Trying to be carbon neutral also extends into my bike quiver. Steel is indeed real and I’ll even alloy if I have to but you wont catch me personally on any of that fancy fibreglass so when Ben called me up wanting to add something a little different to his line up it was music to my ears.

We had a brief, we had a budget but we had a problem - what was actually going to fit? After shortlisting a few bikes there was a clear winner in the form of an old favourite, the Bombtrack Beyond +. Ben had been a fan of Johno’s one also featured in the gallery but beside aesthetics the Beyond had two major strong points. Firstly it had a longer 56cm seat tube which is great for those of us with long inseams. It’s often overlooked that the more post out of the frame the farther you stray from the bike’s intended seat post angle and for someone coming off of road geo and wanting to do hill repeats I thought this was a really important aspect to consider. Secondly it comes stock with 27.5” wheels. Being a bigger guy and a dirt virgin the strength gain in smaller wheels and nimbleness definitely seemed like the way to go.

Once the bike arrived it was stripped to fit a mostly Shimano SLX drive train and brakes, a 27.5” specific Rock Shox Recon fork to keep the geometry happy and a Pair of Surly Moloko bars for both comfort and to mimic the tri bar position Ben was well aquatinted with. A few nice Japanese made touches were added via a Tanaka bottle cage, a hand painted Crane bell and MKS pedals accompanied by an Apidura frame bag with must have Wolf Tooth grips. 

When Ben came to pick up the bike we popped across the road to dial in the particulars and if the first pic is anything to go by then I’d say all in all the build was a great success.