Are Modern Bikes Too Safe? We Got a Reader Bike Build That Brings Sketchy Back.

We got an email the other day from a reader we couldn’t ignore. “Bikes are now better than ever—I should be so happy,” he said, “yet I wasn’t.”

Bikes are too good! Now that is a zag I would like to hear more about.

What Trayl Slayr (a Velo reader who wished to stay anonymous, only identified by this incredible pseudonym) argued was the ultimate contrarian counterpoint. Modern bikes are too stable, too fast, and too much control.

“The bike did most of the work,” Slayr said. “You just had to pedal and steer. Rider involvement and experience felt like it was waning. Over time, riding became dull.”

“So, I took back control by ‘having less control,’ if that makes sense. The idea guiding my thinking was to make a sketchy bike. Not crazy sketchy, just a bit sketchy. The ingredients I picked were a mash-up of modern goods with revived parts from 1990s mountain biking that I love.

“The results of the complete build echoed that ‘less control’ mantra in action.”

Sketchy by design

To make this slightly-sketchy gravel bike, Slayr started with a 1992 Alpinestars Cro Mega fully-rigid mountain bike. The frame is best known for its extremely elevated chainstay that ran all the way through to the middle of the downtube. The frame is steel, with True Temper OX Ultra II double-butted tubing, and has a brilliant custom powder-coated neon green-to-yellow fade finish.

So far, this tracks. Gravel is just 1990s mountain biking, right?

Nevertheless, it continued and just kept being a true beautiful mismatch. For a fork, Slayr had to go to AliExpress. Instead of a carbon fork, which most metal bikes are made with these days, the build uses a Tirus Titanium Segmented fork made for 650b wheels and cantilever brakes. This combination of a titanium fork and cantilever brakes is where much of the intentional sketchiness derives from.

“The steel elevated chainstay frame with titanium fork constantly requires my input to keep [the bike] in line,” Slayr said. “I am either rewarded or punished with lots of feedback depending on the terrain, my skill, and finesse.

“The fork flexes a bit too much, the brakes stop just enough to make me question my life choices, and keeping the cantilevers instead of doing a disc brake conversion was essential to get my ’90s muscle memory back in my hands. I instantly became smitten with this always ‘on the edge’ riding experience.”

A retro base with modern trappings

Where the build opted for more modern trappings was in the wheel, tire, and gearing choices. Of course, with 650b wheels, modern is a relative term, but besides size, the build is much more modern than the frame and fork. Slayr has opted for a set of Kinlin XR31T 27.5/650B rims, with 32-hole count Bitex Rar12 hubs and Sapim CX-Ray spokes. All of that is a complicated way of saying the bike has durable, yet relatively lightweight 650b wheels that were paired with a set of thick, slick Ultradynamico tires.

In terms of drivetrain specs, the build uses a mix of Shimano parts and AliExpress bits to make a modified 11-speed Shimano GRX groupset. While Slayr has, ostensibly, a GRX 11-speed system that uses a 11-42 cassette, the modifications allow Slayr to use a 11-50t cassette for a much wider range of gears. According to Slayr, it is an AliExpress derailleur cage extender and oversized pulley wheels that power the system.

Throughout the bike, AliExpress is the underlying engine that brings the mismatched system together into one functional system. That only adds to the playfully sketchy attitude of this bike.

We at Velo can’t recommend this particular build. In fact, the owner doesn’t even seem to fully endorse it either, since they requested to remain anonymous. Yet, we can’t resist engaging in a build that is one-of-one in a truly unique way.

Trayl Slayr, keep slayng.

Sincerely, the Velo tech team.