Aside from a tailored fit, custom frame builders afford an adaptability to market forces that brands who rely om mass-production can only dream about. Case in point: SingleBe Bikes from the Czech Republic and their belt-driven, Cannondale Lefty-equipped Street Killer.
SingleBe’s Trail-KIller is an almighty rambler who lives up to its name, and their Street Killer is a similarly capable beast. Tom from SingleBe tells us a little about it: “The whole story began when my colleague Tosha asked me to build a bike which would fit new Schwalbe Kojak tires that he just bought and immediately fell in love with.
“We wanted something like our Trail-Killer but this time for city riding… A simple, fast bike and, of course, an unique one. The Killer family is only about fun riding therefore the first check point was as short as possible rear chain stay. We chose 371mm, quite normal length for street, dirt and trial bikes. We were also limited with our custom belt sprockets with ratio 48/26t for the given belt length.
“The eccentric bottom bracket was a good choice. It suits the belt drive really, really well as it is easy to set the tension. Since we chose an eccentric BB, we could afford to have two dropout positions for a 135×10 thru-axle hub. We carved out a bit of the seat tube to get some more frame clearance for the Kojak 2.00 tires and a short chain stay.
“We decided that the frame should be brass brazed, which would be our first one. We just wanted to try something different… It took some time to persuaded a welder colleague that it has to be brazed with brass as he doesn’t like it. Anyways, we were filing the frame for 3 days (coincidentally these were the three hottest days of this year) and I got to understand the welder’s point of view…
“With the frame completed we decided on a similar finish to the Trail-Killer has. A smoke effect with black labels. During the building session before the bike was completed, Tosha had told me that he was actually bidding for a rigid Cannondale lefty fork on ebay and that we should wait for the auction to finish and introduce the model when it’s finished exactly according to his creative mind.
It’s a hefty machine, but still looks like it could carve a swift line through traffic and over concrete city banks. Check out the sweet Street-Killer edit on the SingleBe website and head to their Facebook page for up-to-date information.
