After riding and reviewing a few higher-end gravel bikes that fall in the “adventure gravel” category, John wanted to take on a special project for the winter months in Santa Fe, so he reached out to Mike Varley from Black Mountain Cycles and got ahold of a Mod Zero to review. Read on for his thoughts about what makes Black Mountain Cycles’ more affordable offerings so special and why this might just be the perfect platform for drop bar endeavors…

Mike Varley is Special

If you want to know what issues plague modern bikes, talk to the owner of a bike shop. If you want a well-thought-out bike, buy one from someone who owns a bike shop and a bike company. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of anyone else who has occupied that space as long as Mike Varley from Point Reyes-based Black Mountain Cycles.

I first visited Black Mountain Cycles in 2010, just three years after it opened in 2007, on my first big, week-long bike tour. I rode from Portland to San Francisco along the Adventure Cycling PCH route, taking all of the dirt detours and side quests along the way. It’s doubtful that Mike even remembers me or knew about this website back then. I probably looked (and smelled) like every other cyclo touring dirtbag that rolls through his shop, looking for extra inner tubes or a quick tune-up.

Back then, Mike’s collection of bikes was extensive, and over the years, he’s trimmed the fat, so to speak, save for a few special specimens. Yet the number of insanely rare bikes that get hung in Mike’s stand is mind-boggling. Cunningham 29ers, Potts Signatures, Trailmasters. You name it. Mike has probably wrenched on it.

Before Mike had the shop, he wrote articles for a few publications – including that “Dropping In” article we posted last year – and worked for Haro/Masi for thirteen years, where he learned all about the dark art of bicycle design. After working for other people for thirteen years, he launched Black Mountain Cycles in 2007 with the desire to make the bikes that he wanted to see.

Spencer’s Black Mountain Cycles MCD

Black Mountain Cycles Catalog

What’s special about Black Mountain’s offerings is Mike could make any bike he wanted. He could have worked with carbon, titanium, aluminum, or steel. Yet he chose to stick to steel for both its longevity and its ride quality. Mike’s offerings are smart, timeless, and versatile. These production bikes rarely break $2,000 retail for a steel frame and fork. Black Mountain Cycles’ catalog offers many of the same features you would spec on a custom frame for much less money, thanks to them being made in Taiwan.

Typically, a cheap or affordable production steel bike can be rather heavy. They feel hefty when you pick them up and lack that sprite sensation when you pedal them. While I hadn’t ridden one for any extended period of time, every Black Mountain Cycles I’ve documented impressed me by the lift test alone. They are not heavy bikes. To add to this, the owners have all been very enthusiastic about their bikes, citing other models from other brands they migrated from.

Finally riding one for a few months has been a pleasant experience, to say the least.

Spencer’s MCD, a bike in Mike’s stand, and Bob’s Black Mountain Cycles basket commuter

Feedback Loops

Personal biases go into every bike review. Objective facts aside, a review is meant to be subjective, and I tend to take on bikes that meet a certain ethos. The days of me reviewing precision, race-pedigree carbon fiber bikes seem to be waning, partially because of my location but also my ride choices. I like drop bar bikes that have the capability of being wielded in a rowdy manner, like a light-duty mountain bike, but can still operate civilly when needed. And by civilly, I mean ridden like an actual road bike.

Mike’s designs all speak in simple terms: steel frames built from standard-sized tubing, filled with rack/fender/cargo mounts, and equipped with steel forks. The lines are elegant, not overly classic nor too modern, just right. If bicycle frames possess gestalt, Black Mountain’s models would easily fall into the design principle.

These qualities are all the direct result of Mike listening to his customers. This input, paired with wrenching on everything from the rarest Cunninghams to the most entry-level Wal-Mart Magnas and custom building his current models for his clients, informs each and every model under the Black Mountain roof. The Mod Zero exemplifies this feedback loop.

Mod Zero, El Viaje

One of the requests Mike received from his current and potential customers was the desire to run a carbon fork on their bikes. And at the time, none of Black Mountain’s models could support a carbon fork due to their 1 1/8″ head tube diameter. So, Mike designed a bike that was the by-product of a crossbreed of the now-discontinued MCD and Road+ frames. Both of these bikes have a small cult following.

The crowning detail of the Mod Zero is by far its segmented fork, an homage to Fat City Cycles’ Yo Eddy! forks from the 1990s. I don’t think there’s a finer example of a production segmented fork on the market currently. It’s very light, flexes nicely, and has all the mounts you’d ever want!

Mike’s not one to soapbox his marketing spiel, and he did such a good job at succinctly describing the Mod Zero, I thought I’d share it here for you to read:

“The Mod Zero is the back to the drawing board bike that incorporates features owners of the, now discontinued, MCD and Road+ frames asked for. Starting with its heat-treated, double-butted Cromoly tubeset, specified to give it the excellent platform base, the Mod Zero is the bike that ticks all the boxes. Its flat-mount disc brakes allow either 700c/29” or 650b/27.5” wheels. The careful manipulation of the chainstays allows a road crankset with up to 50/34 rings and up to 700 x 48 mm tires or 27.5” x 2.2” tires. The tagline in the Mod Zero logo is “El Viaje,” The Journey. The Mod Zero will be a perfect partner in your cycling adventure in its ability to be built into exactly the bike you need for your journey.”

 

The journey speaks not only to the bike’s intended use case but also to the journey that Mike has undergone as a lifelong cyclist, bike shop, and bike company owner. His journey up to this point, in many ways, has culminated with the Mod Zero and his slightly more expedition-minded La Cabra model.

What I appreciate about the Mod Zero is its versatility, a word often over-used in the drop bar space but is aptly applicable here. The Mod Zero has all the mounts you could want for fenders, racks, or cargo cages. And while I love the segmented fork, if you wanted to run a carbon fork, there’s the option to, at the expense of a slightly upscaled head tube – that honestly looks more obtuse in photos but doesn’t bother me while riding the bike at all. Paired with the top and down tube gussets, it makes the Mod Zero look tough, even if its riding disposition falls more within the realm of “sweetheart.”

Mod Zero Quick Hits

• Retail: $1,145 frameset
• Approximate complete price as shown here: $2,800
• Frame sizes: 44cm, 47cm, 50cm, 53cm, 56cm, 59cm
• Colors: Signal Yellow (RAL 1003 ) or Go Green (PMS 576)
• Designed to fit tires up to 700c x 50 mm or 27.5″ x 2.25″
• Photographed with 48 mm Bruce Gordon Rock ‘n’ Road tires measuring 52 mm wide
• Full chromoly double-butted frame
• Segmented fork design with triple cage bosses
• Flat mount disc brake mounting 160mm front, 140mm or 160mm rear w/ adapter
• Internal dropper post-compatible
• Thru-axles

Geometrically Speaking

I’d like to offer some notes on sizing. I typically ride a 62 cm frame in traditional sizing metrics, but Mike helped me select a size 56 cm. Black Mountain’s offerings run bigger, so consider the effective top tube when sizing yours. The Mod Zero could best be categorized as having an even-keeled, mid-trail geometry with a high stack. Call it comfortable if you’d like, but it’s far from being an upright cruiser.

When I say mid-trail numbers, I refer to:

Very High: > 80 mm trail
High: 65 – 80 mm trail
Mid: 45 – 65 mm trail
Low: 30 – 45 mm

A low trail bike is twitchy and quick to respond to turning, like a cyclocross bike, and a high trail bike can feel sluggish in tight turns, like an enduro bike. A mid-trail bike is right in between, kind of like a road bike. Not too twitchy and not too sluggish. Just right.

Parts Spec

Mike will gladly build you a custom Mod Zero using any parts or kit you’d like. He offers GRX 1x or 2x and SRAM Rival kits on his site, or you can call/email the shop to discuss custom options. Mike insisted upon sending me some hand-built wheels: Astral Outback rims laced to Shimano hubs. The frame, fork, headset, and wheels arrived last year. Fergus at Ritchey sent along a few components: the WCS seatpost, stem, bar tape, and 52 cm Comp Beacon XL bars.

Bailey at Sincere Cycles ordered me the Avid brakes, and I had the 48 mm Bruce Gordon Rock ‘n’ Road tires, which felt very well suited to this bike as Bruce and Mike were friends and lived only 20 miles apart from each other. These tires ballooned out on the Outback rims and “fit” into the chainstays with about 3/16″ on either side. Before I shot these photos, I wrapped the bars with fresh Campandgoslow bar tape, too. I like to bring my friends along with me on my rides.

It took me some time to build it up and I began to ride it in between my rides on the Ponderosa, which made for a great comparison. More on that later.

Sword Black

Perhaps the Sword Black kit is the most impressive component selection of the build, second to the frame. Holy cow. What a great groupset this is. Expect a longer-form review coming later this week. Color me impressed!

Contact Points and Rotational Mass

The reason Mike insisted on sending over wheels is because a good set of wheels is the best way to feel the most out of your bike. Some wheels that come on production bikes can be heavy and feel sluggish, but these weighed 1 lb 14 oz for the front and 2 lb 2 oz for the rear with tubeless tape and valve and retail for $838. All these parts offered a mix of bang/buck that was right in line with how I wanted this build to come out.

Review Notes

During a bike review process, as much time is spent riding the bike as thinking about how to write about it. My process usually falls in between contextualizing the taxonomy of the bike with personal anecdotes that help me describe sensations. The intent behind the Mod Zero was to try to build a rock-solid and more affordable adventure gravel bike.

To contextualize what I mean by “more affordable,” my Ponderosa, as it sits now, is around a $5,800 build. The Kona Ouroboros I reviewed last year retails for $6,999. These are not affordable bikes. The Mod Zero, as it sits, probably comes in around the $2800 – $3000 mark. It weighs 27 lbs, which is only slightly heavier than the Ponderosa, which currently weighs 25 lbs with the dropper post and aluminum wheels I installed last year. The Ouroboros Supreme weighed 24 lbs with a RockShox RUDY suspension fork.

Another obvious comparison that should be made here is to the Bruce Gordon Monster Cross, which I couldn’t put a price tag on if I tried.

Yet, price doesn’t mean jack if the bike rides like a turd. And man, the Mod Zero is anything but that. It’s exceeded my every expectation.

Notes on Riding

While reviewing bikes, I’ll often stop during a ride and take notes. Usually, it’s when I notice something particular about the ride quality, either how it performs in a fast, off-camber bit of doubletrack, or how it accelerates up a climb, or how it is either an ally or a foe when you’re feeling slow and out of shape.

Throughout the course of a few month’s worth of rides, in both warmer summer and colder/windier winter rides, the Mod Zero was able to wear many hats. In the summer, when my fitness peaked, I was not afraid to get on the pedals and mash on for miles. Meanwhile, in the winter, my rides are more collected and calm. Focusing on breathing, pedal cadence, and seeking those long/slow miles.

There were a few days where I’d start off on a gravel ride on dirt roads and end on a mountain bike ride on singletrack on the Mod Zero. And plenty of days where I’d start on our flowy XC trails and end with a long dirt loop at the tail end.

I never felt like the Mod Zero liked to be confined to categories. It’s neither wholly a road bike nor wholly a mixed-terrain bicycle. As I mentioned before, it’s on the higher end of the mid-trail category, and its disposition reflected that in an even-keeled and predictable manner. The geometry is more aligned with classic road bikes – not road racing bikes, but straight-up road bikes. The size 56 cm I rode has a 72.5º seat angle and a 72º head angle, with 70 mm of bottom bracket drop.

Like my Bruce Gordon and my favorite road bikes by Eddy Merckx – a brand Mike also has an affinity for – this “parallel” geometry results in a bike that will always feel like it’s in the right position at all times. Bikes with slacker head angles feel like you’re riding more off the rear of the bike, and bikes with steeper seat angles, put your weight over the front of the bike. A lot of the Mod Zero’s proclivity can be tied to its parallel geometry. Parallel bikes plant you right in the center.

Climbing, the bike settles in under you, no matter what body English you throw at it. Calm, collected, and centered on slow days or rapidly dancing between the centripetal motion of your pedaling feet when you’re out of the saddle. The higher stack means it’s comfy descending either on the hoods or in the drops, and the shallow Ritchey Comp Beacon XL bars certainly help in that regard. However, because of the high stack, the bike is far from being a gravel racing bike; at least when compared to carbon gravel racing bikes from the bigger brands.

Some sensations that stuck with me during these rides are how nicely the bike flexes under load. Be it fast-paced pedaling, or jamming through singletrack, the entire chassis moves with you, not against you. It “dances,” as I like to say, with the rider in the lead. Even the fork found resonance and balance on washboard corrugations, flexing visibly, even causing a riding mate to comment on it one day. “What’s that feel like?” they asked. “So smooth…” was my reply.

As someone who has spent a lifetime with bikes, Mike clearly put his everything into designing the Mod Zero. It feels like a well-designed tool. Not too heavy. Not too light. Perfectly balanced and honed for its job. Finding these perfectly balanced tools in a world that has seemingly endless options feels daunting, yet Mike’s onto something with the Mod Zero.

TL;DR and the Take-Away

The Mod Zero by Black Mountain Cycles represents customer feedback and lessons learned while wrenching on other companies bikes for decades. It’s a carefully considered response to the often reactionary bike industry. While the term versatility gets thrown around a lot, few bikes possess such an even-keeled demeanor, with all the accouterments you need for El Viaje, be it long or short. The steel frame and fork offer a similar ride quality to higher-end custom options on the market for a thousand dollars less. Don’t be mistaken; the Mod Zero packs a bang/buck ratio that plants it confidently in fertile ground.

This bike is pretty much the perfect gravel platform, yet we will continue seeking the newest and latest technology for some reason. If you’re tired of looking, give one a try.

Many thanks to Mike Varley for allowing me the pleasure of riding the Mod Zero.

Pros

• The price is less than a custom bike and competitively priced for superb ride quality
• Can be ridden with a carbon fork
• Lots of mounts, allowing you to build a dream bike platform without having to go custom or bespoke
• Ample tire clearance
• External cable routing
• High stack for off-the-beaten-path adventures
• Parallel geometry feels balanced
• Mid-trail front-end rides predictably
• Steel frame is nice and flexy, not a tank like other production steel may be

Cons

• 44 mm head tube is larger than top and down tubes but balances out the Mod Zero’s versatility
• Lots of mounts might be too much for those looking for a cleaner aesthetic
• Adventure platform might be too upright for those looking for a faster-feeling bike

See more at Black Mountain Cycles.