Friday Afternoon Gear

Everyone loves a Jones. Don't they?

Ticking all the 'freakbike' boxes. Different sized wheels, non-standard components, singlespeed, Jones bars, funny tyres...

It’s the Marmite of the bike world. You’ll either think it’s the best bike ever, or you’ll wonder what on earth all the fuss is about. Jeff Jones titanium frame (with a 29er wheel out back). The frame is built to offer a great deal ‘natural’ suspension from the flex of the design and the material – and add to that the truss fork, again offering a lot of natural ‘give’. And then there’s the 4in Surly monster Endomorph tyre, built onto a Large Marge rim… Oh, and Jones bars…

And seemingly tame by comparison, Chipps has fitted one of Cane Creek’s new top of the range 110 headsets – in purple, naturally – to his gnarly Orange Blood build-up. Now, what colour rims next? He’s toying with either polished gold, or neon green…

Chipps Chippendale

Singletrackworld's Editor At Large

With 23 years as Editor of Singletrack World Magazine, Chipps is the longest-running mountain bike magazine editor in the world. He started in the bike trade in 1990 and became a full time mountain bike journalist at the start of 1994. Over the last 30 years as a bike writer and photographer, he has seen mountain bike culture flourish, strengthen and diversify and bike technology go from rigid steel frames to fully suspended carbon fibre (and sometimes back to rigid steel as well.)

Comments (11)

matt_outandaboutmatt_outandabout March 20, 2009 at 4:15 pm

He’s toying with either polished gold, or neon green…

richcrichc March 20, 2009 at 4:18 pm

So the Jones rider is trying to maximize his nicheness then

Mostly BalancedMostly Balanced March 20, 2009 at 4:22 pm

Looks like he’s trying just a little bit too hard with that front wheel.

dave360dave360 March 20, 2009 at 4:24 pm

polished gold? I like a nice burnt orange, me.

barneybarney March 20, 2009 at 5:12 pm

You should try riding it. That front wheel makes a lot of sense..

finbarfinbar March 20, 2009 at 6:20 pm

Wheelies?

cmykcmyk March 20, 2009 at 8:11 pm

the jones looks like an explosion in a coat hanger factory.

speaker2animalsspeaker2animals March 21, 2009 at 12:16 am

Really like Jones frames/bikes but question the X wide tyre. I understand for snow/sand riding but as an alternative to front tele suss? Surely weight/drag brings efficiency on to a par with STD front forks? But still each to their own, wouldn’t say no to a test ride.

As for Chipps colour clashing and this “new” trend for wacky colours (1990 is back). No ta. While I have become bored of the whole black/grey/silver frames of last few years firms like Trek and Lapierre IMHO are showing how bikes can look good with well applied aesthetics. Oh G Fisher too.

My very fave bike design of recent years has to be the original Trek SS 69er in Root Bear satin. Ace. If I had money and could find one I’d buy it even though I have a SS.

But again I’m sure others will disagree, and rightly so.

kelvinkelvin March 22, 2009 at 12:07 am

The front tyre on that bike is lovely, and surprisingly light. Rolls fast too.

Oh, I can’t be the first to say, “what on earth is Chipps going to do with a Blood” now, can I?

the_pilotthe_pilot March 26, 2009 at 11:13 pm

Fat tyres have less rolling resistance off road than thin ones… the endomorph can be run at less than 10psi, reducing drag further!

http://www.bicicletta.co.za/Downloadable%20docs/Rolling%20Resistance%20Eng%20illustrated.pdf

bouddhabouddha April 17, 2009 at 11:30 am

Very sensual!!!

Comments Closed