Wolf Tooth components, a brand known for cassette adaptors, chainrings and chain guides has made the jump into producing bikes under the moniker Otso Cycles.
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At launch, the brand, which gets its name from the bear spirit in Finnish mythology, announced that it is releasing two platforms; the Warakin and the Voytek.
The Warakin is a drop bar bike designed to tackle anything from your local CX race to hours of gravel grinding, and the Voytek is a carbon hardtail built with fat and plus sized tyres in mind.
Based on Wolf Tooth’s knack for clever solutions to ever less standardised bike industry standards, it's not surprising that both the Warakin and Voytek see features that help you to get the most out of the bike.
Both frames hinge around the Otso’s Tuning Chip System, which should allow for creak and slip-free sliding dropouts. The frame’s themselves include a built in sliding dropout and ‘chips’ similar to those seen in some mountain bike rear suspension linkages, which allow for changes in geometry and are used to determine axle position.
Both bikes come with two tuning chips, which allow for three dropout positions — one chip can be flipped to hold the axel in the innermost or outermost position, and there’s a separate chip for the middle position. This means each bike sees up 20mm of dropout movement and the angle of the dropout slot offers plus-or-minus 0.2 degrees of head angle adjustment.
Otso Warakin
The Warakin frame is made from TIG-welded custom butted stainless steel tubing, which Otso says offers, “the supple yet lively ride quality of a chrome-moly frame with the beauty and corrosion resistance of titanium.”
Also featuring the Tuning Chip System, the Warakin’s chainstay length can vary by 20mm, measuring between 420mm and 440mm depending on the orientation of the chip.
Available in six sizes the disc brake equipped adventure bike is available in 105 and Ultegra builds or frameset only options and features full-length external brake and shift housing, three water bottle bosses, rack and fender mounts, a threaded bottom bracket, 142x12 and 100x15mm thru axle dropouts, a carbon fork with a tapered steerer, and a 27.2mm seat post.
Otso also says the Warakin can accommodate up to 50c rubber and weighs in at 22.8lbs/10.3kg in the 105 build or 22.4lbs/10.1kg in the Ultegra build. The Warakin’s spec can be customised and is set to retail for US$1,799 for the frameset, US$3,199 for the 105 spec and US$4,299 for the Ultegra build.
Otso is taking pre-orders now with the first batch of Warakins set to ship in December. UK and AU pricing and availability are yet to be confirmed.
Otso Voytek
The Voytek is designed around Otso’s Plus-Fat concept, meaning the 27.5 or 29 frames can also accommodate up to 26x4.6in tires on 70mm rims. Utilising the tuning chip system and 177x15mm rear hub spacing allows the chainstay length to range from 430mm and 450mm, and Otso says the Voytek's frame will clear 4.0in tires on the 430mm setting and 4.6in tires on the longer two.
If you’ve ever ridden a fat bike and then hopped back on your mountain bike you immediately notice the difference in Q-factor (the distance between the cranks). Built around 4in tires, cranks mounted on a fat bike need to be wide-set so the crank arms and your feet don't hit the frame as you pedal. The Voytek uses an 83mm bottom bracket standard instead of the 100mm standard usually seen on fat bikes, so the cranks on the Voytek are only spaced about 10mm wider than a standard MTB versus the 30-50mm on a fat bike. This should make the Osto frame much more comfortable to pedal than other fat bikes on the market.
Furthering its versatility, the Voytek’s geometry allows for a Otso ridged fork to be built up (which is equivalent to a 100mm travel fork), or up to a fork with 120mm of travel.
The Voytek is set to be available in two colours, four sizes and the ‘Frankset’ (frame + crankset). Prices start at US$2,299 and complete builds US$3,899 (UK and AU pricing and availability are to be confirmed).
Like the Warakin, the Voytek will be fully customised via the Otso website, including the addition of suspensions forks and flashy wheels, and Otso is currently taking pre-orders with bikes expected to ship in October.