We don’t make mountain bikes, but if we did…
One of my longest standing customers is on his third bike now, having recently taken delivery of this slightly unusual addition to his Spoon Customs’ collection.
It is of course a hardtail mountain bike and as such is the first time we’ve turned our hand to mountain bike design. Fabricated by our long standing friends in Italy of course, who can make anything we throw at them in their sleep so take a close look at the photos if you want to see some incredible welding.
With the gap between gravel and road bikes getting wider though and gravel bikes accounting for half of our order book right now as more people look for the road less travelled, it’s not so much of a stretch for us and given I started out in mountain bikes and we all ride off road regularly, it was a lovely challenge to get our heads around.
Our first crack at a mountain bike, made in Reynolds 953 and handmade in Italy. Chris King, Rockshox and Shimano build kit. Pic by Simon Eldon.
The other unusual aspect of this project was that our customer wanted it made in stainless, like his other Spoon bikes. Columbus don’t make anything heavy enough for a proper mountain bike, so we called on our friends at Reynolds for some tubing that would do the job. They supplied us with some triple butted 953 to do the job beautifully.
Geometry wise it’s a slack cross country set up and at 9kg all up, it’s probably light enough for the odd race too. Rockshox XC forks have to held to believe how light they can make them, but lightweight wasn’t the brief here although we were pretty pleased with the all up weight in the end.
Some Thomson bits gracing this bike for the first time on one of ours (bar, stem and dropper post) and some more unusual finds in the wheels (built by Ben at Sharp Precision Wheels), which are running Onyx Racing hubs with a silent engagement which are a joy to ride. We don’t see them much in the UK, and I’m not sure why. They’re amazingly well made. They tip the scales at a few grams more than the usual suspects we see here, but weight in the centre of the wheels makes little to no difference to how a wheel feels, so don’t be put off by the weight of these ones on paper, they’re amazing hubs.
Reynolds 953 tubing, a first on a Spoon Custom and our first proper MTB.
The finish on this one is brushed stainless; achieved with some elbow grease and grey scotch. It’s protected under laquer for lower maintenance and because we didn’t want any vulnerable edges on the masked and painted logo details. The eagle eyed might also spot that there’s a sticker on this bike. Very unusual for Spoon Custom and not something Sam our painter (from Gun Control Custom Paint) approves of but it is a holographic sticker so he let that slide.
No, you can’t all have a dropper post on your road bike…
