fit decent size rubber ( so something like 2.1 ~ 2.35 , frame has 74mm tyre clearance in the rear )
- modern geo whilst not trying to be a trail bike ( early MTB’s were 71 / 73 almost as a standard head-tube , seat-tube number – we’ve gone with 69 / 74 as a happy medium )
- double-butted cromoly tubing ( also marketed as steel tubing in the bike game ) to offer a different ride compared to more mass-produced carbon and alloy frames
- sliding dropouts allowing adjustable rear chainstay length ( altering the bike’s wheelbase )
- multiple fitment points for alot of hydration if you want to ride farr ( see what we did there … )
- straight head tube allowing a choice of straight or tapered steerer forks ( just want to give you the option in case you have an older fork that you want to throw on )
- designed around a 100 to 120mm suspension fork ( most common for bikepacking and all-day rigs )
We’re still working on final spec and pricing but the plan is to offer these as a frame-kit and then in much smaller numbers as a complete bike.
Some of the parts we have specced are not yet available ( some are also embargo’d … ) so below is where we are at with the first sample bike. Hope you guys like it?
Keen to know more? Please sign up to our FARR newsletter ( link is on our homepage ) to get FIRST LOOK and updates on this bike and more of the projects we are working on.
Stay Safe and Stay Healthy!