Got a few pics from Tam at BTR last night. Tubes are cut and bottle mount and internal housing holes on place. I´ll guess it´ll be coming together any day now.
Routing and extra bottle cage under the down tube
good angle on internal housing
tuuuubes
Also got rid of parts that wont go on the Roamer. Just the frame left of the Instigator, if i don´t get it sold it´ll stay for a future singlespeed project.
Just ordered an SDG Saddle and Race Face Aeffect crank set. I think it´s Raceface only 24 mm fat cranks with spider less chain ring.
The frame will be BTR´s signum clear coating with some bonus graphic to match my stylish Oddity bars. Love when you can see the stitches through the coating and Burf make some pretty nice welding.
Found a couple of more angles of the frame design…
Hopefully there will soon be an update on the blog with the frame put together soon.
Things are about to get real over at BTR. Tubes are cut and ready to go.
The custom fat bike is soon more than a pile of pipes. This bike is going to be something really different. I´ve been longing for a custom frame for years but did not find the right welders here in Europe. The main idea was to get an Oddity frame. I love Sean and his style and the way he thinks about cycling. But getting a frame from the US is so much more expensive due to 25% extra VAT and 12-15% extra customs import fee. So that´s kind of out of the question.
But then i found BTR Fabrications. And they´re just what i´m looking for. Even tho they never build a fat bike before i´m sure they’ll do a perfect job. The kind of bike i´m looking for is a mix between The Salsa Mukluk and Surly Instigator. Tam drew one up and now we´re on it. It also got a name, I will call it The Roamer. Goes good with the rest of the BTR line up with Ranger, Belter, Chaser, Ripper and Pinner.
The Roamer will have 67 degree head angle and short chain stays. It’s ready for 120 mm suspension fork but comes with custom fork equipped with anything cage mounts.
Geo sheet is just a draft but pretty close. Reach is a bit shorter, but otherwise pretty right.
Fancy pancy cable routingsAll cable routings is internal including dropper post. BTR makes the fanciest cable routing i’ve ever seen. Axles are 177 rear and 150 front. Through axles of course.
I’ll be running DT Swiss BR 710 rims on orange Hope Fatsno hubs. Wheels built by the master Gavin at August cycles.
Components as follow… Hope headset and bottombracket in matching orange. Raceface cranks. Drivetrain 1×11 Shimano XT. Breaks also Shimano XT. Not decided what dropper post to use yet. Cockpit supplyed by the Mighty Oddity cycles and Thomson 4X stem, 50 mm.
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.
2013 Mukluk
2011 Peregrine
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.
Deep custom Oddmoné bars from Oddity Cycles
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…
Got up this morning and the thermometer says -16 Celsius. Few things gets me going like cold weather and blue skies. It must be something in the blood with us Northlings. We were just made for this. Frost biting your cheeks and gets stuck the beard, i just want to stay outside. But it´s just another Tuesday and i take my regular ride to work and stop by the south harbor. I stop by here almost every day before work, to suck in the great outdoors to last a day indoors. My shop i just a couple of hundred meters away. I love the sea, summer and winter. Its´s the contrasts between seasons that never stop to amaze me.
-16 today
Ice is growing fast
December is a dark month. The days are still getting shorter until winter solstice 21 of December. The few hours of daylight is very special. Sun rise around 10 a´clock and sets a few hours later. If the skies are clear the light this time of year is really special. Like a sunset that goes on for a few hours.
Fat bike in it´s right environment
Smoke on the water and fire in the skye
This years first frost beard
Very soon the ice will be thick enough to ride. They already started the ice-road plowing and i cant wait to get to Sandön and hit the shores on the outside.
This might be my last post before the big update. Stay tuned for Bike Life in Swedish Lapland 2.0
Winter is coming to Luleå. We´re in for six months of snow and ice. But there is still a few days of autumn left. We´re finally getting temperatures below freezing during the nights to remind us whats coming. The days are getting shorter but nothing beats the clear crispy autumn air.
Frosty boat ropes
cold night
I had a day off and everything just lined up for a perfect day of riding. Low tides, dead calm, bright sun. Since it was a Wednesday finding a trail buddy is quite hard. My dear friend Fredrik were supposed to join me but he stayed in due to a cold.
On days like this it´s all about riding shore lines or if possible get out on an island. When water levels are this low Sandön is truly the place to be. This has become one of my favorite places up here and i go here as often as i can. It´s just a canal that separates Sandön from main land, Anders dingy helps me to get across.
Row row row your boat
Sandön is huge and to day i was going to try to get around the whole island. Since my last ride here with Fatbikeadventures.se i kind of know my way around.
This place offers big variations on the riding but when water levels are low and the sea is calm it´s the beaches on the outside and the dried seabed that makes me tick.
Lovely autumn light along the forest trails
The shallow water is part frozen
Love this place, Skagsudden
Sheep food
When i left home in the morning the thermometer said -4 Celsius and i had to scrape the frost of the windshield of my car. We only had a few frost nights so far. Today the temp would not go much higher, still the sun warms the air during the day. But in the shade the frost kept its grip. I cracked through a thin ice layer in some of the bays even on the south side.
Frost in the sand
Cracking the ice
This view, 5 kilometers of shore ahead.
Days like these are rare. This year we had very few times when the water level´s been under average. Since the whole southeast side of Sandön is shores and very shallow water it becomes an amazing moon like landscape on days like this. It´s possible to ride hundreds of meters out on the seabed. I had my lunch on a flat stone that usually is complete under water.
Since we don´t have real tides here the water level can stay like this for weeks. The sea level is controlled by air pressure, wind and during spring melting water from the mountains.
Moon like landscape
Shadow warriors
Lunch break
Rock view
My trusty steed. 2013 Mukluk
A ship passing through the canal on its way to Viktoria Harbor. Luleå has a long tradition of shipping due to the steelworks and ore trains from the mines in the mountains.
Big ship heading in
After going all the way around the outer skirts of Sandön i end up at the seaside resort Klubbviken. An amazing place, full of life during summer. Cabins for rent, restaurant, shores, summer guests, playground, locals and tourists playing in the sand, Klubbviken got it all you can even rent a fatty and go for a spin. But now it´s all closed for the season. I love to visit places like this off-season. It is something beautiful with a place full of life that´s fallen asleep till next season.
Rent a fat bike or a paddle boat
The restaurant is resting.
Abandoned swings
Resting
Memories from summer fun
No kids playing today
Cabins for rent
Last time Anders showed me some of the best single track i have ever ridden on local trails. Somewhere in the woods there is a ridge with a crazy trail going all the way down to the sea. I did not find it this time. But hey, that´s an excuse to return. The lost trail will be found, there is still time, winter is coming but not quite yet.
Here is the route. Total of 37.2 kilometers. (Yes i´m on Strava, it´s just a phase)
In times like these, and by that i mean Eurobike, Frostbike, Interbike-times. Everybody is showing off thier new stuff for 2017. Well, as i were saying, in times like these it’s easy to forget why we ride.
Don’t get me wrong, i love getting the news on all new gear and bikes. But sometimes it’s just to much. A gazillion wheel sizes, hub sizes, frames, inovating oval dubbel butted self gearing e-bikes plus carbon drive extravaganza is coming out of my ears. Do we get so caught up in tech and new stuff that we forget what it´s all about?
Last sunday we went riding. Just at the local spot with some nice trails, a couple of jumps and a fireplace by the slope. We packed some burgers, threw the kids bikes in the car and off we went. After we set up camp and got a fire going we just played around on the trails. No hydro backpacks, strava or garmin. Just pure fun on two wheels.
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And there it is! The answer to why we do this. It´s actually really simple. Because it´s so damn fun. Because we can do it together regardless of age or skills. Having the latest bike with the most optimal geometry and the latest smart suspension optimized for exactly this kind of trail wouldn’t have made this day any more awesome. What could have made this day more awesome is more people. More friends, more kids bouncing around, eating burgers and climbing trees, more bikes, more fun.
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I really like bikes. I like new stuff and i like the inovations that makes the bicycle even more awesome. But, i like riding more. Very few times, when i think back on an epic ride, it´s not the bike i sat on that makes the memory. It´s the friends i shared it with. It´s the place my bike took me to. Perhaps we need to relax and just go ride.
Well, not sure what it’s called. Gravel or cx or what ever. Eric from Ourorboros gathered a bunch of riders for a evening event on the local trails. Weapon of choice, drop-bar bikes for fast trails and tarmac. It’s been a while since i got to take the old Singular Peregrine for a proper spin. This bike is just pure fun in the woods.
We met up at the shop and i got to borrow a pair of CB eggbeaters instead of my crappy clip pedals. We threw some beers in the fridge for after bike and headed out. Six happy campers four cx-bikes one full susser and me on my monstercross.
We went across the river to ride the trails around the airport. A huge pine area with loads of trails. I actually never rode this bike here before. This place got a lot of sand pits and are great with the fat bike.
But i must say it’s super fun to go monstercrossin’ here too.
What ever we choose to call it. Riding bikes with friends is pretty awesome. Call it cx or gravel it doesn´t matter as long as you´re having fun.
We managed to do 23 kilometers but who is counting anyway. It is a funny thing about late summer and autumn. I just wanna ride. During summer it´s all about family, vacation and chillin. Or maybe it is just me longing for the proper cycling season, Winter.
After a couple of hours playing around on the trails we headed back to town and the beer was cold back at the workshop. Cycling is fun. I´m going riding tonight again.
