Fearless Select Double Butted Chromoly Steel Tubing 

Tapered Carbon Fork Ready geometry 

Bike packing & touring ready chromoly steel fork.

Run 700 x 47c / 650b x 58c (2.25″) tyres

Continuous cable routing

corrosion resistant ED coated frame & fork

Replaceable derailleur hanger

Mounts for carriers & mudguards, 3x sets of cargo mounts

grime proof forward facing seat collar

This is the Warlock, Fearless’ new gravel & adventure/light touring rig. Big tyres and progressive geo means it’s built for tackling technical sections and rough terrain over longer distances in comfort, covering ground that might be out of bounds for conventional gravel bikes. It accepts tyres up to 58mm in 650b (around 2.25”) and up to 700x47c. There’s continuous cable routing throughout and flat mounts make it compatible with the latest hydraulic drop bar braking systems and all the eyelets for racks and cargo cages you’ll need for longer adventures. There’s also dropper post routing if you need it- super useful for those steeper descents. Stick on a pair of wide & flared drop bars plus some fat & fast rolling tyres and rack up those off-road miles. The Warlock is a mystical brew of all the things we love about riding drop bar bikes cross country.

Reviews

The Warlock received a lot of praise from off.road.cc’s Jim Clarkson who built himself an XC orientated, big tyre Warlock using mostly MTB components. Read his take here:-

Gary Walls from UK Gravel Co. spent some time on a gravel spec. Warlock and came away impressed. Over the test period he tried numerous wheel & tyre configurations:-

frameset specification

Tubing Fearless Select Double Butted Chromoly Steel. Internal E.D coating and powder coat paint
Dropouts Rear: 142 x 12mm thru axle. Front: 100 x 12mm thru axle
Tyres 700 x 47c, 650b x 58c (27.5 x 2.25″)
Brakes 160mm front & rear (frame has clearance for a post mount calliper + adaptor up to 160mm).
Seatpost 30.9mm. Dropper post routing
Headtube 44mm- tapered carbon fork compatible
Headset Supplied 404 Type 2 Fork: Top cup- ZS44/28.6, Lower Cup- ZS44/30.  Tapered fork: ZS44/28.6 top cup, EC44/40 lower cup
Front mech 1x dedicated
BB Shell 68mm width. BSA/English thread
Chainring Sram Road 1x – 40T, Shimano GRX – 44T
Fork Straight blade 4130 Chromoly Steel. 404mm A/C.  S & M size frames- 52mm offset,  L & XL- 48mm.  Mid-blade rack mounts, eyelets for mudguards and carriers, 2x sets of cargo cage mounts
Colours Cool Grey, Faded Olive

Big Tyres

Wide as you can get with short gravel bike chainstays that clear 1x road chainlines without resorting to a yoke or plate at the BB junction. Max recommended tyres give 4-5mm clearance at the tight clearance areas- the chainstay dimples and fork crown.

Maximum recommended tyres are 700 x 47c or 650b x 58c.  Front tyres are restricted by height giving safe clearance for a 47mm tall tyre. Slightly larger 700c gravel tyres may be possible if you use a rim with a wider than 20mm internal diameter rim which may reduce the tyre height a little. Fork crown clearance is the max you can get with a lighter weight unicrown design whilst keeping the geo compatible with ≈395mm A/C carbon forks.

650b/27.5” tyres are restricted by width. Max safe width is 58mm giving 4mm clearance. Measurements were made using a 650b rim with an internal diameter of 25mm.

1x dedicated

Big tyres, nice geo and front derailleurs don’t mix. Opting for 1x specific freed the Warlock up for some progressive design choices; short chainstays, inline seatpost geo, neater cable routing without empty cable bosses nor excess drillings and braze-ons on the downtube.  As of 2020 all three major component manufacturers now offer comprehensive 1x drive chain solutions plus there’s a wealth of aftermarket Narrow Wide chainrings & cassettes meaning pretty much every possible gear combination is covered, every piece of old 2x kit can be repurposed.

Interestingly a few months into the run of Vulture framesets it became clear that very few owners who took their bikes off-road regularly were running 2x and those that did initially were pretty swift to make the change to 1x. There’s the reduced maintenance, increased reliability, increased tyre clearance and better performance on the kind of terrain the Warlock is designed for.

 

404 Type 2 fork

The Warlock comes supplied with an updated 12mm thru axle version of the 404 Fork, the 404 Type 2. It shares the same 404mm axle to crown measurement meaning the Warlock is geometry corrected for carbon gravel forks. Size specific offset keeps nice handling across the size range with S & M frames coming supplied with a 52mm offset fork and the L and XL a 48mm to match their respective 71º and 71.5º degree head angles. There’s eyelets and braze-ons for low riders or carriers plus 2x pairs of triple cage mounts so it’s ready for those longer self-supported adventures.

 

details

The Warlock frameset comes supplied with a set of high quality machined and black anodised aluminium 12mm thru-axles and a seat clamp (please note the Hope headset, spacers and Thomson stem in some of the photos are not included).

The Warlock’s flat mount bosses are masked before painting to prevent paint build up effecting the alignment of the brake calliper so should not require facing. There’s enough clearance at the seat stays to fit post mount brakes via a post to flat mount adaptor so you can continue to use your legacy brakes or run MTB brakes & levers on flat or riser bars. The 404 fork’s hose guide is forward facing for short and direct hose/cable runs.

The 404 fork can be fitted with racks and carriers in two configurations: A bike packing setup that uses an above the wheel carrier that mounts either via mid-blade eyelet or at the dropout along with 2x cargo cages mounted on the fork blades or, a traditional touring setup using low riders. To assist in the selection of a suitable frame bag, the Warlock’s front triangle internal measurements are on the tech page.

If you’re using a rear carrier without mudguard mounts there’s an extra set of eyelets inboard of the seat stays for attaching mudguards independently. Please note you may need new rear mudguard stays if you’ve already cut them to fit another bike.

In terms of weather proofing the Warlock’s seatpost slot is forward facing to prevent grime thrown up from the rear tyre entering the seat tube and the bottom bracket shell is drilled with a 4.2mm outlet on the underside to allow any moisture inside the BB to escape. These features along with the internal E.D coating should make the Warlock a long lasting investment.

 

 

 

Fearless Select Chromoly Steel tubing

A bespoke mix of seamless double butted chromoly road and MTB tubing.  We used a beefier MTB seat tube to withstand the rigours of dropper posts and mixed it up with road tubes to save weight. The whole package is put together with the same exceptional build quality and super neat TIG welding as the Vulture. 

Inline & Small Setback Seatpost Optimised

Ideal for droppers, the Warlock’s geo is tailored for zero and small setback seatposts. The slacker seat angle gives 10mm saddle to handlebar distance whilst adding bigger tyre clearance at the seat tube and allowing for short chainstays. Most of the extra space created for optimising saddle to bar distance is done above the effective top tube line so there’s no overall increase in effective TT length per given frame size with only a factional reduction in reach. It’s a nice balance for long torso riders that need the extra space or those that prefer a riding position further forward over the pedals.

Custom hardware

The tight space between the axle and the flat mount brake bosses required a custom dropout design. We kept the ever popular ‘Breezer’ or Wright style design from the Vulture and made a 12mm thru axle version. It ended up being a very compact and lightweight design utilising a durable rearward facing countersunk M5 bolt to attach the replaceable combined mech hanger and axle thread.

geometry

S M L XL
1. Effective Top Tube 542 555 577 590
2. Seat Tube 480 520 550 580
3. Head Angle 71° 71° 71.5° 71.5°
4. Seat Angle 74° 73.5° 73° 72.5°
5. Stack 556 569 601 629
6. Reach 376 379 385 389
7. Head Tube 125 140 170 200
8. Chainstay Length 425 425 425 425
9. Standover 700x45c 776 801 831 859
Standover 650Bx2.2″ 768 793 823 851
10. Wheelbase 1018 1025 1036 1041
11. Bottom Bracket Drop 70 70 70 70
12. Top Tube Angle 13° 10° 10° 10°
13. Fork Offset 52 52 48 48