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These day everyone wants one bike that can do it all.  They want something that can handle a cross country tour, maybe an enduro race or two, then head on down to the local criterium.  But what you end up with is sort of like a Crescent Wrench™; it’ll work, but it’s not your first choice when you want to do the job right.  The best way to narrow down what bike you need is to work backwards.  Picture yourself on the ride(s) you plan on doing most of the time and decide what you really need from your bike.  Does it need to handle rocky stuff, or will you spend most of your time on fire roads?   Will you be racing cross or commuting mostly?  And don’t plan for Armageddon because it already happened.  In other words, don’t think about what you might do with the bike, plan for what you will be doing with the bike.  You’ll enjoy a bike designed for 95% of your riding 95% more than one designed for 5% of your riding.

 

We’ve tried to make it easy to choose your model based on a couple requirements: cranks and tires.  First choose the maximum tire size you need and then look to see if that model will handle the crankset you want to run.  Sometimes the two don’t mesh.  For example, we get folks wanting their Dirtbomb to run 45c tires and a 39/53 road crank but there isn’t room to make both those things coexist on the same bike due to clearance issues.  So with 45c tires you’ll have to compromise and run a 34/50 compact crank.  Or, if gearing is more important than tire size, drop down to the Groundskeeper and get your optimum gearing but a smaller (35c) tire.  In the end you may have to give a little ground on the tires or cranks. An easy rule for our cross bikes is anything fatter than a 35c tire needs a compact road crank and anything beyond a 45c tire is considered a mountain bike and needs mountain style cranks.

 

One thing to remember is that we make custom bikes.  So what you see here is just a basic framework to help you get started.  We can mix and match some of the specs because when you get down to it, most of these bikes are just slight variations on the same theme.  So if you want a Royale with longer chainstays or a Grasshopper set up for touring, we can do that kind of thing. Just ask.
A word on forks.  You’ll notice some frame models come with unicrown forks, and some with segmented forks.  The reason is that we use unicrown blades when we can but in some cases an appropriate unicrown blade doesn’t exist for that application (for reasons such as tire clearance, length, or brake type) in which case we go to a segmented style fork. If you want to run discs on a Royale or Grasshopper we’re going to set you up with a carbon fork of some sort.

Treehorn

Meet the Treehorn, our 650B road/dirt/gravel/whatever bike.

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MAX TIRE SIZE 47C
MAX CRANK Road compact 34/50 or 1x (up to 46T)
STD CHAINSTAY 41.2 CM (but varies depending on customer and application)
FORK Segmented or tapered carbon (with optional tapered head tube)

Dirtbomb

This bike sits atop our cross bike food chain, fitting up to 45c tires.

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MAX TIRE SIZE 45C
MAX CRANK Road compact 34/50 or 1x (up to 46T)
STD CHAINSTAY 43.5 CM (but varies depending on customer and application)
FORK Unicrown or tapered carbon (with optional tapered head tube)

Groundskeeper

This is our meat and potatoes cross rig. It’s built to race cross. Sure, it can do other things too.

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MAX TIRE SIZE 35C
MAX CRANK Road 39/53 or 1x (up to 53T)
STD CHAINSTAY 42.5 CM (but varies depending on customer and application)
FORK Unicrown or tapered carbon (with optional tapered head tube)

Grasshopper

If you are constantly being distracted while on road rides by all those crappy side roads and dirt road shortcuts, the Grasshopper might be your ticket.

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MAX TIRE SIZE 32C
MAX CRANK Road 39/53 or 1x (up to 53T)
STD CHAINSTAY 42 CM (but varies depending on customer and application)
FORK Segmented or tapered carbon (with optional tapered head tube)

Royale

The Royale glides smoothly along even the most neglected pavement while responding with gusto whenever you need to get after it.

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MAX TIRE SIZE 28C
MAX CRANK Road 39/53 or 1x (up to 53T)
STD CHAINSTAY 41 CM
FORK Segmented or tapered carbon (with optional tapered head tube)
  28C 32C 35C 40C 45C 47C MAX CRANK STD CHAINSTAY FORK
Treehorn Road compact 34/50 or 1x (up to 46T) 41.2 CM (but varies depending on customer and application) Segmented or tapered carbon (with optional tapered head tube)
Dirtbomb Road compact 34/50 or 1x (up to 46T) 43.5 CM (but varies depending on customer and application) Unicrown or tapered carbon (with optional tapered head tube)
Groundskeeper Road 39/53 or 1x (up to 53T) 42.5 CM (but varies depending on customer and application) Unicrown or tapered carbon (with optional tapered head tube)
Grasshopper Road 39/53 or 1x (up to 53T) 42 CM (but varies depending on customer and application) Segmented or tapered carbon (with optional tapered head tube)
Royale Road 39/53 or 1x (up to 53T) 41 CM Segmented or tapered carbon (with optional tapered head tube)

Holy Roller

Our 29r geared bike.

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WHEEL SIZE 29"
DRIVETRAIN Geared

Tradesman

Our stock geared 29er.

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WHEEL SIZE 29"
DRIVETRAIN Geared

Option B

This is our 27.5" (650B) geared bike.

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WHEEL SIZE 27.5"
DRIVETRAIN Geared

Option 3

Remember 26” wheels? Mark our words; they will make a comeback. Get your disco ball ready.

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WHEEL SIZE 26"
DRIVETRAIN Geared

Plowboy

Singlespeeding is dead. Pay no attention to this.

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WHEEL SIZE 26" 27.5" 29"
DRIVETRAIN Singlespeed
 
  26" 27.5" 29" GEARED SINGLESPEED
Holy Roller
Tradesman
Option B
Option 3
Plowboy

Warranty

What is covered and not covered under our "warranty"? We use quotes there because we like to judge each case as it comes. If we made a mistake or flubbed something, we will cover it. If you caused the problem, we don’t cover it. That being said, here are some things we absolutely will not cover:
  • Rust damage
  • Crash damage
  • Chain suck damage (jamming of the chain between crank and frame)
  • Abuse, such as riding your hardtail like a full suspension bike, or reliving your BMX days by jumping or doing big drops.
  • Using rotors larger than 160mm on frames or on forks built by us.
Bottom line is that Soulcraft frames and forks are built to be ridden hard, but not with reckless abandon. Use common sense and treat your equipment with care and respect! 

Paint & Decals

These days, fancy paint jobs are all the rage. That's cool, but it's not how we roll here at Soulcraft. We like humble, and to that end our paint jobs are of the highest quality but not high on the flash factor. We choose powder coating because it is highly durable and more environmentally friendly than "wet", or solvent based paints.  Not only that, but rather than ship our frames halfway across the country and back just to get painted, we use a local powder coater so our money stays local.  They use a 3 stage prep process which starts with media blasting, then a phosphate conversion coating, and finally a sealing rinse, which all provide much better paint adherence. Then a base color is applied which is followed by a clear coat. The end result is a beautiful paint job that will give you many years of service. Our current color palette is running at 20, which we think should be enough for most people. Plus we're offering matte/flat clear topcoats now which are super cool. The decals on our frames are top mount, meaning they are applied after paint with no clear coat over them. By using top quality decals, a clear coat is simply not needed. If you need replacement decals for your Soulcraft, just send us an e-mail. 
Options & Pricing...
Kits...

Philosophy & Process

Our approach to frame design has its roots in our days making production and custom bikes at Bruce Gordon Cycles, Salsa Cycles, and here at Soulcraft.  We usually start with one of our frame models and design it to fit your body and riding style, and can change any design feature to adapt it to your needs.  The goal is to have every Soulcraft customer say the same thing about their bike, no matter their size or the model they ride. We want the bike to “disappear” beneath you so you can concentrate on riding; a bike that fits and handles so well you don’t think about what you’re doing, you simply do it. 07-Soulcraft_BV-66970007
All photos on this page by Vernor The most important aspect of frame design is the fit, and nailing that requires a bit of work on your part.  If your current bike doesn't fit correctly we recommend either coming to our shop for a fitting or contacting a local fitting expert near you to help you sort things out.  Trial and error on your current bike can also be useful by simply moving the saddle up/down and fore/aft, raising/lowering your bars, or swapping stems.  Either way, we like you to have those numbers sorted out before we start so the process doesn't get bogged down with a lot of back and forth on fitting.  We are happy do do fittings in person but trying to hash that out remotely can be tough.  You can take a look at our order form to get an idea of the numbers and info we need.  We recommend doing this part sooner than later so when you're ready to pull the trigger on an order you have all the info ready to go. 06-Soulcraft_BV-66970003  After we get the fit information, we start connecting the dots around those points based on parts selection, riding style, and aesthetics. Then we will send you a preliminary drawing just so you can see where we're at.  Once you have a chance to look it over we will schedule a phone interview where we can discuss design details and options and make changes to the drawing if needed.  Once we settle on a frame design and you sign off on the drawing, we're ready to start building your frame (although it probably won't get started at that time due to the orders in front of yours). 04-Soulcraft_BV-3808 First, we select the tubes which go through five different quality control checks. If something isn’t up to par, we throw the tube in the "NFG" box and grab another.  Next we miter (cope) the tubes on one of our custom made fixtures. We love machines and fixtures, and we’ve invested a lot of money in them so that our miters come out perfect on every cut. This makes a huge difference when welding the frames because the smaller the gap, the less twisting the frame will do which results in better final alignment. 03-Soulcraft_BV-3786 After the tubes are cut and ready to go, we tack weld them in our frame fixture and then check the alignment on our surface plate. Now it’s on to welding. After the frame is welded it gets all the cable stops brazed and then it’s “machined”, which is head tube reaming/facing, seat tube reaming, and bottom bracket chasing/facing. All this is done on a machine rather than by hand which gives us more accurate cuts and better surface finishes. 13-Soulcraft_BV-66980022 The final step is alignment. Fortunately this isn’t an intensive process because the frames are really close already. Small adjustments can be made on the surface plate to make sure your bike will ride straight and handle as it was designed. 14-Soulcraft_BV-66990007 And finally, paint. We choose powder coating because it is highly durable and more environmentally friendly than “wet”, or solvent based paints. Our local powder coater uses a 3 stage prep process which includes media blasting, a phosphate conversion coating, and a sealing rinse. This all makes for a much better paint adherence. Then a base color is applied which is followed by a clear coat. We forgo fancy paint schemes because we think the understated, single color approach works well with our overall philosophy of “business before pleasure”. When we get the frame back from paint, we clean all the machined surfaces and threads, apply decals, and spray rust inhibitor on all the bare metal surfaces. Every Soulcraft frame comes completely ready to assemble with no prep needed.