Wolf Tooth have rapidly established themselves as an innovative manufacturer of bike components – and have been on the front foot when it comes to developing clever solutions, while manufacturing in the US.
It is one thing making chainrings; moving into frame production and selling bikes is a whole new challenge. It is obviously one that the Wolf Tooth guys felt ready to take though, as they have launched Otso Cycles. It’s an interesting move in market that isn’t exactly lacking manufacturers – from the big boys through to small companies. The Minnesotan brand feel there is room for them though:
“We wanted bikes that did not exist. Most people would just keep dreaming and hoping somebody would make their ideal bike someday but if you are the slightly crazy mechanical engineers and innovators from Wolf Tooth, you start a new bike company and spend every free minute making those bikes a reality.”
The company are starting relatively small, with two frame builds – the Voytek, a carbon fat bike (for more details, check out our post over on singletrackworld.com, and the Warakin, a stainless steel gravel bike. The Warakin looks pretty feature heavy, and it is clear that the engineers at Otso have put a lot of thought into their first foray into frame design. The Warakin features:
- Patent pending Tuning Chip™ system developed by Wolf Tooth Components provides 20 mm of chainstay length adjustment and subtle changes to the bottom bracket drop and head tube angle. Choose a shorter-higher-steeper 420mm position for a fun and nimble cyclocross feel or a longer-lower-slacker 440mm position for fast and stable touring or gravel grinding handling. A middle position chip is also available. Swapping between the two positions is very simple and can be done in about 2 minutes.
- Through-axle 15×100 fork and 12×142 rear.
- Frame and fork accommodate up to 700×42 tires.
- TIG welded custom butted austenitic stainless steel tubing provides the supple yet lively ride quality of a chrome-moly frame with the beauty and corrosion resistance of titanium. This beautiful frame will last a lifetime, even in harsh environments.
- Brushed finish with bead-blasted logos create a classic look that will keep this frame looking great after a lifetime of miles..
- Carbon fibre fork with tapered steerer (1 ⅛” – 1 ½” ) for great ride quality and low weight.
- Numerous braze-ons to accommodate 3 water bottles, fenders, racks, frame bags, etc.
- Six sizes available to provide the right fit for any rider (49, 52, 54, 56, 58, 60).
- Full length cable housing for flawless shifting in even the worst conditions.
- Disc brakes with 160 mm rotors front and rear. All stock builds use post post mount brakes but fork and frame are flat mount capable.
- BSA threaded bottom bracket, compatible with 1X and 2X cranksets.
- Single speed capable with optional dropouts.
The Warakin will be available as a frameset/forks for $1799, and a range of build options. We are yet to hear whether it will be available in the UK, but we’ll let you know as soon as we do.
