We who ride bikes, are we not suppose to be a little bit better than others? I mean, cycling is environment friendly, quiet, healthy, burn fat not oil, one less car and all of that, “we´re better than you attitude”. Still we´re over consuming the shit of our selves. Always looking for new and better. Perhaps this new boost carbon new rig will make my riding more awesome. Like it matters whats between your legs when out riding? I know cos i´m one of them. I´ve been swapping bikes like underwear for the last ten years. But now i´m kind of sick of it. Don´t get me wrong, i loove all the new inventive bikes and parts coming out but it just never stops. Always new and improved. You almost afraid to get a new high end bike from one of the big ones cos next year it´s changed to something better and improved and you kind of feel cheated. Big business put out the bait and we swallow it whole. Cycling and mountain biking in perpendicular is suppose to be wild and free with it´s hippie roots in California. This is of course my personal opinion. I´m not a competitive cyclist. I love the idea of the bicycle and the ride but i also got addicted to constantly looking for new and better. Spending money and never feeling satisfied.
There are a few brands that still got it but The ones who keep the spirit alive is the frame builders. Cyclists by heart who loves the ride and make bikes they wanna ride themselves. They do it their own renegade playful way very seriously but the playful mountain bike soul is all there. I don´t know if it´s just me or is the custom made market exploding? It might be thanks to social media that all the small brands have a chance to reach out the the community, and the bike community is strong. Or perhaps it´s a sign of our time. It is kind of the same movement as the micro brewery scene. The fact that there are options beyond the mainstream. Also a hand made frame is not more expensive then a high end frame form any of the big brands, and they´re all made in China.
I´ve been nursing the the dream of a custom built frame for years. And now i´m finally made the move. I had five main bikes. Road, cross, fat, mountain and a dirt jumper. The ones i use is the fat bike for trails and bikepacking and the cross for commuting and gravel. Those two are the bikes i had the longest. I built my Singular back in 2011 and the Salsa Mukluk in 2014. But now all are going because but these two.
The fat bike is amazing, but it´s an explorer and i wanted something a bit more aggressive for summer trail riding. I´ve been looking for a replacement for years but don´t find anything that fill the blanks. But now the amazing BTR-Fabrications is building my dream ride. A full custom aggressive steel fat bike with rigid fork for winter bikepacking and 120 mm slack travel fork for summer ripping. It´s been a long process, we began making plans back in October last year and now it´s finally getting close.
BTR-Fabrications is Tam and Burf, two hard working, bike riding geniuses who started their business in a shed in England. They´re building the worlds coolest steel hard tail frames and they are doing it good. I got a soft spot for all mountain hard tails and when i asked if they were up to design and build a fat bike frame they were on it right away.
Check this edit form when they started. Now the guys moved out of their old shed and are becoming a big name in the custom market due to making high quality bikes their own way. I just love their take on frames.
Even though they´ve never built a fat bike i´m very confident this will be one hell of a bike. Tam is a amazing designer and Burf welds like a god. On top of that i got my custom bars from Oddity Cycles today. The titanium jewel of the my steel crown looks just stunning. So now we´ll see if this is the bike to rule them all. If my search is over, if my hunger for new shit will be satisfied. I really think so. Oh, and who am i kidding. Of course it matters whats between your legs when riding, as long as it´s the right tool for the job.
Stay tuned for updates and full spec and geo, this baby goes in to welding any day now…
Bike life in Swedish Lapland 