Reader’s Ride(s) – Adam Blake’s Alubooya!

There’s nobody in the world, that is more happy, for mi hermano, Adam, than Sven and I, when he was hired on to be the new GM at Boo Bicycles. You see, Boo is located in Fort Collins, Colorado and we both really look forward to visiting! In the mean time, we can always bide our time by looking at Adam’s sweet new fatty! Adam was our special guest on the Fat-Bike Radio – Weekly Dose of Fat Show, where he shared his plans for the new build with us in Show #5. When I asked Adam if he had named his new bike, he told me that he really doesn’t name his bikes, but if he did, he would name them all Patrick Swayze. I hope you dig Adam’s new Alubooyah as much as we do! ~gomez~

Alubooyah aluboomed it.  My new custom painted Aluboo Aloobooyah: By Adam Blake

click the photo to view the color changing paint

I sold my furniture, lots of bike parts, along with my identity, when I moved out to Colorado about two months ago to take a position with Nick Frey and Drew Haugen at  Boo/Aluboo. One of my new fringe benefits includes getting to build a completely pimped out, Alubooya fat bike for myself. I was excited to build an Alubooyah after I built one for my friend Ronnie.  His is sharp- look for it, in an upcoming story on f-b.c.  My bike will likely change now and again, in the cockpit, post, fork, departments, among other things as I get to check out new products.

First impressions: this bike rides really well.  It is quick handling, and also climbs well.  The grades out here get wild and you just end up spinning up the mountain.  I think the bike is weighted well.  Maybe a more accurate statement would be, it feels balanced.   (I have a 9zero7 tapered, thru axle fork on right now.  I will use the painted aluminum fork in the winter, because it has anything cage mounts.

I built it up with a Shimano XT group with a Raceface turbine crank.  I really like how the new Shimano stuff feels.  The brake lever pull feels good, as does the size of the lever.  I end up in my granniest gear occasionally so a 2x group still works the best for me.

The wheels that I built are perfect for me out here.  Surly Marge lite rime laced to Industry Nine fat hubs with Sapim Race spokes.  It is a reasonably bomber light weight, set up, tubeless, with 45 NRTH Husker Du ultralight tires.  There are so many rocks out here.  I also apparently have a “tough trail magnet” somewhere in my body.  It seems like every ride I go on lately, that I find something totally brutal.  I hope that doesn’t stop.   That’s also why I decided to go with aluminum bars vs carbon.  Thomson Trail bars, and X4 stem.  Truvativ post (for now)  Ergon SM3 saddle and GS2 grips round it out.

click photos to enlarge

Then the biggest, most noticeable feature: the paint.  The paint is awesome and was done by Adam Lucier at Newstalgia Custom Paint here in Fort Collins.  He did our tiger paint job for NAHBS this past year and did a sweet paint job on his own fatty. He mentionedto me that he wanted to try something new and I was totally in!  The effect of the changing hues in the paint is due to the multiple prisms suspended in the finish.  It changes based on what angle you look from and also based on the angle or intensity of the lighting.  Purple, green, blue, and even a little orange shine through especially in the welds where there are multiple angles in a small area.  It’s super bad-ass, and pictures don’t even come close to doing it justice!

My first big ride on the new fatty included 4000+ ft of elevation gain (many during a category 1 climb).  It was 45 miles, and took 4hr 18min.  I climbed for two and a half hours straight before heading down a “road closed” to finally descend to a road GONE.  I was off the bike a couple times, waded through moving water that was almost knee deep, climbed through 20-foot sections of no road, and had to cross one concrete barrier.  It was perfect!  One of the most brutal rides I have ever done on ANY fat-bike.  Hitting trails have been awesome on the new ride. This bike is great for rolling over all kinds of rocks.  Fat-bikes rule!  I think the Aluboo Alubooyah rules… but I am partial- though also honest.

For More information about Boo / Aluboo visit – http://boobicycles.com/ or http://aluboobikes.com/