Aaron Heirtzler

Canfield Brothers Sauce & One

June 22, 2010 by Aaron

I’ve had the opportunity to build up two more Canfield Brothers Bikes. I’ll start with the Sauce.

I built this bike for my fiancee. I wanted to create a comfortable (5-6″ travel), light weight (weighs in at about 25lbs) and easy pedaling machine in the hopes that she would join me on the trails from time to time. I was able to use mostly top level XC race components that I acquired from a friend after of season of racing use a fork that I had been using with a Santa Cruz Chameleon build. With the exception of some scuffing on the mostly used components, this bike looks great. The weight is truly amazing for a bike with this much travel.

The Build:

Small Canfield Brothers Sauce frame w Fox RP23 shock
Fox Vanilla R fork
Ritchy WCS Stem
Truvative XC-AM Carbon Risers
Avid Juicy Ultimate Brakes
Truvative Noir 3-ring Crankset
Shimano SLX Front and Rear Derailleurs and Shifters
Thompson Elite Seatpost
WTB Saddle
WTB Laserdisc Lite hubs laced to Stans ZTR Rims

The Ride:

Better than expected. Not only is this bike light and a pleasure to pedal uphill (especially with the ProPedal on the Fox shock), but it descends like a Canfield would be expected to descend. It really rallies the twisty downhill sections, is great in the air and the 6″ of parallel link suspension really sucks op the landings. The only thing I would possibly change is the fork. I think a bit more rigidity in the front (a 15mm through axle would probably take care of this) would be nice in some of the tight downhill sections. Other than that, I love the bike and more importantly, my fiancee does as well.

And now, the One.

I had previously enjoyed owning a medium sized One with a great build (see this post) and even though this build is different, I expect the bike to perform just as well. The only reason I ended up selling the other bike and getting this one, is I came to realize that I needed a small frame. I haven’t had a chance to ride this bike yet, but it looks like a good time! My only complaint remains that the crown of the fork hits the downtube (Canfield Brothers is now sending these frames out with the Acros Block Lock headset, but with the over-sized crown on this fork, it still happens) and the excessive chain slap which also makes a scene on the Sauce frame. I have, however, figured out how to protect the frame at these problem areas and it’s a small price for the ride you get to enjoy on these bikes.

The Build: