Clara’s mountain bike

Clara joined the EC team this year as an already formidable endurance racer. She has  won the 100 mile Cascade Cream Puff four times – without having a mountain bike! She has raced on a flat bar ‘cross bike with the biggest tires she could fit, and laterly a Lauf gravel fork. But I was very happy to get her on a ‘proper’ mountain bike for this year’s race!

Being shorter in stature, Clara really needed a custom build to get the required fit. She liked the Lauf fork, so we designed around the 650B version, and I was just able to get the bars in the right place with a short headtube and -17 degree stem. To preserve standover clearance I added a curve to the toptube, with the main triangle just allowing space for two full size bottles (using side-loading cages). The bottom bracket is set fairly low for stability, with ground clearance helped by 165mm cranks.

The chainstays are fairly short at 417mm, whilst still allowing for clearance for bigger tires – they were carefully manipulated to maximise tire clearance whilst fitting the single XT 1x chainring.

A double coat powdercoat with painted graphics by Custom Powderworks gives a tough, durable finish, and the complete bike weighs in at 17.8lbs.

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