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For one of these standard framesets an All-road / Rough Stuff/ Touring 650B / 29er (dep on frame size) could be interesting IMO. Maybe with a signature fork crown to stand out, disc & canti posts, huge clearances, zits for trad racks and new style bikepacking gubbins. To limit it to Road, Track, Audax seems like a bunch of very similar bikes, really.
Thinking the same and it's certainly something we could build. With OTP offerings from Surly, Brother, Thorn and then your Crusts etc fitting this brief - is there actually a demand for this kind of build? As mentioned above based on the feedback we're looking at building "off menu" so hopefully we'll get a request in for something along these lines - we would enjoy building it.
BobJackson-
First, just to reiterate: bravo for saving the BJ name and all the historic good vibes it has.
Glad you’re considering some more burly stuff. It’s what people want. Maybe: To differentiate from Surly > brother > crust etc, maybe get a proper nice HIP & RAD special frame component, like made by Ted James, like a new design of disc ends, yolk, monostay or fork bend, something that makes it special and yours and unique. And something people want. Batch a shedload of em and bash out a modern classic.
For instance… I for one hate the look of most flat mount rocker ends and how they make the back end / seat stays look weird, sort of bent 3/4 of the way to the wheel. I really don’t want a bike with those, ever. Why can’t ends look proper any more? Like a nice elegant triangular end, the wheel at the apex of where the line of the stays meet. A socketed dropout (well, thru axle hole then) in the old style where the stays stay straight all the way down, could have an extended NDS chainstay socket with flat mounts afore it. Why do they have to look like they do these days? Makes the bike look all flattened at the end. Is it just a trend? Maybe I’m missing something (not a framebuilder!). I’d be thinking about something around there. Or yolks or monostay designs. Like the early 90s Trek MTB Unicrown seat cluster. Something no-one’s doing.
I look forward to seeing more, and how this semi-custom idea will develop. Best of luck with it. 🙏🏼
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With OTP offerings from Surly, Brother, Thorn and then your Crusts etc fitting this brief - is there actually a demand for this kind of build?
I think there must be, presuming you'd still do it with lugs the target market wouldn't necessarily overlap entirely with Surly/Brother etc.
Separate disc and canti versions Shirley? Nobody wants vestigial rim brake posts when they're running discs do they?!
@Skülly it's just to have room to get the caliper in no? I've modded some frames putting flat mount bosses in the chainstays and it can be tighter than a mouses ear getting the caliper in there. Low mount IS/post was even worse.
Do agree on the little detail to set the frame apart, the BJ (fnar fnar) top eyes are nice, some panto'd lugs would be sweet.
Skülly
M_V
Great to hear BJ will live on. Bravo Woodrup for doing this. Amazing that you have this shared heritage.
For one of these standard framesets an All-road / Rough Stuff/ Touring 650B / 29er (dep on frame size) could be interesting IMO. Maybe with a signature fork crown to stand out, disc & canti posts, huge clearances, zits for trad racks and new style bikepacking gubbins. To limit it to Road, Track, Audax seems like a bunch of very similar bikes, really.
Imagine creating a New Classic that became a cult thing to have (like a d.o.g.s.b.o.l.l.o.c.k.s., Sherpa, Overbury's roughstuff)... Bob Jackson looked like it could take over the world at one point (with the fixed explosion), there's a lot of goodwill for them around this parish for instance. Remember when BLB did a Jackson collab?
Course, I'm not a framebuilder and my ideas of what's cool and financially viable are bound to be skewed by being a div. Anyway like @pipwish and others, I wish Woodrup / Jackson all success with this standard frame idea.