Hardtail MTB: Chrome

Vision

From a riding standpoint, I wanted Chrome to be an aggressive, heavy hitting hardtail that still pedaled well and could take on a bikepacking trip or two. The bike needed to be playful and fun on easy, flowy trails as well as confident enough to keep up with full suspension bikes on techy downhills.

Normally, I favor subdued aesthetic features. I like brown. This time around, I wanted to do something outside of my comfort zone. I wanted Chrome to be blingy and glitzy in every way. I wanted it to be a deviant from the matte black mountain bikes available right now.

Geometry and Design

I took inspiration from world cup downhill racers and decided to run a 29” front wheel and 27.5” rear, affectionately referred to as a ‘mullet’ configuration. Mullet gives a stable and fast rolling front end, while maintaining a rear that is easy to manipulate.

This frame has a lot of bends. The only real reason for that is I enjoy the challenge of bending tubes. Some of the bends, such as the seat tube and downtube, are necessary for tire clearance. The seat stays are bent because I like how it looks for the seat tube to be collinear with the stays.

Fabrication

I started with the bottom bracket/chainstay junction. I made this out of plate to eliminate interference between the chainring, tire, and chain stay. make the tire and chainring combination fit.

From there, I tacked together the front triangle and welded it out. I mitered all the joints with files and a hacksaw on this frame, which I found to provide tighter fitting results than using a hole saw in a mill like I did for my road bike frame. It is, however, much more time consuming.

Once the front triangle was completely welded, I tacked and finished the rear. I do the front first because it’s easier to maneuver the frame when it’s smaller. I left the head tube long during welding to help prevent warpage from the heat.

My welding really came together on this frame. I’m really pleased with how the joints turned out. As you can see in the picture to the right, the stainless filler material I used leaves the welds looking shiny and gold.

The final fabrication step is adding braze ons including bottle bosses, cable guides, and the head tube badge. For my headtube badge, I used a sun design that my mom has been painting on clothes since the early 1990’s. I grew up with it around me, and it reminds me of home.

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