Copper Plated Tonton 16

Here is something special I've been dreaming of for a few years. A custom copper plated steel bike frame. This fat bike frame was designed by Insideline bike shop and built by Kruch Custom Bicycles out of Calgary. A bit of retro mixed with modern touches. Yes, the copper is clear coated so it shouldn't patina any further. The frame was stripped and copper plated locally. This frame uses 3D printed 316L stainless steel yokes to which the 4130 chromoly steel tubes are welded. The plating doesn't adhere to those yokes so they were meticulously sanded and polished by hand. The frame was then aged in a hot and humid environment to get a little bit darker and clear coated to seal that desired tone of copper.

This build has a lot of components that were stripped using lye and hours of hand polishing for the raw finish. SRAM XX1 derailleur was fully disassembled and got that raw treatment. Same with the oversized pulley wheel cage, polished GX Crankset, Garmin mount, thermometer base, brake caliper adapters etc. Another fun addition is 3D printed brake caliper covers to keep snow out. This fixes the issue where snow falls off the tires and freezes between the brake pads. The cover idea came from Atherton team where they were using them to keep mud out of the calipers. TPMS sensors by Outrider Components work great on fat bikes where tire pressure can make or break a ride. Just inflate/deflate the tire and the pressure shows up on the Garmin screen.

We are fortunate to have some of the best winter fat biking terrain here in the Canadian Rockies. In addition to the machine groomed trail networks, we have hundreds of alpine mountain hiking trails that are a blast to ride down. In two seasons, I have done 300+ hours, 1747KM and 75,000M of vert on this frame and it is still going strong.

The geometry is similar to an Enduro bike which works great for both downhill and XC style winter riding. In summary, the bike is extremely well balanced, stable yet playful at the same time. There is lots of traction for climbing and descending on snow and ice. More details here: https://www.theinsideline.ca/bikes/complete-bikes/tonton/

Geo:
Size: Large
Reach: 480
Stack: 657
HTA: 64
Front Center: 825
Rear Center: 450
STA: 76
Wheelbase: 1275
Weight: 36lb w/ pedals