Readers' Rides: Jon's Smokestone Bow-Ti

Whether you’ve got a special new bike or just a bike that’s special to you, this is where you get to tell us about it! You send us your submissions, and then we cast our ~~judgemental~~ ~~expert~~ lustful eyes over them and bring them to the world to ooh and ahh over. We’re picking the prettiest, the most curious, and the ones with a good story for you to appraise, praise, and maybe look wistfully at.

For this edition we have Jon’s Smokestone Bow-Ti.

Tyre/valve points, 1/2

Why this bike?

I’ve been riding a fat bike as my main MTB for around six years and when I had the funds to finance a custom titanium frame I knew that it’d have to be a Smokestone. I’ve known Graham who owns, designs and operates Smokestone bikes for a few years through the bike shop Slam69, I had always lusted after one of his Ti variations after using the alloy Henderson for a few years, so it was a bit of no brainer.

The frame is a custom sized mix of med/large, with the perfect seat tube length for a 175mm dropper for me. I also knew I’d be using AXS components, so the frame has the bare minimum of guides.
As for ride – well it’s been great, it’s the perfect bike for my local trails and bridleways in my local area of the Cotswolds. I’ve also taken it to Bike Park Wales, Windhill, FOD, Cwmcarn and other trail centres, where it’s performed brilliantly. It’s my first custom geometry frame and you can instantly tell when riding that it’s been fitted for you, all my previous bikes have either been too small and short (medium) or without standover height (large), so a compromise in one way or the other.

Jon’s Smokestone Bow-Ti Specification

Hiding some nice components with an Instagram filter?

Frame: Smokestone bow-ti custom
Fork: Bluto and Carver Popeye
Suspension Set Up: Bluto is set up with a charger damper and MRP ramp control.
Wheels: Lightbicycle 65mm carbon rims, tune rear hub and DT swiss front
Tyres: 3.8 Surly Nate front 45nrth 4.0 Dillenger rear (no studs)
Chainset: Cane Creek EE-WINGS
Rear Mech: SRAM AXS X0
Shifters: SRAM AXS
Cassette: Garbaruk 10-50
Brakes: Hope XCR
Bars & Stem: 77desgins
Grips: ODI dread lock
Seatpost: SRAM Reverb AXS
Saddle: Brooks C13
Accessories: Fidlock bottle cages
Size and Weight: Med/large 27lbs (approx)

After the apocalypse

Jon says:

I’ve recently found that It was such a confidence inspiring frame I had a string of components fail under hard riding, a stem, 29r carbon rim and carbon saddle all brake within a few weeks of each other. The frame is standing up to lots of abuse though.

At first glance, there’s not a lot going on, and then you realise this bike is pretty bling. Is that they way a bike should be? Have you got a better looking fat bike? We suspect this is going to be a big tub of marmite, with a whole pile of fat bike agnostics moving swiftly on, while the believers head to the comments to profess their love.

While you’re here, we’d like to draw your attention to our World Bicycle Relief fundraiser. If you’ve experienced the joy of a new bike day, you’ll know how great it is. Now imagine you get given a bike, and it changes your life, giving you and your family access to education, employment or healthcare. Through World Bicycle Relief, you’ve got the power to make that happen, and if you can spare a little, we invite you to make your donation here.

Hannah Dobson

Managing Editor

I came to Singletrack having decided there must be more to life than meetings. I like all bikes, but especially unusual ones. More than bikes, I like what bikes do. I think that they link people and places; that cycling creates a connection between us and our environment; bikes create communities; deliver freedom; bring joy; and improve fitness. They're environmentally friendly and create friendly environments. I try to write about all these things in the hope that others might discover the joy of bikes too.