Chip's Crazy Bar'd 27.5+ Piolet

by Igor

Be it snow, darkness, rough terrain, or wind, Chip of WhatBars was looking for a Piolet ready to take on anything that comes up against it. Here's what we came up with!

The original idea was a bit of a spin-off from the build we did for Erick of Bicycle Nomad. Chip loved the tan sidewalls, Noir Crazy Bars with multiple hand positions, 1x drivetrain, and Tall Stack Stem, and wanted to expand on it with a few bits of modernity.

The wheels are custom built using WTB i35 rims laced to our Grand Cru Rear Hub and the front is laced to a Shimano Alfine in anodized silver. All double butted, stainless steel spokes. It's a solid wheelset that is ready to stand up to the Canadian Winter and rough fire-roads. He will be wiring up the head and taillight himself.

The MTB-rated Crazy Bars pair exceptionally well with the Tall Stack Stem and create quite the nice silhouette.

Rustines Bar Plugs match the tires pretty well!

Components are SRAM's NX 11sp series. 32T chainring paired with a wide-range 11-42 cassette.

Stopping is handled by our Grand Cru Levers pulling TRP Spyke Brakes with 180mm rotors. We considered hydraulic, but opted to go mechanical because of some of the extreme low temps his area hits. The Spyke caliper is long pull as opposed to its short-pull sister, the Spyre. We really like the dual-sided braking of the TRP offerings.

An enormous shout-out to Tommy of Cutlass Velo in Baltimore for the quick and super build! If you're looking for a premium frameset or wheelbuild from the ground up, he's your man.

Check out the complete build list here: https://velo-orange.com/pages/piolet-build-list-chips-crazy-bard-27-5