Believe it or not, this bike started as a parts bin bike!
I had a too good to refuse type deal on a Santa Cruz Chameleon frame, so started collecting parts while I waited for it to arrive. My other mountain bike is an OLD Vassago Jabberwocky singlespeed, which I knew wouldn’t last forever so I wanted another in the mix. A few weeks went by and things ended up not working out with the Chameleon frame, leaving me with a pile of parts and no frame. Oops.
During this time I had worked with Jay Sandefur of Wild Card Bicycles in Opelika, AL on a singlespeed hardtail for one of my bike fit customers. The bike came in and was built up, so I made sure to take it for a ride after I checked the fit measurements. Well, hello… it rode nice enough I emailed Jay to put me on the list for a frame. Jay’s frames are custom as custom gets so I sent Jay some must haves and trusted him on the geometry.
My goal for this bike was a bike well suited for big, climby, technical rides. This means something enjoyable to climb AND descend with. Given our twisty singletrack around here, I also wanted something fun for weaving through the trees. I ended up going kind of wild on the parts, but I also have the intention of this being a bike I keep a LONG time! Everything, and I mean everything, was carefully picked.
I ended up building most of the bike with Jay at his shop in Opelika, which was honestly a dream come true for a long time bike geek like myself. The bike is as fun as it looks! I will leave you with a parts list and some more photos to check out below…
▪️Wild Card custom frame. Dedacciai double butted steel tubing with Paragon Machine Works sliding dropouts for geared or SS use. Two bottle mounts and full internal routing for rear brake and dropper post. Straight 44 millimeter head tube and 73 millimeter T47 bottom bracket shell. Paragon combo titanium slider hardware and Paragon bolt on thru axles. The paint color is called Lipstick.
▪️Fox F34 130 mm 29er fork
▪️Cane Creek 110 headset and Hellbender 70 bottom bracket
▪️SRAM XX1 175mm crank with Quarq power meter. Pedals are plain old Shimano 540s.
▪️Singlespeed setup with 34 tooth Wolftooth ring and 21 tooth Boone Technologies titanium cog
▪️KMC X11 chain stripped and waxed with Silca hot melt.
▪️Bontrager Kovee RSL wheels with Maxxis Rekon and Rekon Race 29 x 2.4 tires. Orange Seal Endurance formula and Reserve Fillmore tubeless valves. Both tires are Maxxis WideTrail designation to jive well with wide rims.
▪️XT 2 piston brakes with 180 mm centerlock XT rotors and metal pads
▪️Fox Transfer dropper post with WTB Volt saddle with ti rails and Wolf Tooth post clamp
▪️Paul Comp Boxcar stem with Santa Cruz flat bar cut to 730 mm and ESI grips. Bars and stem are 31.8 mm clamp diameter
▪️Weight is 23-24 pounds and the ride and handling are really great! It’s fun on downhill but still capable on steep climbs and switchbacks without feeling like a boat.
To better describe it…think of an Epic Evo or Blur TR in hardtail form.
