# OptOut Hooky



## pcjones14 (Jun 29, 2021)

I love my Nimble 9 (Gen V), but something about the fit just wasn't working for me. I felt way confident on rowdy descents, but the mellower stuff was uncomfortable. I'm not certain, but I think the steep seat tube angle put too much weight on my hands, and I couldn't find a position that felt good on my knees. I just didn't feel good after longer rides.

I wanted to move all the parts from the Nimble 9 to another frame to see if a more relaxed geometry might help. I found the Hooky, a 120mm hardtail frame from OptOut Cycles. It looked like it checked all the right boxes for me: slacker seat tube angle (from 77° on the N9 to 73° on the Hooky), sliding dropouts for single speed-ability, fits 29x2.4" or 27.5x3.0" wheels, not a crazy amount of BB drop for 29" wheels (51mm), pretty affordable for an experiment ($400 shipped for frame only).

I emailed Steve from OptOut with some questions about frame details, and he was extremely quick and helpful with his responses. I decided to pull the trigger, and the frame was here in a few short days. I picked up a new headset and fork, but everything else came over from the N9.










Surly Krampus fork
Canfield Special Blend 29" rims (30mm internal) on Spank Hex hubs, Dissector EXO 2.6" front, High Roller DD 2.5" rear
Code RSC brakes, 180mm f/r rotors
Eagle GX crankset, 170mm, 30t. 20t cog for single speed or Microshift Advent groupset
BikeYoke Divine dropper, 185mm, 30.9mm diameter with shim to fit 31.6mm
Spank Spoon 318 33mm stem, SQLab 30X handlebars, 16° sweep, cut to 740mm
The frame does not come with a rear thru axle. For the 12x148mm Boost dropouts, I got the 1.0x173mm Wolf Tooth axle. It also comes with a seatpost collar and stem top cap. The rear brake mount is a 160mm post mount.

The dropouts seem to be a bit misaligned on mine; it takes a bit of muscle and messing around to get the thru axle to align with the threads, at least compared to the N9. Whether it's in the frame or the sliders, I couldn't say. It doesn't seem to introduce any binding once everything's tightened down. One of the water bottle cage threads was painted over or something and took a solid 30 minutes to get it the bolt to thread, but it eventually worked and it seemed to tap itself.

Another thread mentioned limited clearance along the bottom of the chainstay when running single speed with a 30t chainring, and I can confirm there is very little. Chain slap was noticeable, even with a very tight chain. Kind of a bummer, as a quiet drivetrain is one of my favorite things about single speed.










The black paint is very matte, and I quite like the color with the red highlights.

Brakes are routed externally, while shifter and dropper post are routed internally. I haven't quite figured out the external routing. There's a little threaded hole near the head tube that fits a clip for retaining the brake cable, but I'm not sure where it goes after that. The only other braze-ons are on the chain stay, and I'm not super fond of that routing. I've got the brake cable zip tied for now. I guess you could route the brake through the internal hole for the dropper, but I'm too lazy to bleed the brakes just for that.

This is my first time on a proper rigid fork. It's... an experience. My first ride was at night on one of the chunkiest trails around here (St. George, Paradise Rim). I had it set up as single speed. It was both terrifying and exhilarating. The bike climbed like nothing I've ever experienced. Between the rigid fork and lighter frame, the Hooky dropped about 4 lbs compared to the N9. I'm sure that made a difference, but I think that effect was negligible to climbing with no suspension. When I put power down, power was _there_! It didn't feel like the bike helped me magically climb faster. In fact, the opposite was probably true—it took much more effort to stay on line and absorb any trail chatter with my body. Rather, because there was zero suspension to absorb my effort, I could power up climbs I never would have been able to make when standing and mashing. It was one of the coolest feelings.










Descending with the rigid fork is going to take some getting used to. You definitely need to be much more aware of your body position when landing and keep the hands and feet as neutral and balanced as possible, otherwise you're in for a rough surprise. My wrists and ankles are very sore, to say the least. Surprisingly, it felt just as capable on the slow, technical descents. The Hooky head angle is 2° steeper than the N9 (and it's probably even steeper because the Krampus fork is a bit short on the axle to crown measurement), but that didn't hold it back. Steep rollers and drops were no problem at all, and I was able to do everything I could do on the N9 without hesitation. The only places I felt held back were on fast, chunky descents and airtime with questionable transitions. I definitely had to slow down, and still felt like I took a beating. On a smoother trail (Bearclaw Poppy), I had the most fun I've had in years on that trail. I could pump every roll and get so much speed, it felt like a giant BMX bike—I was grinning ear to ear!

I wanted to get the Tandell carbon rigid fork as it would drop another pound, but I have a front mounted kids seat (Thule Yepp Nexxt Mini) that mounts with all the weight on the steerer tube, and I thought that wouldn't be the best idea with a carbon steerer. My son and I did a 20 mile ride on a paved path in town, and there was no wrist or knee pain at the end. It was a wonderful experience, and that confirmed this frame was the right choice. I'm hoping to get into longer endurance rides and maybe even some bikepacking, so sustained comfort is a big priority.

Overall, I'm very happy so far with the frame. $400 shipped is a steal for a decent alloy frame with sliding dropouts, and the geometry is exactly what I was looking for. The folks at OptOut were very helpful, and I'm glad to be supporting them. I'm having tons of fun with the rigid fork, though I will probably pick up some front squish when I sell the fork I had on the N9.


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## Fleas (Jan 19, 2006)

As a rigid N9 rider, what length fork was on your N9? I was riding a 500mm VooDoo Zombie on my N9, and I would not have gone shorter. I even made sure to use an external lower HS cup for an extra ~8mm.

Glad you got it sorted out! 

-F


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## DeoreDX (Jul 28, 2007)

Thanks for the review. I looked at the Opt Out hard before just building my own geometry with a Marino. The Steel v. Aluminum was the real decider for me. For my single speed I never liked the steep seat tube angle so I went with 74 on my build with a 65.5hta. For my when I'm sitting on the single speed it's on smoother easier terrain and the steep seat tube doesn't make sense for me there.


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## 834905 (Mar 8, 2018)

This frame is tempting... been looking for something with old 135 dropouts to build another fixed gear out of. I just don't know about that aluminum...


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## pcjones14 (Jun 29, 2021)

Fleas said:


> As a rigid N9 rider, what length fork was on your N9? I was riding a 500mm VooDoo Zombie on my N9, and I would not have gone shorter. I even made sure to use an external lower HS cup for an extra ~8mm.


I had the DT Swiss F 535 One fork on it, 150mm. ATC is 561mm. I should mention the N9 was the latest model, Gen 5. I wanted to try rigid, but there aren't many production rigid forks that long. The RSD aluminum fork comes close at 510mm (vs 516mm on the DT Swiss at 30% sag), but it's out of stock for a while. And I imagined a shorter fork would exaggerate the issues I was having.



DeoreDX said:


> Thanks for the review. I looked at the Opt Out hard before just building my own geometry with a Marino. The Steel v. Aluminum was the real decider for me. For my single speed I never liked the steep seat tube angle so I went with 74 on my build with a 65.5hta. For my when I'm sitting on the single speed it's on smoother easier terrain and the steep seat tube doesn't make sense for me there.


I definitely considered a Marino build after seeing yours. That silver hammered paint job with the purple accents looks amazing. I just wasn't patient enough to wait, haha.



SingleSpeedSteven said:


> This frame is tempting... been looking for something with old 135 dropouts to build another fixed gear out of. I just don't know about that aluminum...


I'm a sucker for the sleek look of skinny steel tubing. I do miss it, but as far as aluminum frames go, I think the Hooky is quite nice. I really like how the top tube tapers as it reaches the head tube. Talking about ride quality, I'm not sure I could say I noticed a difference that would be attributable to the frame material. Between the geo and fork changes, I think there are too many variables to directly compare. I might say the N9 felt more "muted" (whatever that means), but that could totally be placebo.


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## Fleas (Jan 19, 2006)

pcjones14 said:


> I had the DT Swiss F 535 One fork on it, 150mm. ATC is 561mm. I should mention the N9 was the latest model, Gen 5. I wanted to try rigid, but there aren't many production rigid forks that long. The RSD aluminum fork comes close at 510mm (vs 516mm on the DT Swiss at 30% sag), but it's out of stock for a while. And I imagined *a shorter fork would exaggerate the issues I was having*.
> ...


Yeah, mine is 1 iteration older, so it worked at 500 ATC. It would not work on the current model.

-F


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## BadgerOne (Jul 17, 2015)

Aluminum rigid forks are forged in the crucible of hell. Not something I would do, but if you're a glutton for punishment and like RSIs in your hands and wrists, I suppose it is an option. 

Glad to hear the Hooky is working out for you. I'm still contemplating the fate of my own Gen V N9. It's putting a hurting on my wrists too. There's a point where taking things too extreme just makes things start to go sideways. Or, at least trying to apply full squish trends to hard tails. What works great in one place doesn't always translate to another and at this point there is almost a trend of riders discarding the steep STA on hard tails that work so well for squishies, or at least doing unusual things trying to work around them.

Oh, and since you got a little beat up on your first ride out, @Stewiewin should be along shortly to tell you that you don't know how to ride.


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## Stewiewin (Dec 17, 2020)

BadgerOne said:


> Aluminum rigid forks are forged in the crucible of hell. Not something I would do, but if you're a glutton for punishment and like RSIs in your hands and wrists, I suppose it is an option.
> 
> Glad to hear the Hooky is working out for you. I'm still contemplating the fate of my own Gen V N9. It's putting a hurting on my wrists too. There's a point where taking things too extreme just makes things start to go sideways. Or, at least trying to apply full squish trends to hard tails. What works great in one place doesn't always translate to another and at this point there is almost a trend of riders discarding the steep STA on hard tails that work so well for squishies, or at least doing unusual things trying to work around them.
> 
> Oh, and since you got a little beat up on your first ride out, @Stewiewin should be along shortly to tell you that you don't know how to ride.


rofl  thats rich!!


BadgerOne said:


> Aluminum rigid forks are forged in the crucible of hell. Not something I would do, but if you're a glutton for punishment and like RSIs in your hands and wrists, I suppose it is an option.
> 
> Glad to hear the Hooky is working out for you. I'm still contemplating the fate of my own Gen V N9. It's putting a hurting on my wrists too. There's a point where taking things too extreme just makes things start to go sideways. Or, at least trying to apply full squish trends to hard tails. What works great in one place doesn't always translate to another and at this point there is almost a trend of riders discarding the steep STA on hard tails that work so well for squishies, or at least doing unusual things trying to work around them.
> 
> Oh, and since you got a little beat up on your first ride out, @Stewiewin should be along shortly to tell you that you don't know how to ride.





BadgerOne said:


> Aluminum rigid forks are forged in the crucible of hell. Not something I would do, but if you're a glutton for punishment and like RSIs in your hands and wrists, I suppose it is an option.
> 
> Glad to hear the Hooky is working out for you. I'm still contemplating the fate of my own Gen V N9. It's putting a hurting on my wrists too. There's a point where taking things too extreme just makes things start to go sideways. Or, at least trying to apply full squish trends to hard tails. What works great in one place doesn't always translate to another and at this point there is almost a trend of riders discarding the steep STA on hard tails that work so well for squishies, or at least doing unusual things trying to work around them.
> 
> Oh, and since you got a little beat up on your first ride out, @Stewiewin should be along shortly to tell you that you don't know how to ride.


lol he should listen to u and blow his life saving on a bike thinking that its going io make him a better rider.


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## Stewiewin (Dec 17, 2020)

lol badgerone reminds of trolls on wow who just sit on trade chat.


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