After our first article I had to delve a little deeper to get some more info regarding the Root Designs sample frames they’re working on. Here is what Jamie had to say…
Words & Photos: Jamie Cameron / Root Designs
“We only recently got the frame samples……they were ‘coming soon’ on our webstore but with no photos (just an outline drawing) or info. I think some people looking at that might have thought we were dreamers. We’re not sure when they’ll be available yet. We’re waiting for more feedback on the 24” especially. Elliott Woodhouse (from Wisley) has one of them and he’s waiting on some new cranks to build it up. A lot of those guys are switching to BMX cranks.
There were a lot of unanswered questions about our ideas for a 24″ frame at the beginning of this process. Ours isn’t like anything else that’s ever been available (we thought a lot of traditional MTB designs left a lot ‘room for improvement’). We could have made some horrible errors but luckily they ride really well. We need to find the exact sweet spot between being a frame designed for 24″ wheels and still accepting (and working well with) 26″ wheels. We pretty much nailed it but the production version will have slight tweaks where we erred on the side of caution regarding clearance on the chain stays.
It’s pretty unusual that any trail spots are running in February, so we’ve been lucky that Jim has been able to get laps at Sheet and Birchwood (before it’s demise). We know the 20″ is exactly what we wanted!”
What about the 20″ how did that geometry come about?
“We wanted the 20” frame to stay fairly close to the type of geometry you’d find on FBM, Credence, and the Fit Heartbreaker frames since that’s what our friends have been riding. We included some slightly more tech features like integrated chain tensions and we opted for double gussets. I’m not sure what those brands do in terms of tubing but ours is multi-butted.
The 24″ frame has quite a few features in common with 20″ but rarely (if ever) seen on bikes from within the MTB industry. Most of their frames are aluminium and for some reason they use external BB’s. The main thing we couldn’t grasp is why they use double s bends on the chainstays. You’ve got a disk mount on one side and most of them use those grotty crimps for sprocket clearance on the other side. We kept looking at their bikes thinking “you don’t need chainstays that look like spaghetti” and it turns out you don’t.”
Root – Four 24″
TOP TUBE LENGTH: 22.58” (we may add another size for production)
CHAIN STAY LENGTH: 14.9 – 15.9”
HEAD TUBE ANGLE: 70.0 degrees
SEAT TUBE ANGLE: 71 degrees
Sanko Seamless Chro-moly construction
Tapered chain and seat stays
Double Butted Top and Down tubes
125mm Heat-treated head tubes
74mm tapered Mid BB
Clearance for 33t Sprockets and 2.5” tyres
Integrated seat clamp
Integrated chain tensioners
Root – Zero 20″
TOP TUBE LENGTH: 21”, 21.25” OR 21.5”
CHAIN STAY LENGTH: 14” – 14.75”
HEAD TUBE ANGLE: 74.0 degrees
SEAT TUBE ANGLE: 71.0 degrees
Sanko Seamless Chro-moly construction
Tapered chain and seat stays
Double Butted Top and Down tubes
125mm Heat-treated head tube
74mm tapered Mid BB
Clearance for 36t Sprockets and 2.5” tyres
Integrated seat clamp
Integrated chain tensioners
With hindsight the whole concept of having to pick between a BMX bike or a Mountain bike at 14 years of age and then get fenced in to one camp or the other for 10/20/30 years seems odd to us. In the woods everyone is doing the same thing. We don’t want to force people to pick a side. With a Root frame you’re going to be riding a trails bike. You only have to pick what size wheels suit you.
Find more out about Root Designs on their Instagram or at Rootdesigns.co.uk
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