Tony has featured in our Bike Check series a number of times now. While we don't mean to give him too much of the limelight, the truth is that he usually has some of the most interesting staff builds we've seen, with esoteric parts from obscure or boutique manufacturers, that are often one-off or custom made for him.
Tony's latest build is no different, centered around a custom frame from Victoria-based frame builder WZRD bikes, Tony cites his motivation for this build as a way of trying all the things he doesn't like. That's right, Tony built a bike out of parts he hates, because as a bike mechanic, he should be able to talk about what he likes and doesn't like, and why.
Credit to him, most people find what they like and stick with it, resulting in some amount of confirmation bias. While they might have some good points, it takes a braver person to try the things they know they don't like, and admit they were wrong. In this case, Tony discovered that some of the trends and products that he had initially dismissed turned out to be something he was into. We say good for him - Tony opened his mind and discovered something new. Something we should all try to do.
So let's take a look at that frame first - hand crafted by Em at WZRD. Tony wanted to build something reminiscent of his old mountain bikes, but with a drop bar and modern standards. Fitting 29x2.25" tires with no toe-overlap was a priority for Tony on this one, but he wanted the handling to be more like a nimble gravel bike with high volume tires, than a mountain bike with drop bars.
Tony placed a ton of confidence in Em at WZRD however, giving her creative freedom to deliver the brief.
"Em has chosen just the right mix of tube diameters and wall thickness to allow for the perfect amount of vertical compliance to eliminate trail buzz. But the magic is that it was accomplished without compromising lateral stability in the rough."
Details on the frame include Paragon Machine Works Rocker dropouts for singlespeed and UDH/T-Type drivetrain, if he decides to go geared. Tony opted for no suspension correction on this frame - squish comes from the tires and rims, instead speccing a carbon fork from Enve, keeping things fast and light. The frame is raw fillet brazed, with a white/raw fade Cerakote finish.
White paint was another of Tony's white elephants. "I thought that it would show dirt and be hard to clean given my experience with customer bikes. The Cerakote finish has proven to be amazingly easy to wipe clean and doesn’t seem to hold on to dirt like other finishes."
The cherry on top of this uniquely West Coast frame is the way it was delivered.
"This frame was delivered in the most Canadian of ways. By float plane! Yup, same day shipping by Harbour Air was an option that I chose for its convenience and quirky BC-grown charm."
Moving on to components, Tony wanted to go with a retro-inspired theme here too, choosing parts from his favourite long-standing parts manufacturers, including Paul Components, and White Industries. Rocking Paul hubs with a thread-on freewheel from White Industries, they were anodized in the same batch as the stem and brakes, in a colour that Paul doesn't offer the hubs in off the shelf, meaning they're essentially one of a kind. Cranks are also White Industries, with an instantly recognisable style that seems to transcend the decades.
Rounding out the wheels are We Are One carbon rims, made in Kamloops, Canada, hand-laced to those Paul hubs with Tony's signature silver spokes, and raw brass nipples from Sim Works. Tires are a 29x2.25 Vittoria Mezcal, and hide a Cush Core XC insert, making for a fast but plush ride at sub-20PSI.
Circling back to the brakes, Tony addressed two of his pet hates here: mechanical disc brakes with standard SLR housing, and flat mount calipers. Tony usually preaches compressionless housing for mechanical brakes, because it transfers more braking force to the brakes instead of being lost in the housing.
The Klampers are so well built that all of the force is transmitted to the rotor. The compression of the SLR housing is what gives these brakes their modulation. Compressionless housing would be more like a light switch. On or off."
Regarding flat-mount brakes, poorly finished mount surfaces are his main bugbear here, making brakes hard to set up, but this hasn't been an issue for him on this build:
"Well machined brake calipers, precise Paul adapters and evenly faced mounting surfaces on the frame and fork paired with metallic pads and beefy 180mm SRAM HS2 rotors are a winning combination."
Tony's final nightmare spec choice was aero bars with ergo bends in the drops. Paired with that Paul stem, is a Ritchey WCS Venturemax XL 50cm handlebar, that comes in at 62.7cm in the drops. Rather than providing aero gains like a dedicated aero road handlebar like the Roval Rapide, the flat tops provide a more comfortable hand position for long rides.
Tony tells me "The uber wide bar is revelatory because the aero tops feel great with the additional breathing room up top. And the ergo drop section hasn’t been an issue at all. It isn’t any more noticeable than a smooth lower section at any rate. More comfortable? Hard to say because this bar is so far outside what I have ridden before that it’s hard to compare definitively to a more traditional shape, width or sweep.
Those that are paying attention will notice the SRAM AXS wireless shifters, the reasons for which are presumably two-fold. Firstly, they actuate Tony's Rockshox Reverb AXS dropper post, but secondly, they could also be used for shifting a wireless AXS drivetrain, should he decide to go geared.
Lastly, we have some really nice finishing touches. We can see the purple Chris King headset and BB cups - a feature on all of Tony's bikes, for their incredible longevity and reliability. Need we say more? Sim Works brass cable crimps add a classy touch to the brakes, and Em's attention to detail on the frame leaves some neat little easter eggs that keep us finding new details every time we look.
Tony says that despite building a bike with parts he didn't want to like, this has wound up being his favourite bike so far, logging over 5,000Km on it in 2024. Cheers Tony!
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