The new bike is complete. Without further ado, I present to you, The Dark Knight. This beauty will be my racing hardtail for a while, perhaps until something breaks that is irreparable. What does it have to do with all those traits I mentioned in the last entry? Well, it is not a road bike, but it is a steel frame. It is not a full suspension, but it is of course a 29er. It is not carbon (except for the rear derailleur cage), but it is some of the most high tech steel alloy on the market today ( OX Platinum).

For starters, the frame was handmade in Boulder, CO by reknowned builder Walt Wehner. It was custom built for a friend here in Austin who likes his rides to be very snappy, so the headtube is somewhat steep and the bike is a little less forgiving, but it absolutely flies! For you gear junkies out there, it has some solid features including X.9 shifters, X.o medium cage rear derailleur, Salsa moto ace 17d bar, ESI grips, Rock Shox Reba front fork, and Forte Carve Pedals. Some components that make it unique are the Middleburn duo crankset (a 2×9 setup with 27t-40t gearing-> requires use of a compact or road front derailleur for chainstay clearance), a super fancy Crank Bros Cyan ISIS bottom bracket, the KCNC seatpost that I’ve had ever since I built up my first 29er (one of the lightest seatposts on the market), a KMC x.93 chain (I only mention because most folks are still using SRAM and haven’t heard of this brand-it is higher quality at a better price than SRAM), Stan’s ZTR 355 wheelset with Stan’s “The Raven” tires, KCNC superlight skewers, and perhaps the most exotic of all the components, the Scrub Components Rotors with Ti bolts. These are very high tech metal matrix rotors that weigh considerably less than stainless steel rotors ( 2 160mm rotors are slightly less than a single SS rotor) and dissapate heat much better. I look foward to several miles of use from these things. Total dead weight comes to about 22.2 lbs. Not too shabby for a steel 29er hardtail. Today Dark Knight will depart Austin for Breckenridge, CO where the hundred miler will take place on Saturday.