Way back earlier this year, at the Dirty Reiver, we spotted friend of GritCX, Stu Cowperthwaite on crazy looking new bike. Keen to find out more, we did a bit of research and have got a few photos and the full lowdown from the bike’s designer and, Andy Stevenson, AKA Stooge Cycles.
Here’s how he describes the Stooge “GB”:
Where to start? Basically its my idea of the perfect drop bar dirt bike. I’ve ridden a lot of CX and ‘gravel’ bikes over the years and the idea that they offer any worthwhile off-road ability has always left me a little baffled, so a few years ago I set up a regular Stooge with dirt drops, and apart from the fact it was an MTB, it was the geometry and riding position that really shone. So the GB is a speedy version of this. Much like with my regular bikes, the idea is that instead of being hunched over the front, the rider is more up and back in the mix. It has what I guess you’d call forward geometry, the 54 in the pics has a 595mm ETT and is designed to be used with a 30-50mm stem. The head angle is 69 degrees coupled with a 60mm fork offset. The result is a bike with two distinct personalities – it weaves tight and twisty singletrack amazingly, but ramp it up and get it up to speed and it becomes super-stable. As far as I know the geometry is unique but my guess is we’ll be seeing a lot more of this type of thing.
To call it a gravel bike is probably also a little misleading, its as much drop bar MTB and bikepacking rig. It has 3 cage mounts on the front triangle and triple cage mounts on the fork legs. Pricing will be £1800 for titanium frame and truss fork.
What does GB stand for though? Well for a bike that is a drop-bar, mountain bike, gravel mash-up, the Gravel Bastard sounded fitting… If you are interested in finding out a bit more out about the bike (or ordering one), Andy has written a fuller description of how he went about designing the GB on the Stooge website.
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Not much I’d change on that.
The ability to have mudguards is important. Speed on muddy gravel means plenty filth.
The towel rail is handy too. 🙂
That’s possibly one of the ugliest bikes I’ve seen, it looks like something a child has drawn from memory!
I like it