Erik is a repeat offender, having a matte black steel 27.5+/29er frame and fork, a blue steel 700×40 cross/gravel frameset, and now a Ti 29+ frame to rip around Colorado. He asked for some Bontrager-style wishbone seatstays and i’m happy to have obliged because i think they turned out great. I love wishbone stays myself but the bends present a challenge if you don’t have the right tooling. Thankfully i have a friend with a Diacro bender and the right radius dies just a couple hours away. Paragon Sliding dropouts make this a singlespeed as well, or just lengthen the chainstays to fit a bigger tire – fits up to a big 2.8″ tire with the sliders back a bit. The half-yoke allows a 34t ring, at least, and a lot of tire clearance. Erik’s a tall guy so we didn’t go super short on the chainstays but kept them reasonable at 435 – 455mm depending on where the sliders are positioned. That’s the other great reason to use adjustable dropouts, to lengthen the chainstays for added tire clearance, or elongate the wheelbase for smoothing out loaded touring, or allowing you to convert to a singlespeed. They also somewhat future-proof the bike since Paragon will update the inserts when and if any upcoming axle changes and brake caliper standards occur! Lastly Erik got some special decals for the frame in the font of a certain punk rock band of the 80’s and 90’s.
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