PBJ All Terrain Bike

The Trusty PBJ - While this PBJ stands for Performance Basket Jammer, the similarities to our favorite sandwich are hard to ignore. It may look simple, but you can always count on it to get you through the day. The PBJ is your go-to. This is the bike you can grab with no plans and take it anywhere. Set it up geared or single speed with the adjustable dropouts, rigid or 100mm of suspension. Adam arrived on the PBJ design after building several touring/bike packing bikes for himself and realizing that a bike you like is the best bike to ride on all day. Being able to run a variety of tire sizes is nice but this bike is built for someone who doesn't mind pushing a bit bigger tire because it is worth it to let 'er rip on those hard-earned descents. The handling is familiar and playful and it will bring you anywhere you want to go with joy, just don’t forget to pack a sandwich!

Design Brief:

There is no such thing as a perfect one-bike, but we got close. The brief: build a frame that handles loaded touring on loose, rutted roads, technical singletrack unloaded, and everything in between, without compromising hard on any one of them. The result borrows from modern mountain bike geometry and gravel bike geometry, pulling traits from each that don't usually show up on the same frame. A pairing that goes together almost like peanut butter and... jelly.

Geometry

The core of the PBJ geo is a longer front end. Loaded, that means stability and confidence on loose, rough descents. Unloaded, that same length translates directly into fun, composed singletrack descending. It also opens up a more efficient, longer position for long days of touring. Don't let the long reach scare you though, this bike is designed specifically to work with a swept-back handlebar like our PBJ bar, which puts your hands in a more ergonomic position and also reduces the reach. With a swept-back bar, this bike positions you very much like any other mountain bike. The tradeoff with a longer front end can be slower, less responsive steering, so we pair it with a shorter 30–50mm stem, which keeps your hands close to the steering axis and the front end snappy despite the added length. Long and stable loaded, fun and lively unloaded - that's the design intent, not a compromise between the two.

Materials

The PBJ is built from the finest possible steel tubing. Each size-specific tubeset is designed by us and custom drawn for these frames to deliver superior ride quality and durability. We are not beholden to any off-the-shelf, name-brand tubing and instead make our own to specifically suit each frame size for all of our models. Our in-house designed chainstay yoke is cast from 4130 steel and heat treated to allow for optimal chainstay length and tire clearance, and strenght, while asymmetrical chainstays, sized independently side to side, manage drivetrain flex and fine-tune ride quality without adding weight. The top tube is ovalized, not for looks (maybe a little bit for looks), but because an oval cross-section flexes differently than a round one under load, part of what gives this bike truly the best ride quality that steel can offer. Reinforcing gussets on the top tube and down tube allow us to use thinner tubing while maintaining strength and improving ride quality. We spec custom butted tubing throughout, thicker where the frame needs strength, thinner where it can afford to flex, so ride quality is built in rather than left to chance.

Versatility & Longevity

One frame, many different bikes. As much as we would like to be out bike touring every day, a touring bike has to be fun the other 345 days a year. Build it rigid with a 2.2–2.6" tire and it's an incredibly capable bikepacking and touring rig, loaded for weeks on end, or stripped down for fast trail days and urban miles. Swap to a 100mm fork and a dropper post, and the same geometry becomes a fast, capable XC mountain bike. Modular, adjustable dropouts let you run single speed, geared drivetrains, or experiment with chainstay length to change how the bike handles. The frame and fork have mounts for anything you would ever need: racks, bag supports, fenders, and cargo cages, dynamo powered headlight, wherever you want to carry something, there's a place to bolt it on. A bike to change and grow with you and adapt to what you need.

Don't Forget about the fork...

Forks have a tremendous impact on the ride quality of a bike, and the PBJ fork is the result of over a decade of framebuilding (and forkbuilding) experience. The custom-drawn and butted unicrown fork legs are engineered for just the right amount of flex, stiffness, and cargo capability. The fork is suspension-corrected - meaning its length is comparable to that of a 100mm suspension fork. This extra length means not only that you can swap in a suspension fork when your friends invite you on a tour that requires a little squish, but also adds flex to the fork that creates comfort and better traction - keeping you comfy and confident wherever the PBJ takes you.

But don't take it from us. Here's what Neil had to say in his Bikepacking.com review of the PBJ:

"Speaking of the fork, it’s really the bike’s special sauce, or maybe the special jam in this case. It uses a unique butting profile that keeps it strong while still offering surprising compliance. As you’ll read later, it’s probably one of the best steel forks I’ve ridden."

Every PBJ Frameset ships with one of these special forks for the best ride quality possible, If you want a piece of the magic you can also buy on its own here.