The Dark Star is a premium steel hardtail built with a custom drawn BOSS tubeset and sliding dropouts. The sliding dropouts are useful for single speed adaptability as well as adjusting your wheelbase / rear triangle length for your terrain and riding style.
The geometry is fun, fast and playful. It is designed to be used with 120 or 130mm travel suspension fork or our own Future Proof rigid fork.
Designer's Notes
Modern jargon might call it a "downcountry" bike, but I call it the perfect all-around mtb for daily off-road riding.
It bucks the current hardtail design trend of long wheel bases and super slack head tubes. These things make sense to me on my 150mm travel dual suspension bike, but on a 120-130mm travel hardtail I feel they miss the plot. I reach for my hardtail for typically two reasons, one it's the most fun on the tight techy singletrack (which we have a lot of around here) or two because I've got some pedaling to do and I want to do it fast and efficiently. Whether it's a big climb, riding to the trails, a local race, or simply a lot of ground to cover that day.
Here then is what I want from my hardtail: I want it to feel fast as soon as I lay into the pedals, to be able to turn on a dime and be super flickable. And I want it to be fun and encourage me to hit all the little jumps and side hits that come my way. A mid-travel hardtail needs to be lively and handle correctly in all riding situations, not just when pointed downhill.
The Dark Star has a 66.5 headtube angle which I feel strikes the perfect balance between descending confidence and slow speed maneuverability. It also has a tall-ish bottom bracket for tight techy rock sections and ease of bunny hopping. It's adjustable dropouts allow the rider to change the chainstay length from 425 - 440mm so it can be fine tuned to your terrain and riding style
To me a short travel hardtail is all about immediate gratification, immediate fun from your house or the parking lot and all-terrain utility. It's sharp handling, but not too twitchy. You could race it if you wanted to, but you could also have a heck of a time blasting jumps or even do some bike packing.
- Jeff
The Darkstar is made by the fine folks at ORA in Taiwan.
Why we recommend also purchasing a Future Proof rigid fork:
If we had our way, every single person who buys the Dark Star frame (or any hardtail) would also buy a rigid fork to go with it. We hate the notion that MTB standards change so quickly that in five years your new MTB may be “obsolete.” This problem is easily solved though.
Paired with a rigid fork, your MTB will forever be a useful tool as a transportation or bikepacking bike. Just look at all the 30 year old 26” wheeled hardtails that have been resurrected for daily driving duties the past few years. The Dark Star with the rigid fork is like that, but way more fun and playful as modern MTB geo and technology is a real marvel.
Features
- BOSS Premium Steel Super Tubes
- Sliding Dropouts for adjusting wheelbase or single speed operation
- UDH Compatible
- 29x2.6” tire clearance
- Bottle Mounts: two in main triangle on Large and X-Large, one on Small and Medium
- Three Pack Mounts: Under downtube - all sizes
- Top Tube Feed Bag Mount
- Stealth Dropper Routing
GEOMETRY
Fast, aggressive, and playful trail geometry. Our ideal blend of fun to pedal and easy to rip.
