This one is a little unique. Unique for a couple reasons… One being that this is a personal build, and that’s generally not something I post, and secondly because this bike was built during the Great Bike Parts Shortage of 2021. If you look verrrry closely, you’ll notice very little matches, and that many parts are used. See it now? Yeah, me too. But nonetheless this bike works really well and is a great option for bikepacking and general singletrack shredding.
This frame was chosen for bikepacking and bikepacking races. Granted 2020 and 2021 aren’t the best years for this, but hey, here’s to wishful thinking. The frame is classified as a “downcountry” frame, if you can call that a classification. But generally speaking this is an XC frame with a penchant for going downhill, nearly as much as going uphill. Throw on a few bikepacking oriented hits such as a slightly lower BB height and third bottle cage mount, and you’ve got a daily-shredder that can head of into the sunset in the weekend.
The bike is using Shimano and SRAM components because of availability obviously, but at the same time, a SRAM derailleur can control the chain just a hair better, but the choice of 10-45 and 10-51 tooth cassettes on Shimano’s Microspline freehub is pretty choice for a bike that can use 27,5+ and 29” wheels. The larger of the two will be combined with 2,4/2,5” tires and a dynamo hub for long distance KM eating.
The big thing of this frame is the paint… or lack thereof actually. See, this frame has been coated with Cerakote, a super thin ceramic film. Now, this isn’t some fancy aero ceramic hype, this is a super hard and resilient coating generally used in other industries to protect mostly metal (carbon also). Cerakote isn’t bothered by chemicals, heat, or rubbing, so that makes it perfect for this sort of rig… plus it’s just beautiful. Another bonus is that you can use Cerakote to create similar effects to wet paint (logos etc.), while being about half the price and double the durability. Neat, huh?
Questions about this build? Keen to start your own, or just want to talk possibilities? Send Parallel HQ an email today!
