I had just hooked my daughter up with a brand new 29er, and was feeling some serious bike envy, when I received a timely phone call from a certain Mr. Gomez. My pleading instruction for my next bike to test was “gimme somethin baller” so I could stop feeling so left out of the cool bike club. A short time later I had a shipping notification that something big was on its way from Minnesota. What arrived was the new Framed Minnesota LTD.
Baller indeed!
I must admit, I fell in love with it the moment I saw it. This bike is pretty.
This bike appears to be aimed at those wanting to dip their tootsies into the fatty market with not a lot of initial outlay but want something a little fancier than what the Minnesota 1.0 and 2.0 models have to offer. (The price tag for the LTD is just under $1K!!!)
What I know about it thus far, is that it is an amazing build for the money (seriously, this thing is a steal) and that I immediately felt comfortable riding it. The very first wheelie went for half a block. Throttle only, no clutch up required.
Here are some quick points:
The frame is 6061 aluminum and a gorgeous arcing top tube.
The fork is also 6061 and has a tapered steer tube
The drive train is SRAM NX 1X11 speed with Level hydraulic brakes
Cranks are 175 Truvativs with a 32 tooth chainring and are mounted on a 100mm square taper bottom bracket
The wheelset is 150mm front and 177mm rear Framed brand thru axle hubs and 26” Alex 70mm Blizzerk tubeless compatible hoops.
Tires are 26 X4 Terrene Wazias
Most of the cockpit is house branded stuff that allowed Framed to meet that amazing price point.
The 18” size I’m riding weighs in at just over 34 lb with a pair of Eggbeaters mounted
This might have been covered in previous reviews of other Framed bikes but there’s a note on the box that says “ready to ride in 5 minutes”. Basically, Framed prebuilds the bike and gets everything set up, and then they break the bike back down and repackage it with a minimum of excessive garbage.
Anyone that’s done some time in a bike shop knows that the bane of any build is just getting all the packaging off of the bike. Framed minimizes all that to just what is necessary. Only some zip-ties and lightly taped foam and plastic. Framed also includes a pedal wrench and a nicely equipped multi-tool with all the trimmings you need to build the bike. The only thing that I supplied was grease (elbow & Phil Wood).
I took the 5-minute challenge only a little seriously as I wanted to photo doc the build …….and the work was being performed in my backyard. In reality, it took more like 35 minutes. Let’s just say some time was lost to cursing and looking for dropped fasteners in the grass.
So there you have it…The Framed Minnesota LTD…fresh out of the box and ready to rock! I plan to continue wringing the shiz out of this bike and I promise to let you know how all of that goes. So far…this thing is awesome.
Learn more about Framed Bikes at – www.framedbikes.com
Wow! It even comes with studdable tires!