Design notes – what sets stray bikes apart?

Warning: bike nerdery ahead!

In a hyper-segmented market, with highly specialized, niche bikes out there for every conceivable type of riding, what sets stray bikes apart?

In short, we wanted a bike:

• that defies categorization; one to “just ride” across a broad spectrum of riding surfaces, speeds, loads and conditions – and to perform pretty well in all of these.
• for all-terrain bike adventures; from multi-day, multi-surface rides, like the Tour Divide (more for the mid-pack riders who emphasize comfort over speed), for a weekend overnighter, or for hitting the local trails for a couple hours after work to reconnect with nature and get the heart pumping.
• with soul and classic styling which you can confidently grab when you don’t know what the adventure ahead might bring and where you don’t want to be limited by your equipment.

Here are some of the design considerations you will see in our bikes:

• high quality, heat-treated, custom butted chromoly steel tubing. Steel is durable, lively, recyclable, repairable, sustainable, proven and provides a snappy, compliant ride quality which can be highly tuned by careful tubing selection.
• no (active) suspension. Suspension has a lot of plusses for certain kinds of riding, but also in our view a number of negatives: maintenance, weight, inefficiency when climbing out of the saddle (often the case on long rides to enlist different muscle groups, or if you’re single-speeding), loss of “trail feel” and more difficulty mounting gear/water on the fork. Riding without suspension also encourages a slower, more deliberate way of riding, which can save skin and brake pads over a longer journey.
• wider rims and tires. without suspension, wrists and hands can take a pounding on longer, rougher rides. Wider tires on wider rims allow lower tire pressures and provide some cushion to make those long-days more comfortable.
• 27.2mm set-back seat post. Again, more flex and more comfort over the long haul. Droppers have their place, but add complexity, maintenance, weight and tend to be much stiffer than a well-designed, smaller diameter, traditional post.
• Curved fork blades. Curved blades reduce stress risers at the fork crown allowing smoother flex profiles, thinner tubing and better vertical compliance to increase comfort without compromising on torsional stiffness.
• 1 1/8″ head-tube. By building a dedicated rigid bike, a shorter fork and longer head tube can be used for a given stack-height, increasing front-end frame stiffness (and frame bag space!) without needing an oversized tube. The smaller head-tube also reduces water ingress at the crown race compared to an EC44 lower cup and adapter race needed for a fork with a straight 1 1/8″ steer tube.
• Lower bottom bracket to improve stability and make bike harder to endo on steep downhills.
• Longer front-centre with mid-trail: To improve high speed stability and prevent endoing when descending steep trails while retaining agile handling with a bar/fork load and minimal wheel flop.
• Longish chain stays – to improve high speed stability, optimize weight distribution with the the longer front centre and keep the bike from wheelying on steeper climbs. Added bonus of increased heel clearance with small panniers and better chain clearance with plus tires!