Black Sheep 'cross bike

This is a creation of Black Sheep Bikes from Ft. Collins Colorado, a 'cross bike and general all purpose BikingBakke workhorse inspired by a frame James Bleakley displayed at the North American Handbuilt Bicycle show in the early half of 2009.

It's a beauty and has a nice ride quality, my Strong geometry was used as a rough guideline, so it felt just right on first ride. It needs two little bugs to be ironed out before it goes into long term maintenance free typical titanium bicycle service, which probably require a trip back to Ft. Collins briefly. I made no particular effort to weight weenie this thing, it's 18.5lbs as pictured.

Tried SRAM stuff for first time. Mostly Rival, which sounded a bit less finnicky via reviews than Red, but did go for a Red crankset. Considering it's an all season bike didn't need to go too prima donna, and I like stuff that just works without continual tweaking. Plus the bling on this thing in theory comes from the frame, not the bolt ons...

Wheels are my workhorse of choice, came from a Canadian distributor's blowout during the meltdown last fall. Had to average down the cost of this thing somehow! For those with keen eyes, still need to trim the cable housings in a couple spots, but this is just the "rough in" build where I wanted to get it outdoors.

Integrated seat post and cables all tucked away, even all the way to rear derailleur was possible with the top tubes/seat stays this way. Wanted to keep the eyes on the clean lines rather than clutter. I like the saddle clamp, it looks clean and seems pretty solid.

Fork rides smooth. Fender mounts front and back, and used long reach calipers instead of cantilever squeakers. Clearance for up to a 40mm tire in theory, which gives a lot of room to work with.