Ragley mmmbop

Nirvana Cycles have built up one of their Ragley mmmbop frames as a test bike. The medium (18”) frame in “Quick Lime” green looks quite nice but check it out in real life before forming an opinion. As lovely as my photos are, they may not give a fully accurate representation of the colour. Components of interest include NC-17 flat pedals and a 2010 Marzocchi 44RC3 Ti...better be amazing for a fork approaching £700. Anyway, it seemed like a really nice bike during my short ride. More photos here.
7046 aluminium
"3 finger" left chainstay bridge for increased stiffness and chainring/tyre clearance. Bolt on cable guides are a nice detail too
Chainstay mounted brake calliper means lighter gauge seatstays can be used to improve the ride quality
A 3.7lb frame that passed the CEN tests - something Marin dreams about

9 comments:

Jarod Pulo said...

I don't know why more bike companies don't design frames with the brake calliper between the chain & seat stays. It's waaay neater and protects the calliper better. Plus the benefit you cited, lighter seat stays will be more compliant and help ride quality.

The only tradeoff I can ever think of is clearance issues with some disc sizes and callipers, but surely that can be minimised with good design.

LordOnOne said...

Indeed...it would be interesting to see a Post Mount on the chainstay, I've haven't seen one yet.

Inchy said...

That looks pretty hardcore. Less of an XC steed and more a "do it all" sort of bike.

As for the forks, well I picked a set of RockShox Lyriks up a couple of months ago. They have a retail price somewhere in the region of £800, but I managed to get them new for £435 and they definitely perform like an £800 fork should. Plush, smooth, controlled, but supremely adjustable. If the Marzocchis have their past performance and reliability issues licked then they could be a sweet fork.

Paul Petch said...

My salsa fargo mounts the rear disk on the chain stay.

LordOnOne said...

Inchy
Yeah, some big discounts out there if you look around. The mmmbop had only been out once when I took it for a spin so the fork wouldn’t have been broken in properly. However, it felt much nicer than any previous Marzocchi fork I’ve tried, but still not Fox level performance.

Paul
The Fargo is such a sweet bike...liked it ever since I saw one being used for deliveries in London.

Anonymous said...

i have build up one of these and love it i think i have found the elusive do it all hardtail.light enough for xc burly enough for more aggressive riding.it climbs like a goat and decends with real confidence.i have been very impressed

Haris said...

Hi! I have almost the same chainstay disc mount on my bike. I would appreciate it if you could share the type of parts being mounted on the rear disc brake - i.e. adapter, rotor, caliper. Thanks!

LordOnOne said...

There are two horizontal bolts with washers going through the frame into the adapter and two vertical bolts with washers going through the brake calliper and into the adapter. There are also six bolts going through the rotor into the hub. It’s pretty much the same as a normal seatstay brake mount.

Haris said...

Thanks LordOnOne!