Spencer's Aluminum Desert Machine. Here's what Spencer wrote when we asked him to write a description for this puppy, I'd say he nailed it:
Spencer Harding’s pro model. He lives in the desert and is, indeed, a brat. The Desert Brat is what you get when you critique the Scapebot enough that Matt just says “design something fucking new.” This is Spencer’s dream ATB/touring bike, gently massaging mountain bike geo and design features into a lightweight aluminum non-suspension-corrected frame. The frame is designed solely around 29” wheels and clears a 2.6” tire. This alloy chariot is equally at home on all-day touring rides or with the dropper slammed on your local shred portal. When you encounter that downed tree (saguaro) on the trail, there is a portage handle for easy portaging (said with as much French accent as possible).
There are many hills Spencer will die on, and the Desert Brat incorporates many of them. First of all, tall stack height: you won’t need many spacers to get your bars properly high. Second, no sliding dropouts. If you SS nerds wanna shed gears, get a chain tensioner. Lastly, Aluminum is great; this isn’t your dad’s pop-can aluminum road bike; aluminum rides great with large tires and saves your back when you lift the damn thing up. I've been riding aluminum bikes long enough to have Ronnie make fun of me for it; now he’s all in. You should be too.
Build Notes:
The frame comes with a steel fork, but the headtube is tapered in case you wanna run a carbon fork (like Spencer).
Headtube uses an EC34/44 headset. If you plan to run the stock steel fork, you will need one that uses an 1 1/8" Crown Race.
Boost spaced wheels front (15x110) and rear (12x148). These are everywhere, and as long as 32” bikes don't make us use superboost, there’ll be plenty of options. The frame and fork “legally” clear 2.6; push that boundary at your own risk; the desert doesn’t have much mud.
The non-drive side dropout has a kickstand mount. You’ll want one with the two mounting bolts spaced at 40mm.
Get a big ass custom framebag for your Brat, look at all that space. Plus, you can still use the Portage handle when you have a framebag mounted, wow, much smart.
The frame was designed with flat (don't make me call them “alt”) bars in mind. The reach numbers are conservative and designed around a 70mm stem. Gives some wiggle room and makes mounting stem bags easier. Maybe you could run a 35mm stem and drop bars if you like a long reach, not for me, but go wild.
73mm BSA threaded bottom bracket because big tires and MTB spec. Sorry, narrow Q-factor folks, you’ll be fine. Will work with any MTB BB, but use square taper if you're nasty.
Brazeons all over this thing, not quite the Scapebot, but enough. Most importantly, double downtube bottle mounts cause we might as well use all that length. You should probably have a framebag instead of water bottles, but the bosses make it great for bolt-on bags too.
Front brake is I.S. mount, so you’ll need an adaptor. I.S. will make sure you never ruin your fork if you over-torque a bolt. Also, when you have to remove your fork for travel, you just unbolt the adapter, and you won’t lose your caliper alignment. The factory said we needed to do a post mount in the rear, so that is still a post mount. Front and rear max rotors 180
Details:
Handmade in Taiwan using 6061 Series Aluminum for the Frame and Heat Treated Chromoly for the Fork
Tig Welded
Color- Black & Khaki Crackle
Head Tube Diameter- Tapered 34mm Top/ 44mm Bottom (Threadless Steerer)
Crown Race Diameter- 30mm (1 1/8")
Bottom Bracket- 73mm English (BSA) Threaded
Steerer Tube Length- 400mm
Axle to crown-432mm
Fork Spacing- 15x110mm
Rear End Spacing- 12x148mm
Front Axle Thread Pitch & Length- M15 1.5x130mm
Rear Axle Thread Pitch & Length- M12 1.0x175mm
UDH Compatible
Seat Post Diameter- 31.6mm
Seat Post Clamp Diameter- 35.0mm
Weight (Large)- Frame- 2.6kg or 5lbs 11oz | Fork (Uncut Steerer)- 1.5kg or 3lbs 5oz
Geo Charts: *NOTE: We did not make any Smalls for this run*
