Gaspar Guendulain Focus Frame Bike Check

Gaspar Guendulain's signature BSD Focus Frame just dropped so we caught up with him to get his take on what makes for the ideal street frame geometry and how he likes run his setup. Gaspar left no stone unturned in fine tuning every part of the Focus Frame to be the perfect ride, read on for Gaspar's setup words of wisdom...

Gaspar's Focus Frame Setup:

THE FOCUS FRAME IN GASPAR'S OWN WORDS:

"I decided to go a little bit out of the ordinary, designing a frame that suits my personal tastes since I never felt comfortable on short low frames. BSD respected my crazy decision for a frame that people might call 'stable', but I am going to call a frame with 'space'.

The 13.5″–14″ rear end provides more stability but is still perfect to be able to turn without problems, the stability that it provides in the manual is just right and necessary so that you can position yourself where you want. Plus if you are running pegs, they don’t touch the heel of your foot, so you are totally free from that.

The 10" standover height looks better when you run a higher seat with it and the 72° seattube angle is a little further forward so you can grab it better with your knees for barspins. Also, the seat at that height allows my knees to be at 90° when I'm sitting, which helps if you slip a pedal when things go wrong. The standover and seattube angle just gives the feeling that the bike is bigger but the post still looks the way I like it when the seat is high.

I run the 21.5" topttube size since I'm 1.80m tall. I've used short frames before and I haven't had good experiences. On this frame I have total freedom with my knees for nose manuals and since I generally use the technique of bringing my pelvis and knees closer to the stem this toptube length allows total freedom. Its a frame setup with space. The longer frame also means there is more chance of the rear end dropping than going over the bars in nose manuals, it probably requires more strength to lift the rear wheel, but I think it gives you perfect balance and better control.

With the Focus frame I feel like I have a bike in proportion with my height and that suits my style of riding".

Focus frame

in 'Wine Red'

Levelled OS Stem

A FEW WORDS FROM GASPAR ABOUT HIS BSD SETUP:

"The 9.75" ALVX bars keep it high up front in combination with the Dropped stem. I use the Jonesin' Fork, Sam Jones is the king of the front wheel and the short offset dropout works for those nose manuals.

The rear hub Revolution Hub is incredible, I put a lot of trust in this mechanism and it works excellently. I'm testing out Carbon XLT rims, something that's decreased the weight of my bike considerably and it's incredible how much abuse they have taken and stayed true and centred. It's a privilege to be able to run the carbon rims, the most dialled wheel set I've ever ran.

I'm running 170mm Substance XL V2 cranks and my ankles are so grateful! Haha. They come without that characteristic edge that surrounds the crank bolt which makes them ideal for kicking tailwhips without your socks ending up covered in blood at the end of the day!

And to complete my setup, I run the Donnastreet Tires, the best tires in my opinion, just the right grip and perfect design.

thanks!, Gaspsar".

ALVX bars in chrome

I put a lot of trust in the Revolution hub mechanism and it works excellently...

28t Superlite Sprocket

Jonesin' Fork

Blitzed Post

Integrated seat clamp

Prototype Carbon XLT rims

I decided to go a little bit out of the ordinary, designing a frame that suits my personal tastes...