Black Sheep High Light Titanium Belt Drive Single Speed with FaithTruss Fork

Black Sheep looking south from Albany Hill Park

This beautiful titanium bike from Black Sheep Bikes in Ft. Collins, CO came into the Monkey Lab for a Gates Carbon Drive belt conversion. While we are known best for our Rohloff Internal Gear Hub builds, we're big proponents of the Gates belt drive system, which is a fantastic option for single speed bikes as well as internal gear hub bikes. With Black Sheep's signature curved tubes, this bike is an exquisite example of the kind of creative fabrications that can be achieved by small custom frame builders. The whole bike weighs in at only 21 pounds but feels even lighter due to it's super light EDGE (now ENVE) carbon rims.

Gates Belt Drive with XTR cranks and Chris King single speed hub

Black Sheep Highlight ST with Schlumpf, Belt Drive, & Rohloff SPEEDHUB

We built this bike for a customer in Vail, CO who was looking for an all-around mountain bike that catered to some very specific setup needs. He enjoys long rides exploring the backcountry roads of Colorado's High Country and wanted a bike that would take his adventures further into the seemingly endless trails of the Rocky Mountains. His build needed to be reliable, low maintenance, and capable enough for all-day rides combining dirt and pavement.

For this build, comfort was a top priority for our customer given distress caused by arthritis in his hands. With this in mind, he wanted a simple ergonomic setup that would be easy on his wrists and that avoided trigger-style shifters.