Flaanimal 6.0 Steel
Ever more capable.
First introduced in 2016, Flaanimal has now built an 10 year legacy of function driven design and real world proven performance. Flaanimal has been proven across an incredibly wide spectrum of uses, from road, to gravel, to rugged and ultra endurance bikepacking, with a notable win at Tour Divide in 2021.
Our previous iteration of the Flaanimal, the 5.0 platform, was so well thought out that it enjoyed a six year run on the market, with no changes in its design, something that is nearly unprecedented in the fast changing adventure cycling category.
As great as Flaanimal 5.0 is, we’ve learned a lot about how to improve the bike’s feature set since we launched it in 2019. We’ve put all of that to work on Flaanimal 6.0 Steel.
6.0 Steel is not just an evolution at the margins, it’s a fresh look at how capable an adventure bike platform can be.
The Big Idea
A lot has changed for drop bar gravel and adventure bikes since we started developing bikes in 2013. Notably, riders keep taking their bikes on more ambitious adventures and pushing the capabilities of their bikes along the way. Speeds have gone up at the races, routes have gotten longer, and terrain has gotten more rugged. Flaanimal has, since it’s inception, always tried to cover a use spectrum from road to gravel to bikepacking as well as any single bike can. With 6.0 Steel we specifically wanted to push deeper into the rugged off road capabilities of the frameset, even at risk of making the bike less “at home” on the road. As off road tires have gotten larger and larger in recent years, rider’s appetite for more tire clearance has been seemingly insatiable. Where 45mm (1.8″) was previously considered large, 56mm (2.2″) seems like a new standard for modern drop bar bikes. Flaanimal 6.0 Titanium has allowed for 56mm tires for over a year, but our 5.0 steel frame was waiting to catch up – until now. 6.0 steel, when paired with the brand new Spork 4.0, can be run with tires up to 700×2.4″ (60mm).
It is one thing for a frame to accept the largest of tires, and it is another thing entirely for the bike to be designed around large tire capabilities. Larger tires change bike geometry. Larger tires increase the possibility of toe overlap. When considering the geometry for 6.0 steel, we wanted to create a bike that felt more at home in aggressive conditions with the largest of tires while still feeling great cruising around on something like a 40mm tire if you chose.
Previous versions of Flaanimal had a noticably lower stack than other frames in the drop bar endurance category. This made them feel low and fast when racing or when used on the road, but low stack heights are less suited to longer adventures in aggressive terrain, where more upright positions become more comfortable. With 6.0 steel, we decided to evolve our geometry again towards endurance, comfort, and an eye for the long haul.
Geometry comparision
So how does this translate? Take a look at the 5.0 and 6.0 visual comparison below.
5.0 had a steeper head angle. A steeper head tube angle creates a sharper steering feel, but it also brings the front wheel closer to the rider’s toes. 6.0 slackens the head angle slightly and moves that tire away from your toes, allowing you to manuver more intuitively on large tires. Adding to the more slack head tube angle, 6.0 now uses a 50mm offset fork across all sizes, adding 5mm more of toe-tire clearance. Every bit helps!
5.0 had a more slack seet tube angle. 6.0 steepens the seat tube angle slightly, and brings the rider slightly forward. This allows us to lengthen the front end of the bike and open up toe / tire clearance without requiring that the stem be shortened to offset the difference. On 6.0 the front of the bike gets slightly longer, but your core fit doesn’t change much at all.
5.0 had that lower stack that gave it a lovely position on race day. 6.0, on average across sizes, ups the stack around 17mm over 5.0, allowing more riders to be fit comfortably on the bike. If using an EC44 upper headset cup, stack can be brought up an additional 15mm yet again. That’s potentially 32mm higher than Flaanimal 5.0 base stack height. Riders who still want to get low on 6.0 can ditch all their stem spacers or, even cooler, use a negative rise stem.
Feature Set
Spork 4
Spork 4.0 is a brand new Rodeo Labs fork that is available for the first time on Flaanimal 6.0.
The new fork’s tire clearance increases to 700×2.4, and generally allows for better mud, rock, and dirt clearance across all tire sizes.
Spork 4 now supports either 160 or 180mm rotors for the first time on a Rodeo Labs fork.
Spork 4 features native compatiblity with nearly any dynamo and headlight configuration that you can imagine, including (optionally) compatibility with Son’s Self Connecting dropout system, which makes dynamo hub use easy and intuitive.
Spork 4 also features a d-shaped steer tube, which opens up a very wide range of options for cable routing using nearly any headset and stem that you prefer.
Spork 4 is a $100 a-la-carte option on Flaanimal 6.0 steel. The world-proven Spork Series 3 remains the default and lower cost option.
Tire Clearance
Flaanimal 6.0 steel has category leading tire clearance available for those who need it. How you spec and set up the frame and fork will affect the clearance that it has.
Keep in mind, tire clearance doesn’t mean that you need to go and cram the largest tire possible into your bike. Many riders never need more than a 40-50mm tire. But having huge tire clearance has a very real advantage in a different way: Tire clearance also equates to mud clearance. If you want to run a 56mm tire, you don’t want to have every rock, pebble, or patch of mud grinding your frame and fork. 6.0 opens up the frame and fork to allow riders to safely run the tire of their choice in a wider range of conditions.
What about smaller tires? Don’t worry, we’ve done extensive testing on road rides, gravel races, and even cyclocross races to ensure that 6.0 Steel is still fun and responsive in the 34-40mm tire range.
Routing Freedom
Flaanimal 6.0 allows riders to route their cables and housing nearly any way that they prefer. If you want your cables to be fully hidden, you can do that. If you want them to run interally through the downtube, but not through the headset, you can do this as well.
Spork 4’s D-shaped steer tube allows for fully hidden routing through the headset without using any special headsets or stems, and it keeps the look of the head tube slender and tidy with smaller ZS44 upper bearings.
Spork 3 supports headset or traditional routing as well. It requires EC44 upper and lower cups for supporting fully hidden routing.
As with all Rodeo bikes, you can run nearly any drivetrain you like on 6.0 steel, including 1x, 2x, mechanical, electronic, singlespeed, fixie, and internally geared hubs.
The Keg BB
6.0 Steel features The Keg bottom bracket, an improved T47 threaded bottom bracket shell that we first pioneered on our 6.0 Titanium frameset. Once past the standard-sized cup threading, the diameter of the BB shell increases, which creates space for internal routing to stay internal through the BB shell area – while not interfering with the crankset spindle. The additional space allows for wider bottom bracket and spindle compatibility as well as far easier internal cable routing out of the downtube, into the shell, and through the chainstays.
A bowtie shaped pass-through between downtube and seat tube makes routing dropper post housing easier than it has ever been.
- T47 85.5 threaded shell
- Internal bearings
- internal shift / brake routing
- Bowtie dropper routing
- Better power transfer
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CNC Machined Steel
Designed from scratch by Rodeo Labs
Dropped Stays
The dropped seat stays on Flaanimal 6.0 Steel allow the impact forces from the rear wheel to be transmitted into the seat tube, which flexes slightly to mute the feel of the impact.
No Yoke?
Flaanimal 5 features a CNC machined, dropped yoke design that allows for generous tire clearance and complete drivetrain choice. We wanted to go one better for 6.0; to create a more classically-shaped chainstay cluster. Through the use of careful tube shaping that we learned from 6.0 Titanium development, we were able to create perfectly contoured and shaped stays while shaving significant grams compared to the machined yoke.
- Non-Dropped chain stays
- seamless tube shaping
- Lighter weight
- fully internal shift / brake routing
A more responsive frame
5.0 holds its own at the races and in the sprints, but 6.0 benefits from a shaped top tube, a larger downtube, a more compact rear triangle, and a larger bottom bracket area to more efficiently transmit pedaling forces to the rear wheel. Pedaling induced frame deflecting is brought way down on 6.0, and the frameset feels perceptably quicker for it.
Lock jaw 2
The Flaanimal 6 slider design has served us well for years, but with the advent of UDH derailleurs, it was time to create an improved sliding dropout system that solved for new derailleur engineering while shedding mass and complexity. Lock Jaw 2 builds on slider concepts first pioneered in TD4.2, and refines them for the current drivetrain era.
- Native UDH Compatibility
- Standard hanger Compatibility
- Singlespeed Compatibility
- 30mm of slider range
- Future Proof
Technical Information
Flaanimal 6 Steel Geometry
To compare Flaanimal 6.0 Ti geometry with a bike you already own, we highly recommend the excellent tool from the folks at Bike Insights. Simply search and load your existing bike in the left column, and load the Flaanimal 6.0 Ti in the right column. Adjust size / tires / etc as needed. These links will help you get started:
| Frame size | 49 cm | 52 cm | 54 cm | 56 cm | 58 cm | 61 cm |
| Seat tube (C-T) | 445 | 473 | 493 | 513 | 533 | 563 |
| Top tube length (effective) | 510 | 528 | 543 | 564 | 580 | 605 |
| Chain stay length | 435 (variable) | 435 (variable) | 435 (variable) | 435 (variable) | 435 (variable) | 435 (variable) |
| Seat tube angle | 76° | 75.5° | 75.5° | 75° | 75° | 75° |
| Bottom bracket drop | 75 | 75 | 73 | 73 | 70 | 70 |
| Head tube length | 100 | 122 | 142 | 162 | 184 | 212 |
| Head tube angle | 70° | 70° | 70° | 70° | 70° | 70° |
| Reach | 377 | 385 | 395 | 406 | 418 | 436 |
| Stack | 532 | 553 | 570 | 589 | 606 | 633 |
| Fork length | 398 | 398 | 398 | 398 | 398 | 398 |
| Fork rake | 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 |
| Front center | 602 | 617 | 634 | 651 | 670 | 697 |
| Wheelbase | 1025 (variable) | 1041 (variable) | 1058 (variable) | 1076 (variable) | 1095 (variable) | 1123 (variable) |
| Standover height at center of top tube, 700 x 45mm | 750 | 774 | 794 | 812 | 833 | 861 |
| Dimensions listed in millimeters and degrees unless otherwise indicated. | ||||||
Size Guide
| Frame size | Rider height |
| 49 cm | 5’1”-5’4” |
| 52 cm | 5’4”-5’6” |
| 54 cm | 5’6”-5’9” |
| 56 cm | 5’9”-6’0” |
| 58 cm | 6’0”-6’2” |
| 61 cm | 6’2”-6’4” |
Technical Specifications
| Frame Material | Custom butted, shaped, machined, heat treated steel. | |
| Country of manufacture | Taiwan | |
| Design / Tooling | 100% Designed and Engineered by Rodeo Labs | |
| Tire clearance 650b | Max width: 2.4″ / 60mm with Spork 4. 2.2″ / 56mm with Spork 3 | Min. recommended width: 54mm | Varies by tire / rim / conditions | |
| Tire clearance 700c | Max width: 2.4″ / 60mm with Spork 4. 2.2″ / 56mm with Spork 3 | Min. recommended width: 32mm | Varies by tire / rim / conditions | |
| Frame weight | Weights are provisional based on prototype frames. Subject to small change. 2488g for 61cm. 2405g for 58cm. 2360g for 56cm. 2312g for 54cm. 2271g for 52cm. 2223g for 49cm. |
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| Fork | Rodeo Spork 4.0 or Rodeo Spork 3.3 / Full carbon adventure fork | |
| Fork weight | 480g Spork 4. 495g Spork 3. | |
| Cable routing | Mechanical or electronic. Convertible or cappable modular endcaps. Full internal housing runs through downtube / BB / Stays – as desired. Build it how you like. | |
| Dynamo routing | Internal, fork. Internal, frame. Spork 4 accepts routing from fork leg all the way through steer tube. Spork 4 accepts Son SL direct mounting system. | |
| Brake Standard | Flat Mount. 160mm native frame. 180mm max rotor size on frame (with adapter). Spork 4 max 180mm rotor – 160mm native. Spork 3 max 160mm rotor – 140mm native. | |
| Bottom Bracket | The Keg. T47 threaded, 85.5 mm width. Expanded center diameter for internal routing around spindle sleeve. | |
| Seat Post | 27.2 mm post | |
| Dropper post | Internal, cable routing through BB area via Bowtie pass through for easier routing. | |
| Seat Clamp | 29.8mm (6066 aluminum clamp included) | |
| Thru Axles |
Front optionally convertible to 15mm. |
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| Headset |
44mm head tube, 1-1/8″ to 1.5″ tapered steerer. Non-integrated routing installations: Integrated routing installations: Spork 4 supports fully integrated headset routing with standard ZS44 upper via D-shaped steer tube. Also supports standard non-headset routing. Headset not included. |
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| Chainring compatibility | 2x: max 50/34, min 36/24. 1x: max 48, and 50t is possible with a WIDE spec crankset. |
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| Front derailleur mounting | 28.6mm band clamp. | |
| Rear derailleur hanger | Aluminum, replaceable. UDH native slider allows for Sram Transmission drivetrain installations. Standard derailleur supported using the Sram UDH standard derailleur hanger (not included). |
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| Fender mounts | Frame and fork. Max 65mm outer fender width at 700c. | |
| Bottle cage mounts | 2 positions inside main triangle via 3 bosses per position. 1 on underside of down tube. 2 on fork, one per leg. Two top tube eyelets also support bottle or bag mounting. | |
| Rack mounts |
1 on seat stay bridge. Lower seat stays 1 per side. Axle rack mounting possible via third party axle and rack systems. |
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| Fork mounts | Three mid-leg eyelets per fork blade, spaced for a water bottle cage or three bolt cargo cage. (M5 x 0.8mm). Use 20mm bolts with washer for heavy loads. Two eyelets near axle per side (M5 x 0.8mm). Optional offset eyelet kit available. |
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| Fork crown bolt | Not included. 75mm length typically needed for lights / racks. Not compatible with recessed brake nuts. Use nylon washers on each end of bolt to protect fork. |
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| Fork cargo capacity | 27.6 lb / 12.5 kg total cargo weight, evenly distributed | |
| Headset spacer max height | 40mm between headset and stem. For another 15mm of stack, use an EC44 upper cup. | |
| Frameset rider weight limit | 280 lb / 127kg | |
| Slider Rage | 30mm of chain stay length adjustability. | |
| Certification | Flaanimal 6 Steel has passed the entire suite of ISO 4210 MTB Racing suite of tests. | |
| Warranty | Warranted for life to the original owner against defects in design, materials, and workmanship. Frame is fully dipped in anti-rust coating prior to painting. We cannot guarantee that a steel frame is ever fully impervious to rust, but we do our best to protect it from the factory. Please read our complete warranty policies here. |
Frame Bag Templates
We provide size-accurate printable technical drawings so that third party manufacturers can design custom frame bags for all of the framesets that we offer. The 6 Steel frame bag templates can be found here.
