Hi Jason,

Your motorcycles are incredible! Next level design and craftsmanship. I’ve seen them online before and it’s super cool to have a brush with one of the creators.

For TD4 you would fit a 58cm best. I’m 6’1.5″ and fit it perfectly with a 110mm stem and 44cm wide bars. For a flat bar build you might size down to a 100mm stem and be in the 740-760 width range. We could definitely build it with the wide range mullet rear, and that is probably the most popular build spec these days in terms of gearing.

Naked finish is gloss clear, but we could do a single layer Cerakote satin over the clear to knock it down a bit if desired. Our decals are over clear, not under. Decals that go under clear are typically water slider decals applied at the factory, but the decals we do here are a transfer adhesive decal, and go on top.

If you’d like to swap any more questions, feel free to shoot me a direct email at steve@rodeo-labs.com

Mike.

We are confident that TD4 and Flaanimal 5 are more than adequate for your needs, and yes could also load the bike up for things like bikepacking. We set the official weight limit low out of an extreme abundance of caution, but the real world limit is meaningfully higher.

If you load the bike up for bikepacking, one great technique to spread the weight load is to use a Tailfin system and an axle mount, that puts much of the weight of the Tailfin and cargo on the wheelset, not the frameset itself.

Thanks,

Stephen

That will work with one major caveat: The carbon sleeve through the head tube blocks internal access through the head tube down through the downtube. So there is no existing access path into the downtube from the head tube. The carbon sleeve is not structural on the back wall of the headtube, so a skilled technician (here at Rodeo) could create a hole in the sleeve to allow cables to pass through, but we wouldn’t expect customers to be competent at drilling carbon, so we wouldn’t be able to endorse doing it as a DIY. If you haven’t purchased the frame from us yet we can do that before shipping by request, or you could send the frame back here and we’re happy to do it for you.

FYI, most Flaanimals did not ship with Spork 3.2, although some have. Typically they shipped with 3.0 and 3.1. 3.2 is the only fork with integrated (hidden steer tube routing) that we’ve made.

The lower bearing is an IS52 which is easy to source from various vendors or a local bike shop. Many brands offer them.

We offer an IS52 with stainless bearings. That would help keep rust and corrosion at bay depending on your local terrain and conditions. If you are interested in that option just email bikes@rodeo-labs.com

We have not specifically mounted an Ortlieb quick rack to the Flaanimal, but it is almost certain that it will fit, as many different brands of rear racks fit with no issues.

Hi Chris. The procedure is fairly simple. Thread off the non drive side endcap, then pull the drive side end of the axle out of the hub. The freehub body will then remove easily. Be aware: You need to keep the small spacer between the freehub body and the drive side hub bearing when reinstalling. If you don’t, the assembly will bind. Also note the dust seal on the outer bearing of the freehub body.

When re-torquing, just torque hand tight, do not crush the bearings by over torqing.

ALSO: a few drops of blue loctite on the threads of the non drive side endcap will keep it in place. If the endcap works its way loose the pawls can be damaged, so check that it remains snug from time to time.

Hi Tigran,

You are correct that for the front you would order that axle conversion kit, including new axle. We sell

The matching front and axle for the rear is also sold here and are provided in the correct length for your fork. Some front axles we’ve supplied are 127mm, some 130mm, but they both work equally well on all of our forks.

If this isn’t clear you can also give us a ring at the number of the bottom of our website here, or email bikes@rodeo-labs.com and we will be back to you quickly.

Hi James. We no longer make the 48cm Flaanimal. The smallest frame that we make is now the 49cm Flaanimal Ti. It could be that it would fit your needs as well as a 48. One great tool for comparing fit is bikeinsights.com. You can pull up two bikes (including all of our models) and see how they overlap visually or via geometry charts.

Thanks,

Stephen

Hi Chris,

The 2.0 carbon rims are easily strong enough to handle what you describe, but heavy weight of bikepacking setups puts more stress on the 2.0 hubs and freehub body, so we have since moved to a 3.0 hub with stronger components to make sure it has failsafe reliability out on big loaded adventures. So, although countless bikepacking adventures have been ridden on 2.0 hubs, we feel that it is best to advise upgrading the rear hub on 2.0 wheels if you’re going to do expedition type riding on them. We can rebuild a 2.0 wheelset with a 3.0 hub for $175 (+ shipping costs).

Stephen

Hi Wade,

We don’t have exactly this bike built here and ready for weighing, but having handled a lot of our bikes over the years, I would estimate this build to come in around 22lbs, +/- a half pound depending on the frame size. This is only an estimate, but it is a good faith estimate.

If you have any other questions we can help, you can also get a quick response from us via bikes@rodeo-labs.com.

Thanks,

Stephen