Bike Check: Carter Holland's Black Market Roam

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Bike Check: Carter Holland's Black Market Roam
By jpeters
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If you've been watching Vital over the last year, you've surely seen a few versions of the new Black Market Roam. The bike is now in it's final stages and Carter Holland is here with the details.
6.3 inches of bump squashing goodness.
33 pounds with a coil shock and some burly parts. Not too shabby.
Carter prefers the 1x9 setup for its simplicity and reliability. In the wheel department, he's got Tioga Psycho Genius tires mounted to Atomlab Pimplites.
Black Market produces much more than just frames. Their component lineup includes bars, stems, seats, sprockets, pedals, grips, headsets, and seat clamps.
The Adam Hauck inspired Lock-Down Lock On grips are some of the widest grips in the business, allowing more side-to-side room.
Carter explains one of the coolest features of the bike - 26 or 29? It's easy to make the change.
Black Market frame graphics are usually clean, subtle, and influenced by Carter's experience in the military and as a policeman.
The 66 degree head angle is slack enough to let it rip and steep enough to still climb well.
Simply loosen two bolts on each side and use an allen wrench from the rear of the bike to adjust the drops horizontal position. This allows for a wide range of setup options.
Continuing the adjustable theme - the Roam uses pinch bolts up front for a few reasons, including making head angle changes easier.
The frame weighs in at 7 pounds without a shock.
As Carter runs through seat tube specs, note that top tube sizes range from 20.4 to 24.15 inches.
The Roam can switch between 4.3" or 6.3" of travel using the included Shock Shuttle.
Over and out! Watch <a href="http://www.blackmarketbikes.com/" target="_blank"><b><font color="#ffff00">www.blackmarketbikes.com</font></b></a> for more info.
carter-roam
The man behind Black Market Bikes walks you through his brand new trail bike, the Roam. - Photos by Jason Peters
12 comments

View replies to: Bike Check: Carter Holland's Black Market Roam

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Doug_Breslin
12 years ago
13.9 " BB height on a Specialized Enduro.....14.0 " BB height on Black Market Roam.....Hmmmm, let me think.....yeah, I'm a gittin' me a Roam. Yeeeehaa !
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Primoz
13 years ago
Isn't a 14 inch BB height more or less normal for all mountain bikes? Okay, some have a lower BB, but only by a few mm (the BB is a few mm under the wheelbase, axle-to-axle), while some are higher still (Nicolai Helius AM). I figure that the BB is on the axle line here, since the rims have a ~13 inch radius, which gets bumped up by the adition of a tyre.
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jpeters
13 years ago
Please note that there is more that goes into changing this frame into a 29"er and keeping the geo the same then is let on in this article. From how I understand it, the idea of it being a 26" or a 29" bike is still in development. My apologies to everyone.
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Shop Mechanic
13 years ago
I would also like to see a slightly lower bb. Do the 29er dropouts compensate for bb height? Does the bb height go to over 15" when 29" wheels are installed?
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Simon_Adcock
13 years ago
I Wanted a killswitch but this thing looks like a well thought out bike love that headtube emblem with the crossed pistols.
waveblaster
13 years ago
7 lbs for the frame and the air shock is less then a 1/2 pound?, and a coil shock is less then a pound?? where do you get these unbelievably light shocks?
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MW
13 years ago
14"bb and then throw on 29" wheels so 15"+ hummm, no thanks??? Looks good as 26er.