A few months ago, my old friend Jayme called me up out of the blue and said she wanted a Myth. Years ago, she was one of my consistent riding buddies when I was getting into mountain biking. Back then, I was on a Barracuda frame with a Manitou elastomer fork, and she had a more modern mountain bike with disc brakes and such. We both didn’t take ourselves too seriously as cyclists so we had a lot of fun riding together. So when I heard she was still mountain biking and wanted to upgrade, I was pretty excited that she wanted a Myth.
Jayme isn’t super tall. Quite the opposite, and I believe this is the smallest bike I’ve built to date. We built it around 27.5 x 2.4 wheels, and a shorter travel 100mm fork. Everything on the bike got scaled down so that she wasn’t carrying around anything she didn’t need. This is one of the best parts of a custom bike, is that because we don’t have a single stock build kit that fits every single size of a given bike, I can put together a custom kit that makes much more sense for her as a rider.
The frame has a well rounded geometry while also having some slack enough angles to do well in the steeps. The downtube is smaller in diameter and the top tube is thinner, so she will still get a proper amount of frame flex in proportion to her weight. The frame is light as well, and has short chainstays to keep it nimble.
The build kit was chosen entirely based on who she is as a rider. The small, shorter travel fork has nothing to do with being a less skilled rider (quite the contrary) but the greater travel and stiffness of a Fox 34 would have been unnecessary and heavier. The wheels have less spokes, thinner spokes, and light rims. The tires picked are race weight tires. There are many small decisions we can make along the way that just all adds up to a bike that works just right for her.
This is also one of the lightest bikes to leave the shop at 24lbs 9oz.
It was really fun working with Jayme and getting to build a bike for her. I hope this bike gets lots of happy trail miles out in Virginia. Thanks so much Jayme!
Want to be the first to see new builds and hear updates from Myth Cycles? Scroll to the bottom of this page and subscribe to our blog via email, and you’ll be notified of any new posts as soon as they go up.