I talked with Zen Fab at this year’s North American Handmade Bicycle Show about their new Trail 29er mountain bike. Zen Fab has been making frames for other companies for some time now but they wanted launch their own frames. They have created frames that best represent what they believe feature the best attributes in each riding category. They wanted to create the most modern and up to date features they could.
This frame is designed around their ideal geometry which they feel is best paired with a 120mm fork. By designing around a 120mm fork the rider could put a 140mm fork on the bike if they wanted to or shorten it up to 100mm and not sacrifice the trail oriented geometry they were seeking. Other features they wanted to include with this bike are the shortest chainstays possible (430mm), Stealth dropper routing, the ability to fit a 2.4 wide tire, chainstay disc brake mounts, and interchangeable dropouts. The frame is made out of a mixture of True Temper and Reynolds tubing with a machined yoke for tire clearance.
The logos are actually brushed steel to let riders show off that their bike is made out of metal. They hand brush the frame and then mask it off for painting. The mask is then removed and the whole frame is clear coated. You’ll notice the Kenji symbols on the seattube, which means Freedom. Freedom is one of the mantra’s a Zen. You can read much more about the Trail in a previous article I posted or on their website.
Zen also had this great looking custom snow adventure bike on display. It feature J-Paks bags and a killer camo hydro graphics job. Full build info below:
PAINT| Custom Urban Camo Hydro Graphics| BAGS| Custom J-PAKS | FORK | MRP Stage 29 100mm | WHEELS | Velocity Dually rims, Chris King ISO hubs, DT Swiss spokes| CASSETTE Sram 12-36 |TIRES Vee Rubber Fatty Traxx 27.5 x 3.25 | CHAIN | Sram 10sp | DERAILLEURS | Sram X9 | SHIFTERS | Sram X9 | BRAKES| Sram Trail 160/185| CRANK | Race Face SIX 175/32/22 | SADDLE | Ergon MTB Race | SEATPOST | Thomson 30.9 | CLAMP | Thompson | BARS | Race Face Next | STEM | Race Face Atlas 90mm | HEADSET | Chris King | GRIPS | Ergon
