The Monkey Lab: July 2012

This titanium 29'er was built for a customer in Westport, CT. Lynskey recently ran a promotion on their top-shelf 29" hardtail, the Pro29 SL, so this customer decided it was time to get a new mountain bike. A Rohloff SPEEDHUB 500/14 was chosen for the drivetrain based on its reputation for simplicity, high durability, and low maintenance. The frame promotion was a package that came with a Rock Shox SID XX fork and Cane Creek 110 headset. A Lynskey titanium seatpost was added, and we outfitted the rest of the bike with solid parts.

For the wheels, we laced the Rohloff rear hub and a Hope ProII EVO front disc hub into No Tubes Flow rims using Sapim Race double butted spokes and brass nipples. The Flow rims are one of our favorites for building a solid wheelset with easy tubeless setup without being overly heavy. We've had great results using them for trail bikes as well as XC bikes for larger riders, as in this case.

The Pro29 frame is designed as a snappy, quick-handling, race-oriented frame with oversized tubes. The top and down tubes get Lynksey's Helix tubing, which gives them a twisted look. Lynskey claims that this improves the stiffness of the tube compared to a traditional round tube. The "SL" version of the Pro29 comes stock with sliding dropouts, which makes it easy to setup a Rohloff SPEEDHUB 500/14. Using a Monkey Bone to mount the rear brake, combined with an OEM2 axle plate on the SPEEDHUB 500/14, gives you a clean looking setup.

The only thing that was missing from the Pro29 SL to make it a dedicated Rohloff-specific frame were cable guides for the two Rohloff shift cables. Lynskey offers custom frames and modifications for their stock frames, but their custom shop was backed up for several months, so we sent the frame off to Bilenky Cycle Works for some modifications.
Bilenky has established themselves as the go-to place for S&S coupler retrofits, but they will also do other modifications on request. They mostly work with steel frames, but began working with titanium several years ago as inquiries for S&S retrofits in this material increased. We worked with them most recently on this Bruce Gordon touring frame. On the Pro29 SL frame, they added Rohloff cable guides along the down tube and left chainstay and removed the stock derailleur cable guides. The end results looked great, and the customer ended up with a Rohloff-specific frame for a little less than the base price of the frame.