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Waltworks Ultimate Warrior

173606 Views 1948 Replies 102 Participants Last post by BansheeRune, 1 mo ago

Just J

Discussion Starter · Jun 25, 2016

I've spent the past week or so trying to decide which section to put this but the brief to Walt was basically as follows:

I've been looking at the new Santa Cruz Hightower, thinking how great would that bike be to ride, something that is designed to run both 29" and Plus tyres optimally, but then I realise that this kind of thing may not be achievable with a hard tail? Unless we could replicate their flip chip adjustability somehow? Maybe via the drop outs or BB?

Executive summary would be something like: a hardtail for hardtail stuff that isn't unwilling to take on the really rough stuff where a FS bike might be a "better" choice.

So basically over the past 5 months myself and Walt have been discussing options, what I was looking for from a bike, my body measurements etc and this is what we (well Walt!) came up with...

I wanted to be able to run a 170mm Reverb dropper for the most standover. I have pretty long arms so the top tube might appear to be really long too, but basically this frame is tailored to me 100%.

I didn't want the BB to be too low as I tend to get frustrated with that current trend in the rocky terrain we tend to have round these parts.

I wanted a stable bike with a nice short rear end, this one actually comes out between 410mm and 425mm, which is pretty darn cool if you ask me?!

We decided that if we were going to go with 27.7+ and 29" wheels then why not make this thing ultra adjustable, we'd use Boost 148mm Paragon Polydrops with a 6mm offset (so I can run dishless wheels) AND a Niner EBB along with a Boost 110mm Fox 34 120mm fork in order to allow the use of the following wheel and tyre combos:

This info direct from Walt, (all numbers plus/minus 5mm or so, tires vary in actual size a lot):

-29x3 is about 385mm radius
-29x2.4 is going to be about 370mm radius
-27.5x3.8 (Hodags) is about 370mm radius
-27.5x3 is about 360mm radius
-26x3.8 (Hodags, Nates) is going to be about 360mm radius
-27.5x2.4 is about 350mm radius

The EBB is optimized to be run in the "up" position with 27.5x3 (~360mm) for the ~320mm BB height in the design. If you use a bigger tire, the BB height will go up (ie, it'll be about 335-340mm with a 29x3) in which case you'd *probably* want to spin around to the "down" position to drop the BB by 15mm to roughly match.

All of the smaller tire options will generally be best run in the up position on the EBB.

The rockers can be adjusted however you wish to maximize tire clearance, achieve shortest possible chainstay length, etc. No set position will be "best", it will depend on your preferences and the tires you're running.

I give you The Ultimate Warrior...

Audio equipment Bicycle accessory Metal Steel Cylinder

Bicycle accessory Metal Iron Steel Composite material

Infrastructure Pipe Bicycle accessory Metal Iron

Finger Metal Iron Natural material Steel

Floor Composite material Concrete Iron Steel

It'll be in powder coating early next week so I'll post some more images as we have them and of course some build pictures and riding reports later on too.

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