Remember that sick Black Sheep we shared last week? Well, the owner of that bike, Sam, has been tinkering in his garage and building some really unique bikes. Granted, he calls them “hunks of steel” and “kinda weird” but as a cycling photographer I couldn’t pass up shooting his 135mm spaced Rohloff fatbike.

First off, Sam shared his rigid 29er with me. It reminded me of a Brooklyn Gangsta Track with its unique seat tube cluster. There’s nothing really crazy about this one, save for Works Components headset, allowing Sam to adjust the head angle on the bike and the Middleburn cranks providing the ideal chainline…

The real treat is this wild fatbike. Sam is not a builder, nor is he an engineer, but he’s been riding bikes his whole life and is a bike mechanic. He’s wrenched on and ridden a number of bikes and wanted to try something different with this bike, his first fatbike.

The most noticeable detail is the elevated chainstay, that barely clears the cranks, but on the non-drive side, the stays move around the 5″ tire and the wheel is offset dished to accept his 135mm Rohloff hub. Sam had this hub already and really wanted the bike to use it, so rather than selling it and upgrading to a wider spacing, he warped the seat stay. This created a bit of visual mindfuckery but as I told Sam, I’ve seen sillier ideas in a much more professional package over the years – i.e. NAHBS. ;-)

Like his rigid 29er, this fatbike uses a Works Components headset, allowing Sam to experiment with the head angle. He has plans to chop it up and change a few things in the future. That’s what those little nubs are on the top tube; the seat stays used to be brazed in that location but it was rubbing Sam’s legs…