Coming up with names for all these bikes can be daunting at times. I try to ask myself a few questions, ranging from, “what was the owner’s motivation for commissioning the bike?” “is there already a nomenclature established?” and most importantly, “what are people in the comments going to say?” In a few cases, the names are the by-product of a joint “safety meeting” or a string of texts like with Benedict’s 2020 S-Works Fuse Ultra Baja Buggie. Over the past few months, there have been a lot of 27.5+ hardtails, moonlighting as bikepacking rigs on the site and simply labeling David’s Curtlo as another isn’t 100% honest.

You see, it isn’t just a 27.5+ hardtail. David contacted Curtlo while he was living in Seattle to build a bikepacking mountain bike. He wanted extra braze-ons, clearance for 3″ tires and a geometry that can accommodate an extra 30lbs of gear on his bike. It wasn’t until getting down to brass tactics that Curtlo engineered the frame to take a beating while loaded, and keep on ticking. Kinda like how you can be really drunk and fall, only to get up the next morning unscathed.

Curtlo added gussets, used resilient tubing and ensured the geometry would be perfect for David, who as you might have guessed, isn’t the tallest human being. There’s even a hidden internal dropper post sheath in the bottom bracket. Packing all this into a frame, while still having the ability to fit water bottles for normal shred sessions was important for David. Making the bike work for its intended usage and more was mandatory for Curtlo, who used this opportunity to design his first 27.5+ bike.

David’s componentry choices with Hadley Hubs and a NSB chainring were a breath of fresh air with all the King and Wolf Tooth I photograph and the bike’s color and stance showed that Curtlo makes rockin’ mountain bikes.