A custom titanium bike from Carl Strong of Strong Frames in Bozeman, Montana.  This is my first bike from Carl and he does a great job.  If you want to go custom, talk to him.  Take a close look at the pictures for the flawless welds...perfect.

The finish work was done by Keith Anderson of Grants Pass, Oregon.  Keith is no longer in the business, which is a shame as he was so, so good.  I said, "Keith, give me zebra stripes."  I figured it would end up being pretty simple but when he showed the front end striping, he totally went to town.  I was floored.

There are a few things some people are surprised about on this bike.  First, it has a triple chainring 2x was predominant and some were doing 1x.  This was a deliberate choice.  Most of the time is spent in the middle ring without needing to shift the front at all.  The 3x gave the perfect choice for a 34T middle ring.  I prefer the closer gearing that this setup gives over a 1x.  Also, when a granny gear is needed, I have several to choose from.  The large ring is only used occasionally but when you're in a race and have an open section that is slightly downhill, it allows you to really haul.  As far as front dereailleurs not working well, then try an XT or XTR one.  They work flawlessly.

The other choice is the narrow bars and the 120mm stem.  Put simply, I don't like wider bars and consider 650mm uncomfortably wide when others are running 100+mm wider.  The narrower bars feel right and are more useful in the tight trails through the trees that are common in my home state.  The stem was dicated by the narrow bars.  This was one of the things Carl asked about when bar width.  Wider bars get a shorter stem and vice-versa.  They work together and it affects the design of the entire bike.

The decision to go with a 27.5 bike wasn't hard to make.  Most people are riding 29" wheels but with our tight and twisty trails where you are constantly having to accelerate, the 29" wheels just seem too sluggish and 27.5 wheelset seems to not only accelerate better but just turns nicer than the larger wheels for our types of trails.

These choices aren't something that everyone would make but that's why a person goes custom to make the bike suit them exactly.  I'm not sure I could buy a stock bike now with the bar/stem set ups.  If putting narrower bars on stock bike requires a longer stem, everything is thrown off in the front end. So, I went custom and couldn't be happier.

Oh and yes, it does say "Warrior of the Turtles" and "Friend of the Penguins" on the top tube using the Mr. Moose-designed font.  The last two pictures will lead to showing how the headtube badge was created by Keith and the build pictures from Carl Strong.  The picture at the top was taken by Loretta Strong and her photos of the frame are linked here.