Our amigo, Adam Blake, from Boo Bicycles, came out to the Fat-Bike ranch to visit us on our radio show and give us a sneak peak of the new Boolossal. Adam and I have been talking about the Boolossal for the last six months, so when he built up their first production bike, he traveled from Boo-HQ in Fort Collins, Colorado, through his home state of Iowa to do a race called Triple D and then on to America’s Dairyland to let us take it for a spin and get some photos to share with everyone.
The Boolossal is the ultimate fusion of ferrocalamus strictus (iron bamboo) and hand wrapped carbon fiber. Boo uses 3k carbon on the seat tube and the massive inch and a half straight head tube. The frame also features a belt drive compatible 170 mm rear axle spacing as well as removable front derailleur cable guides if you want to run a one by drive train. The frame is smooth and perfectly joined where the carbon and Iron Bamboo meet. It has an understated high tech elegance, punctuated with the organic beauty of the strongest bamboo on earth. Beauty is only skin deep…..I wanted to know how the Boolossal rides, so we headed out to the local twisties to find out.
Our Winter has been hit or miss with both temperatures and snow cover. The day that Adam and I headed out to our local trails, winter had just returned with temps in the high twenties with a wispy, thin coating of new snow over plate ice with some crunchy decomposed snow around the edges of the ribbon that had been ridden in before the last thaw/refreeze.
Adam on the Boolossal
I started out, riding Otis, to get a handle on what the conditions would throw at us, but as soon after we hit the singletrack, Adam and I traded bikes. The first thing that I noticed was that the Boo’s geometry was very much like a 29r hardtail and that it really responded immediately to pedal input. As you can see, the conditions were pretty sketchy. I had to maintain a fairly conservative approach to keep the rubber side down, but the bike kept on wanting to go faster. In a way the icy conditions created a great way to check out a bike’s handling and balance, but I would have loved to had a pair of studded tires to let it rip a bit more. I had the opportunity to ride an Alubooya for a month last winter and I sort of fell in love with that little bike. The Boolossal shares the same geometry as the Alubooya and Adam explained that they’re both patterned after the geometry of a 29r mountain bike – just with room for fat-tires!
The Boolossal seemed to track very well and in short order, I was flicking the rear end around icy corners and having a ball. Adam’s bike, as tested, weighs around twenty-eight pounds. It felt nice and light and left me wanting ride it even more. If you get the chance to take a Boo for a ride, you should take advantage of the opportunity. Bamboo rides pretty damn sweet.
Boolossals are in stock and available now in sizes – S/M/L. MSRP on the frame is $3,495 and complete builds will start at just under six thousand dollars. Adam puts together the ultimate custom blends for most of Boo’s builds. He’s got a real talent for it. Check out the schedule for the Boo Bus Demo tour and find out more info at boobicycles.com
(click any photo to enlarge)
Boovalicious! Keep up the great work Adam and Boo!