Tuesday, July 28, 2020

Spiffing Up The Blackbuck

Current state of the Blackbuck
Yawn........ another single speed on Guitar Ted Productions? Really?

Yes.

Long time readers all have seen this rare bird several times before. This is a 2006 OS Bikes Blackbuck, in case you did not know. I guess this is almost a "vintage" 29"er" now days! It's old enough a lot of people have probably never heard about "OS Bikes" and this single speed.

OS Bikes was a short-lived outside project of Mark Slate's. Mark is one of the founders of WTB, a Mountain Bike Hall of Fame member, and one of the true 'pioneers' of the modern mountain bike, and certainly a big part of why the first 29"er tire ever was made. So, to say that Mr. Slate was a highly influential man in cycling is no hyperbole. In fact, he still is pretty important at WTB, and still has a hand on what riders are doing with their MTB's and gravel bikes in the year 2020, more than 40+ years since he got started.

Mark's biggest influence was on tires and saddles, (he designed the saddle on this bike you see here) He was not particularly known for his design of bicycles, but this is one of his efforts. This particular Blackbuck comes from the first run of 500 bikes that were made. I purchased it as a frame/fork. The original rigid fork was super short, had a 51mm offset, and resulted in a ridiculous 74° head angle with a trail figure down into the upper 40's, as I recall. This resulted in a textbook example of "Twitchiness".

I tried it a couple of times but it was so nervous that I just didn't jive with it. So, I have tried a multitude of forks on this bike and finally arrived at what you see here as being the best thing I tried out of them all. That fork is a Bontrager Switchblade, a fork steeped in mystery and rumors. I'll maybe get around to writing about that fork and its history with me later sometime.

Ultra-modern bar standards- Ultra-old school 29"er vibes.
The OS Bikes name actually stands for "Of Spirit Bikes", and why a Blackbuck, well, I'm not sure. I'm betting there is a story there, I just am not sure I know what it is. Anyway, the point is that I really like the bike and my aim is to slowly bring this up to a coherent looking build versus the hodge-podge of anodized stuff I've hung off the bike in years past.

My first "spiff" was to jettison the tired Salsa Shaft seat post in favor of a Thompson lay back, which is what the build deserves from a class and era-correct viewpoint. The next spiff happened when Grannygear gifted me his White ENO front and rear hubs and the excellent White Industries freewheel. I paired all of that up with the aforementioned fork, which also features silver anodized bits, and the look is coming together well. Finally, I threw on a Bontrager 35mm bar clamp diameter stem with matching Bontrager handle bar.

I need to score some Paul Love Levers in silver, a silver 1 1/8th King head set, (or equivalent), and a silver seat collar. Finally, I have a first gen (silver, natch!) XTR 180mm crankset, courtesy of the same Grannygear, which will be paired with either a black ring or silver ring. OR- I will get a White Industries crankset in silver.

Maybe I should go all White Industries/Paul Components. Get the White Industries head set, crank set, and the Paul levers and brake calipers. Ditch the Thomson post for a Paul Components Tall and Handsome, maybe... Except those parts are priced beyond what the Gross National Product of several nations is. Yeah.......maybe not!

The point is, with some silver bottle cages, I would be all silver and black then, and the bike would finally look 'right', ya know? OR- I could just shut up and actually, ya know.......go ride some single track with it already! 

 Yeah. Going riding then........

5 comments:

Tman said...

Best saddle EVER. Still waiting on another SST reissue. I have several

Blain said...

A rare bird, indeed. Back when the OS, Soul Cycles, and Misfit were on the market I couldn't get either of the first two. I was looking for a 29er that didn't steer like a dump truck at the time, so steep and twitchy sounded about right for the east coast singletrack I was riding at the time. I ended up with the Misfit, which did the trick (before you couldn't get THOSE, too). It's gathering dust in the shed after many thousands of miles. The 700c rims and steep HA seem like it'd make a solid SS drop bar/adventure, but I haven't gotten around to doing that.

Still wish I could've picked up the OS, though. That's a classy looking frame.

Dave Iverson said...

I'd love to hear the history of the Switchblade. I've got one on my El Mariachi, but rarely see them around.

Skidmark said...

Greets GT, I know you know...the OS Blackbuck fork came in three lengths 435/455/475. Maybe while you are spiffing her up...?

Guitar Ted said...

@Skidmark - That was a later development which came along with the Gen 2 Blackbuck. This one had only the 435 option at the time of purchase. The other option was to get the OG 29"er Reba which had the 38mm offset and 80mm of travel.