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My Hardtail 29er - The Alpha

This is my own personal bike and was the first frame I ever made while at The Bicycle Academy frame building course. 

 

The idea for this frame was to purely have the perfect trail bike for my riding style. 

So I went for a 29er to help get over the roots and the small bumps that are so common at the places I like to ride. The big thing for me is I always noticed how the bigger wheel changed how the bike rode. I really like a playful bike so the first step to achieve this for me was getting the rear end short but without going crazy as I still want a good allround trail bike. 428mm is where I ended up with a 2.4inch tyre this was achieve by using a T47 86.5mm BB shell which allowed me attach the chain stays wider apart than a normal 73mm BB shell.

 

While in the process of designing this I decided to go for a 120mm I knew that going over this was just going to be over kill for the bike I wanted especially as it was going to be a 29er. 100mm could have been an option too but as this gets taken on all sorts of trails going for a little extra travel helps out every now and then. 

 

That leads into why I chose a 65.5 deg head angle, in some of the my favourite trails there are a lot of fast sections that descend and I wanted the bike to feel at home. 

With every decision a compromise may have to be met and mine was climbing.

 

When you make a bike slack this can effect handling up hill the main factor you get it the wheelie effect. This is caused by not enough weight over the front wheel. 

The best way to try and improve this not solve it is to steepen the seat tube angle, this helps get your weight closer to the front wheel when you climb. With this in mind I decided to go for a 74.5 deg seat tube angle.   

 

Yet again if you start to go to steep you find another comprises for example longer single track where you are seated for long periods of time can become harder as you will be much further forwards.

 

I choose to sacrifice climbing over the other aspects because I am stronger in the other areas and enjoy those more. It is the best compromise for my needs.

Paint had to be a fade and I personally love candy/metallic red. Powder coated by Steve at Aurum Finishing. I choose powder over paint because its purely more durable and when you have people who know what they are doing you would be surprised what can be done. ​​

  • Columbus 29er & Zona tubing

  • 29x2.4 with 428mm chainstays 

  • Post mount 180 front and back.

  • Bear frame supplies dropouts

  • 86.5mm T47 BB shel 

  • Sram X01 11speed groupset 

  • Arkane wheelworks carbon rims

  • Rideworks hubs

  • Rideworks headset and BB 

  • Bike yoke dropper 

  • Hope Cranks and Brakes

  • Rockshox Pike forks 

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