BICYCLES

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DAVE’S HOOT OWL_Monster Gravel

Dave was looking for a unique gravel bike and approached me with a question, “can you do something like this?”.

The lines on Dave’s Hoot Owl was inspired by some wild stay designs that were spotted at last year’s MADE bike show.

Seat stays crossing the middle of the seat tube and joining the center the of the down tube required rethinking seat stay construction, distribution of load forces and aiming for the goal of comfort and compliance while increasing lateral stiffness. A ride ready for long fun adventure rides on Dave’s home mountain roads.

HOPE RX4+ 4 piston DOT calipers are the perfect set of calipers for a monster gravel bike with 2.4” clearance with a Six Mile steel fork. Dave went with long 470mm chainstays for stability and comfort especially when descending on rough roads.

For paint, the choice came down to colours that paired well with the orange RX4+ calipers, stunning yet not to competing. Colour shift Kiwi is bright green in the sun that shifts to soft red in raking light. Sanded smooth gloss clear coat finish and black stencil mask letters are on the frame and matching fork add a little fire.

Ultimately, the combination of lateral stiffness and ride comfort with the big tires and unique stay design gives Dave a responsive ride that is comfortable for the long haul and descends with stability, grip and breaking power that would be usually reserved for a mountain bike. The Hoot Owl is an adventure gravel rig designed for the rugged Rocky Mountains near Dave’s home in Fernie, British Columbia.

  • Columbus Life, Deda and True Temper Platinum tubing. Paragon dropouts. Hand formed, polished laser cut Owl head badge.

  • Hope RX4+ Calipers, EASTON Carbon Cranks, SRAM Apex, Ritchey Corralitos Bars

  • Black base, colour shift custom FX Kiwi, Sanded and refinished clear coat, custom stencil masks

Jakob Salix’s Svoboda_Enduro Hardtail

Jakob’s BMX background inspires how he rides trails. Playful, creative, daring and of course fast.

His riding style, and his artistic lens drove this aggressive hardtail design.

After some conversations about breaking out of the ordinary, unique and flowing lines, head tube, stay yoke and paint were areas we could provide a frame that suited his artistic side and playful riding style.

Geometry was settled - climb easy, and descend with stability, yet with a back end that is easy to pop and swing around as a BMX rider might.

The paint matched fork was a bonus and the matte desert/tan colours accented by blue anodized parts and HOPE Tech V4 brakes made this build an aesthetic looking ride that shreds.

  • Nova MTB bent DT, 4130 rolled top tube, 4130 curved seat tube. Custom machined 56mm head tube. 64.5 HT angle, 76.5 ST angle, 435mm chainstay length.

  • We Are One Convergence 29” Wheels with Industry 9 Hydra Hubs. Hope Tech 4 V4 brakes, Hope Floating rotors. One-Up carbon cockpit.

  • Custom matte tan with custom stencils and matched fork lowers, painted gloss black fork crown.

Paul’s friendly demenor and easy smile does not immediately say “crazy fast road racer in my previous life”

Paul’s Randognar_Gravel Touring

But in the midst of a deep dive conversation he may causally drop that he was a former pro road racer who spent some time in his youth racing and living in Italy.

His frame, dubbed “Randognar” speaks to his take on a gnarly touring bicycle. He is no ‘light-guy’ either, which made tubing selection key to this build.

We chose to effectively make a mountain bike frame for durability and stiffness with touring bike geometry. Silding dropouts for the rear wheel to keep single speed options open in the future of for greater frame clear to choose larger tires.

Paul built up the frame with a nice collection of Ritchy silver alloy parts and Shimano GRX 2x. Paint was a custom mixed blue silver and dark blue pearl fade.

  • Columbus Life TT, Nova MTB DT, Paragon Sliding Dropouts

  • 2x GRX 810 11spd. Brooks saddle, Ritchey silver seatpost and bars.

  • Custom mixed light silver blue, fade to metallic dark blue. Custom stencil masks.

Pat is an avid road rider. Long rides with friends around the rural roads of Ontario has mainly been his jam for years.

Pat’s Steep City_All-Road

After feeling left out of the gravel riding with his buddies he reached out and wanted to get the perfect gravel rig for fast group rides and long days in the saddle. We settled on an all-road, but gravel focused light weight rig for rolling backroads near his home in Ontario. The Steep City name pays homage to its steep and windy roads of Nelson, BC where it was born.

Gearing to go fast and give his buddies something to chase for, yet with enough tire clearance to make for a comfortable ride yet sporty ride.

The tubing selected is mostly Columbus life Omnicrom alloy which is the perfect tubeset to provide a light weight and snappy ride.

The fit and sizing of the frame is custom as Pat went to his local bike fitter.

The finish stands out in the crowd with metallic bright blue with a digital fade to black.

  • Columbus Zona/ Life tubing, with Paragon Dropouts.

  • Columbus Futura Gravel Fork, Shimano 2x GRX 810 11 Spd, Mavic All-road alloy with Panaracer Gravel King tires.

  • Custom wet paint light blue with digital fade stencils to black.

Kevin’s Jessamyn_Road Race

This is Kevin Armstrong’s (Owner and framebuilder at Six Mile Bicycles Inc.) personal road machine.

Kevin has a background in had always wanted to build his own steel road racing bicycle. He wanted the challenge of making a steel bike in a large size that would rival the weight and performance of a modern carbon road bike, but without the compromises in comfort and toe overlap.

Neo-Retro vibes with the bi-lugged construction, the tubes he selected are a mix of Columbus Life and NOS True Temper S3 with an Easton Carbon Fork.

The seat tube is True Temper S3 designed by framebuilder Yamaguchi for the USA 1990’s Olympic tack team. This specialty tube is for aero dynamics and short chainstays. This frame a slacker head tube angle of 72.5 degrees to help reduce toe overlap that Kevin often deals with on road bikes.

After receiving a bike fit the resulting design has a higher stack frame, standard reach, 74deg seattube, and 72.5deg head tube. Using a peak mechanical Dura Ace 11spd drivetrain the final weight comes in at 16.5 or 7.48kg.

  • Neo-retro bi-lugged Columbus Life and NOS True Temper S3. Easton carbon fork.

  • Mechanical Dura-Ace 11 spd groupset. Giant SLR 0 Tubeless Wheels wrapped with Vittoria Corsa 2.0 Chris King headset, Ritchey Stem and Zipp Ergo carbon bars.

  • Custom mixed metallic plum and gold painted stencils. Shift levers caps painted plum.

Let’s Work Together

The Six Mile Bikes shop is located on Lower 6 Mile Rd just outside Nelson, BC. We work, raise families and recreate in a beautiful location in southern BC where there are endless outdoor pursuits. The bikes we build here are tested here on winding mountain passes, rough forest service roads and some of the gnarliest single track around.

Give us a shout, come by the shop and lets go for a ride.