Black Mountain Cycles La Cabra

There’re so many possible options with this frame. Where to start…First, the La Cabra is designed as a drop bar mountain bike. The combination of the tall stack and a reach that will allow the bars to be positioned where the drop portion of the bar, where you have the most control, will be high enough to be comfortable and confidence inspiring on your favorite trails and comfortable enough for multi-day bike packing.

• Wheels/tires: The La Cabra frame was designed around a maximum tire size of 29” x 2.4” or 27.5” x 2.8”. The tires it was designed around are of a smaller knob style like the WTB Ranger or Teravail Honcho. Tires with super aggressive knobs may limit size.
• Headset: Standard 1 1/8” / 34mm external cup
• Hub spacing: 110mm x 15mm front, 148mm x 12mm rear thru-axle, aka Boost
• Brake mounting: IS mount front and rear. Use post mount calipers with adapters
• Brake rotor size: 180mm maximum front or rear
• Seat post size: 30.9mm with a 34.9mm clamp
• Dropper post compatible with internal seat tube routing. Optimized for 100mm – 125mm travel dropper.
• Multiple bag/rack mounting options. Front and rear rack mounts at dropouts. Fork has mounting points for low-riders or triple anything type cages. Tumbleweed Bikes T-Rack compatible front or rear as are Nitto M18 type front racks.
• Bottom bracket: Standard threaded British 1.37” x 24tpi with a 73mm wide shell
• Crankset compatibility: The frame is designed to be able to run a non-Boost crankset, even though the hub spacing is Boost. I find the narrower chainline (47.5mm – 50mm) of a non-Boost crank to work better in high load situations when in the larger cogs. By biasing the crank chainline inboard compared to the rear hub spacing, the chain runs quieter in the larger cogs, has less cross chain, and will result in longer chain and chainring/cog life. Of course, if you want to run a Boost crank that’s no problem, since Boost just moves the rings away from the chainstay. But if you want to run a non-Boost crank you can run the following:
  • Single ring up to 34t
  • Double ring up to a 38t ring
  • Triple with traditional ring sizes and chainline around 47.5mm – 50mm.  However, triple cranks may not offer sufficient clearance between the chain and the widest tires.
  • Road cranks are not compatible
• Front derailer: 34.9 clamp size, bottom pull or dual pull. La Cabra frames include a bottom bracket cable guide with an integrated cable stop for the front derailer. Use a derailer with minimal linkage width. A Shimano sideswing style derailer would be optimal.  Use low clamp style.
• Bottle mounts: Three on 15”, 16”, and 18”. Four on 20” and 22”. All frame sizes also have the ability to mount a triple boss type cage under the down tube.
• Thru-axles. La Cabra framesets include thru-axles, but if you want something different, the specs are:
  • Front – overall axle shaft length around 130mm. Thread pitch 15mm x 1.5t
  • Rear – overall axle shaft length around 175mm. Thread pitch 12mm x 1.5t
• The frame is treated with black electrophoretic deposition coating, which acts as a rust-preventative layer, before paint is applied. The paint is a wet paint with a clear powder coat. The combination of this entire process costs more, but provides a super durable finish.
• Can I run flat bars on La Cabra? Sure, why not. Fit a stem that gets the bars where you want them and Bob’s your uncle.
• And the big question:  can I use a suspension fork on La Cabra? No.  The La Cabra fork is not suspension corrected nor is the headtube sized to fit a modern, tapered suspension fork.