Binary Maniak - First Ride On my Dream Hardtail That I Designed 

A few things. 1. I'm way too personally involved in this project to be 100% objective, but I'll try my best. I've put hundreds of hours into this bike (and so has Binary). It's been a dream come true to see it come to fruition. In full disclosure, when someone buys one of these bikes, i make a small amount of money as the designer. A sale of one of these bikes directly supports Hardtail Party and helps me make more of these videos and put food on the table for my family. This channel and my Patreon bike consultation service are my full time job and my only source of income. As much as I'd love to see this model take off and sell well, my main goal is have integrity in all that I do. I'm more interested in being straightforward and honest than hyping up a bike to sell as many as I can. You can be the judge, but hopefully by now you've been watching long enough to know my character. I would never intentionally lie about a product to sell more; whether i helped design it or not. I recognize that I'm too close to this project to be 100% objective, but I've done my best to explain how it rides. I've ridden a lot of bikes and this one is special. 2. This was filmed 9 months ago. The day after the klunker challenge. I've since put many more miles on it (and shaved the mustache.:) 3. This isn't a review. I'm far too close to the project to give an unbiased review., it's just my first ride impressions on my prototype. It's not perfect, but we got very close to my goals on the first version. There will be some changes made to the production version. 4. The seat angle felt steep because it was. I went back and measured it aftereards and it came out to a 79* esta. That's 2* steeper than what we were aiming for. We'll get that fixed for the production model. 5. This bike is really supple, just as i resigned it. 6. This frame doesn't quite have the tire clearance I want for 29x3.0 slid all the way forward. I hope to fix this for the production model, but that may mean an elevated chainstay on smaller sizes. 7. I designed this bike for me and my riding style and terrain. I realize that it can never be everything to everyone and it wasn't meant to be. I love hearing what people look for in a bike, but this was my chance at designing the bike I want to ride most. If it isn't your cup of tea, no problem, there is a plethora of great hardtails to choose from. 8. If this is your cup of tea, preorders for the first batch are open till Feb 11, 2022.

I remember the 80's and my navy buddies who had mustache's, I couldn't grow one to save my life. Cool bike and cool project. I always learn something watching your videos. You and Jeff Lenosky are my favorite mtb channels.

Finally got to see this bike in person this weekend. One of the single speed racers picked it as his weapon of choice for a 50 mile mtb race that I hosted in Florida. Maniak is an appropriate name for someone who rides 50 miles in 95 degree 90% humidity weather. But back to the bike. After the race I asked the owner if I could take it for a spin. The geometry felt right at home. Felt very similar to my full suspension trail bike. I have a titanium XC hardtail with old school geometry that I only ride on gravel now. But I can see myself getting a hardtail with modern geometry in the near future. Thanks for your channel and all the great info you put out. Hope you are doing well.

Your passion for bikes really shows. Love the videos, Steve!!

Congrats man! Looking forward to seeing the updated production version. Looks like its going to be a sick bike

Hell, yes! Congrats on the 1st ride, that's awesome! Also, I'm now officially jealous of AZ weather.

Having put in a pre-order, I am particularly interested in how this developes... You have me on the edge of my seat, Steve!

It's a maniac! That was really fun trail. It's always the best when we get to work together.

I love climbing technical things as much as the next dyude but it has never even occurred to me to turn around and try riding up Waterfall.

Great job not only for the bike but and about your passion to create something .... Bravo from Greece...

Awesome rig! Look forward to seeing the final production version!

Congratulations on your first bike design! It looks good and I am sure the final product will be even better. If and when I can afford to build out my dream build, this sounds like a contender for the base to attach my dream parts to.

I’m super excited to follow the development and watch my new hardtail take shape

Truly spectacular! You a building a brand the commands respect and integrity! Thank you for inspiring us!

Weeeee this is exciting watching your journey with this bike. Must be so much fun being able to do this. Pretty impressive that it's only a few tweeks out first build/ prototype. Good luck with getting dialed 🤘

9:01 "This thing is so composed." **immediately goes off drop and has a squirrelly save** Love it! Nice work! Those trails are legit.

Mustache power Steve! 💪🤙 Nice bike! 👌💯

congratz Steve. I can only imagine how you feel riding product of your design, when we feel so proud riding bikes with bits and pieces we added :D good luck with your bike developement and production and keep up with awesome channel.

Have been waiting for this!

This was such a great video. Your bike looks outstanding the way the light reflects off of it 🤩🤩🤩🤩 the Hardtail party logo integrated right in the center 👌🏾 pretty cool and the components you put on it I smiled throughout the whole video couldn’t be happier for you to be finally riding your prototype on the trails. Love the positivity and encouragement great riding everyone 💪🏾 Looking forward to seeing more on the Binary Maniak💯

New bike days should always include new moustache day. Loving it!

Glad you got out on it. Seems like you are pretty close to having it dialed with the first prototype. Hopefully you can slacken the seat angle without making the chainstays longer and still have plenty of room for tire clearance.

Don't know what I'm more excited about. The moustache or the bike 😱🤘🏻

Steve your mustache made you a full second faster. Also the bounce back from the climb was just the sheer power coming through the mustache. With great power comes great responsibility. Enjoy!

Keep the 65 degree head angle around a 120mm fork and the ability to carry a 2nd water bottle on the seat tube! Nice! Congrats on making the dream come true!

Sweet stache! Bike looks good, wheelie was awesome!!

Yes Congrats! Bike has a wicked look to it, hoping to see more after your tweaking. 👍

Super happy for you! What a cool bike! That trail looks pretty fun too. Gotta get up to Sedona soon, not far from Tucson.

Congrats steve!!

Just started the video, frame looks beautiful

This bike looks so sharp man!!!!

I hope it sells well. You deserve it!

I am thrilled for you that although there are some little tweaks to be made, the frame as a whole rides just the way you wanted.

Love the Stache!

nice! can’t wait to see this one.

Man this looks like the perfect bike for me, I've been looking at buying a trail hardtail sometime in 2022. I can't afford to build out the full bike sadly, I could just pre-order the frame and start getting parts every few months.

Can’t wait to get mine in!

Looking good so far!

It's here!

Nicely done coming down The Waterfall. That doesn't look bad on video but in person it is no joke.

We got a "So Good!" which is as genuine as it gets. 😁

Congratulations, bike looks rad and you can slide the seat back vs all the way forward like all the other bikes.

Thats so awesome! Wish I was able to ride HT still would totally consider getting one but bad knees forced me to sell last hardtail 2 years ago. Still love the channel and looking forward to each new vid 😉💪

awesome bike, just so cool to see this all happen!! it would be very cool to see this compared to a paradox, with the same components, as they have pretty similar geo! congrats on being able to do this all, keep it up!!

The mustache fits you surprisingly well.

I really like the 10 minute videos

Cool looking bike, Steve.

Woah - that moustache?!!

Awesome bike! I want one!

Congrats Steve! When you first described this bike Geo I know you like steep STA but I think hardtail’s by nature are better climbing than FS bikes and perhaps a steeper HTA is not needed. Your wife is a great Mtn biker, it’s awesome seeing you both on the video. I’m looking forward to seeing more video reviews on this bike and other hardtail’s , especially steel and Ti frames.

Hardtail 💙

I think there's a typo in the description, 27* effective sta sounds a little slack! Love the look of the Maniak and have been looking forward to the test ride

Dude we got to ride at some point!! I'm building a bike currently maybe some time this summer I'd love to meet you and rip!

Bike looks sweeeet, man!

Love the (lack of) hub sound. Quiet rules.

"let's see if this mustache gives me climbing powers" --- in my experience facial hair goes a long way. Who knows how bad I'd be without it 😉🧙‍♂️

Awesome awesome awesomeness

Superb!

Man, you've been sitting on this one for a while. Be curious to see how it ends up after the design tweaks and iterations. I love a tall stack. Can't bring myself to use less than 30mm rise bars on my FS (trying some PNW bars right now). Just feels better for most things. Did you decide to change the chainstay length by frame size or just try to keep it as short as possible?

I'd love to see you review the sonder signal st and ti. 😘

Everyday fast trail shredder, has my eye for sure! After acting on a Spot Rocker this past summer, thanks to your review, I’m curious what you’d think of running 29x3 out back and 27.5x4 up front with a rigid fork during light Midwest snow seasons? Parting with my Honzo in search of a more versatile HT to split time with the Rocker. Love to jump and ride downhill but also a sucker for climbing - the Maniak seems like the ideal fit!

She's looking goooood! I'd like to hear your opinion between the Maniak, Solstice and the Sour. Great work and congratulations on making this project come true! I hope one day you can ship these to Argentina.

Awesome!

Probably should have put a high pivot idler on there for good measure. All the cool bikes have one.

So the real question is will you sell all your other bikes that do multiple roles since you designed this bike to do all the things you want it to? Looks awesome!

That's a beautiful bike, ya gotta be stocked with that. I'm guess no options for international pre-orders? actually forget it,. I couldn't afford it anyway :( Looks like a cracking fun bike to rip around on. very jealous!

I'm in winter riding mode here in eastern PA, so I'm planning to put more time on my Chameleon 7 AL. So far, I really like it, but I don't have enough time on it to really say what I like or don't like about it. Plus, I'm not sure how much I'd ride on hardtail on really aggressive trails when I have a burly enduro bike, so a bike with a slacker HA than a Chameleon may be lost on me. Still... it'll be fun to watch your frame develop.

Hi Steve Hope your well, I have been riding a maniak for the past 6 months and love it -Great Job! Question, I am currently using a I30 mm wheel with 2.6 tires and want to get a wider set of 3.0 for mud and light snow. Will a i35 rim with a 3.0 clear? I know the tire will bulge a bit or do I need to go to a i40 rim with 3.0 tires to clear? Thx Ed

this sounds great and I love to see your engagement in this project. I'm just wondering how it would behave on different frame sizes for other people's heights and weights. I'd love to have this frame nevertheless ;) Wish you all the best

Looks like you now have a “control bike” the standard to which all other hardtails will be tested agaist

Curious to see you ride that with the enve rigid fork with gears and without (singlespeed).

Me: what's the new bike like ? Hardtail party:. Yes

Looks great Steve! Thanks for sharing. My takeaway from the first 2 videos is that it is a real Swiss army knife in terms of possible wheel configurations, fork travel and usage options. You spoke a little about bar rise and front end height with 130mm/140mm fork options. I was wondering if/how headtube length then becomes a design factor in really dialling it in. Is it better for it to be a little shorter HT for swapping between 120/130/140mm forks with also swapping the bars as well?

I thought they discontinued the Stache? Nice bars, Steve.

On your dream build of your dream bike do you go with ENVE, Berd or 3ZERO MOTO?

Brilliant work. If you change the name to the Binary Steep Steve il 100% buy one.

You're starting to look like Ron Jeremy with that mustache. I think it's cool 😎

My apologies if I missed this. What is the approx largest 29er it will fit? Binary web says 27.5plus and 29plus. Love it if it was capable of 2.8s or bigger. TY

@hardtail party, any plans for the aluminum version in the future?

Great job man! You really deserved the smile under your moustache :{)

Congratulations. Waiting this vidéo

Nice job! Sizing wise is the one your riding more the M or ML size? What do you think made you want higher bars even thou the stack is high on the bike?

Nice bike I would love to have that frame. Im the same size as you But the price got me scared.

Hey Steve! Would you consider reviewing the Litespeed Pinhoti III or one of the Lynskey hard tails? What about the Chumba Sendero?

Beautiful! Work of art from a very talented artist! The swoopy lines look gorgeous! The raw titanium frame is simply drool-worthy! One question: How is the standover, as is, on your prototype? That is, are you able to stand flat-footed over the top tube?

Well done Steve, love the bike👌can I ask why is it do easy to manual? I've got a Stif squatch with aggressive geometry and finding it an handful to manual but is truly awesome in everyway! Keep the excellent content coming dude👌

At least it looks cool😉😎

Are you able to add a udh hanger?

perhaps a 140 fork would make the seat angle feel better

Hi Steve! I am curious what's the biggest drawback of steep seat tube angles? (Other than wheelies haha) Is there a specific reason why bigger manufacturers aren't embracing other than the their designing and manufacturing processes? To be honest I am biased towards steep STAs as my HC HT has a 78 degree STA and even on flat ground I don't feel it too steep. I think it puts me in a much more efficient pedalling position. I wasn't able to find any significant negatives to that aspect of geometry, but I am sure there is one as everything in bike design is a compromise. Overall IMO short steep seat tubes are the way to go in the future on every bike and especially on hardtails. I feel 76,5-78 degrees is the sweet spot.

Hardtail Party, What size frame is your maniac? I’m your exact height and body build. Looking for a trail riding and light bike packing frame to build up.

It looks like a reverse Ibis.

Hey Steve, quick question. I know it’ll be a minute until these are built, but I want to collect a few items way in advance…just in case parts become even more scarce. I know it’s T47 but what’s the BB shell size on the prod version gonna be 73, 83, other…. What’s the max rotor size in the rear and what headset type/size …. Thx in advance. Can’t wait to see all the wheel and fork combinations you play with.

Steve - I’m built similarly to you: 5’6” with 28” inseam and torso of someone 5’10. I find that with such a steep down tube it’s difficult to clear the stand over of most medium hard tails unless they have hydro formed top tubes (bend sweep in the tube - similar to Tess’ bike). Is there no way of introducing a hydro formed top tube OR would this just escalate production cost? I think companies like Reilly Cycle Works are doing Titanium hydroformed tubes so the technology must be there. It would also add an aesthetic element to the frame. Any ideas?

Do you have to reach a minimum # of pre-orders to get her built, or is this a go no matter how many step up to pre-order?

This got me excited.. Does it ship worldwide?

MORE. MORE. MORE

🥳

what brakes are you using?

Did someone say single speed? I’m in 🤙