By Kurt Gensheimer

Uppers:

Descends faster than the balance of your 401K
Magnesium frame = light, durable and shock absorbent
Handmade in Boulder, Colorado
Custom built down to the last chainring bolt
Gates belt drive is dead silent and bulletproof

Downers:

Low hanging bottom bracket = rock magnet
Hard to maneuver in tight, technical singletrack
Even though it's light, still feels sluggish on climbs
Spendy
What, no seat tube water bottle mount?



Ruling: Regardless of the terrain you ride, Paketa offers fully custom, USA-made magnesium bikes with more build configurations than the dollars in our national debt.

There's this dog in my neighborhood; a golden retriever. He's psychotic. Every time I roll up the street on my way home from a ride, he hears me coming, leaps from his porch stoop, and sprints towards the fence. He either hears my fat knobby tires humming down the road, or more likely hears my under-lubricated chain and friction-ridded singlespeed chain tensioner.

At first he's quiet, the only audible evidence of his presence is the jingle jangle of his collar, as he follows me along the fence line hidden by a thicket of oleanders. Then, just as the oleanders give way to exposed fence, he's in full visible sight, and unleashes his ferocious barker. It's not so much a bark as it is a frantic, high-pitched yelping which grates on your nerves so much that you want to reach through the fence and strangle him.

If the psychotic barking isn't bad enough by itself, his snarling sonata grabs the attention of every other fenced-in dog in the neighborhood, setting off a cascade of angry barking which escorts me all the way home.

What does any of this have to do with a bicycle review? Well, the day I rode Paketa's new belt-driven singlespeed magnesium 29er called the Wac Corporal, for the first time ever, my psychotic canine adversary never came to the fence; he didn't hear me. Thanks to the Gates belt drive system, I had a quiet, peaceful ride up my street.

The Merits of Magnesium

You're probably wondering who is Paketa, but more importantly, you're probably wondering what exactly is a Paketa. Is it like a cheetah or a leopard or something? Or perhaps it means something in Pakistani? Or maybe it's just someone's last name? Don't ask me, I have no idea. Whatever the meaning, Paketa is a custom bike builder located in Boulder, Colorado, and they specialize in only one kind of material - magnesium. Now for those chemistry buffs or air-cooled VW gearheads, we all know that magnesium makes one magnificent light show when ignited. But magnesium's attributes go far beyond a juvenile junkyard twilight pyromania session.

It turns out that magnesium also makes a damn fine material to build bicycle frames with. According to Paketa's website, magnesium is currently the lightest structural material in the world; 34 percent lighter than aluminum and 50 percent lighter than titanium. The test bike weighed in at a svelte 24 lbs. In addition, it has the highest known damping capacity of any structural metal, as much as 10 times greater than steel, titanium or aluminum. In other words, it won't rattle your brain stem loose.

The next natural question would be 'well if magnesium is so great, why isn't everyone building with it?' Well for starters, magnesium isn't cheap. Then you factor in the difficulty of extruding perfect tubes and welding them in a way which doesn't compromise strength, it makes for what you would call a niche frame builder market. And Paketa is exactly that, considering you can count on one hand the number of reputable frame builders in the U.S. currently using magnesium.



Handling Characteristics

Of course, to a real mountain biker, all this marketing mumbo-jumbo equates to squat. How does it ride? Well, I don't know if it's the magic of a 29er, but I will say that the Paketa was exceptionally smooth on even the rockiest downhills I encountered during a weeklong road trip across Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. The difference between the Paketa and my Santa Cruz Chameleon was remarkable. Although at first these two bikes don't seem similar, when you look at all the gussets, arches and other reinforcements used on the Paketa, it strikes a close resemblance to the Santa Cruz.

As a test of handling, I took both bikes on my local rocky and rutted technical playground; Bernardo Mountain in Escondido. Riding the Chameleon was like getting repeatedly pounded over the head by a drunken Whack-a-Mole ringer with a ball-peen hammer, whereas the Paketa was like getting lightly tapped on the shoulder by a 3-year old girl with a rubber mallet. It was smoother, faster and more stable than the Santa Cruz by a considerable amount, and the Fox Fit RLC fork was an added plush bonus.

Although the Paketa really opened my eyes to the downhill merits of 29ers, the way up was a bit of a different story. The first time on Bernardo, the Paketa felt like a lot of bike to hump uphill, especially in singlespeed guise. Although I eventually got used to the climbing dynamics of the Paketa, once I got back on the Chameleon, I instantly realized how much easier a 26er was to climb with. And for anyone considering a singlespeed 29er, make sure you get a fork with lockout. Although I've never had much trouble donkey punching a climb on a 26er singlespeed with no front lockout, having the lockout off with the Paketa made the difficulty of climbing even more pronounced.

Once the trail turned downhill, the Paketa descended light years faster with a gripload more control than the Santa Cruz. I was descending at or above the speed I would have on my 26er full-suspension Specialized. Just as I was reaching terminal velocity, a rapidly deflating rear tire brought me back to reality, proving that 29ers are no more resistant to pinch flats than 26ers.

An additional revelation to the vulnerability of 29er wheels came to me in Santa Fe, New Mexico, as I was riding the Dale Ball trail network. I came to a very tight, steep downhill switchback, which I probably would have made on a 26er, but the big wheels of the Paketa just couldn't seem to make it around, and I flopped over at a near standstill. With nothing more than a bruised ego, I remounted to continue, but was flabbergasted to see the front WTB LaserDisc wheel completely bent.

After David Bell at Mellow Velo tried in vain to get the wheel straight again, I realized yet another weakness of big wheels - under-tensioned 29er wheels can fold like origami in the right conditions.

In the tight, technical singletrack of Utah's Wasatch range, the Paketa was hard to handle. Quick accelerations to get up rock ledges were not happening, and the crank arms repeatedly clipped rocks due to the low bottom bracket design.

But once into some of the fun, fast, flowing singletracks around Durango, the Paketa was a pleasure. Drop-ins and G-outs enabled the Paketa's big wheels to carry serious momentum into the uphills, and the exceptional damping characteristics of the magnesium frame made for hours of fatigue-free riding.

Gates Belt Drive System

Probably the most eye-catching element of the Paketa was its Gates belt drive system. Ten pedal strokes into my first ride, I knew the Gates system was legit as a singlespeed drivetrain. The utter silence and 100 percent maintenance free attributes already made the Gates system a winner. And although the same belt technology is used on 150 horsepower motorcycles, could it stand up to the much more ferocious, torque-nasty donkey punch climbing power of a mountain biker?

To find out, I took the Paketa to perhaps the most brutal place you can take a singlespeed - Slickrock Trail in Moab. The uphills are literally walls, where if you run out of gear or your strength succumbs to the pull of gravity, you're rolling backwards down a 30-foot high rock face. Thankfully, Slickrock has more grip than Sylvester Stallone in Over the Top, so it makes the task a little easier, but not by much.

I tried everything in my power to make the Gates system skip and slip, but to no avail. The gear setup was the smallest gear inch ratio available from Gates, a 46:32 combo which equated to about 40 gear inches. I climbed all but 3 sections of the entire Slickrock loop, and the Gates system performed flawlessly.

As I rolled down the pavement back into town, crazy gearhead visions of retrofitting Gates belt drive systems on all my bikes started coming to me. The maintenance-free joy, twice the service life of a chain, over a half-pound lighter than chain driven systems; even the gears turning in my head were considering a switch over to belt drive. But there's only one problem - in order to make the Gates system work, you either have to have a specially slotted frame or elevated chainstays.

The one area where we didn't get to test the Paketa was in thick, nasty funkdafied mud. We wanted to see how the Gates belt drive system would handle such conditions, but were unable to find enough goop to give it a valid test. But by just looking at the design of the cogs and chainrings, which feature an open design which would appear to shed mud quite easily, our bet would be that the Gates system excels in muddy conditions. If any of you out there have firsthand experience with the Gates system in mud, please impart your wisdom.




Redefining the words "Custom Built"

So now you're thinking that magnesium sound interesting, but the 29er isn't ideal because you live in a world of tight, technical singletrack requiring a 26er with a higher bottom bracket. Fear not my fellow fahrrad fanatic, because Paketa gives you more build options than the buffet line at Sizzler, and you can do it all from the comfort of your own threadbare couch.

Paketa's website helps you build a completely 100 percent custom bike in four steps: geometry, wheel size, drivetrain and aesthetics AKA paint and graphics. Every bike is built by hand in Boulder, Colorado, so if you buy a Paketa, pat yourself on the back for supporting American manufacturing. For geometry, simply submit your desired tube lengths and angles or just send your body measurements and they can do the rest. In addition, if you weigh a buck-forty or are pushing over two bills, Paketa can either lighten or beef up frames by using thinner, round tubes, thicker ovalized tubes or extra gussets.

For wheel size, you can choose from 26er, 650b or 29er, so no matter what the terrain you ride, there's a Paketa which can fit your conditions. If you live in terrain with tight, technical singletrack where quick acceleration and nimble handling are a must, go with a 26er. If you live in terrain that's mostly flat, has long, flowing trails or bombing high speed downhills where stable tracking and cornering in loose conditions are a must, get a 29er. If you just like making life difficult for yourself and your wallet, get a 650b.

Now its time to choose how all that raging muscular leg power gets transferred to the pavement. You can select a traditionally geared 3x9 setup, a Rolhoff internal hub either chain or belt driven, or a traditional singlespeed hub either chain or belt driven. Paketa exclusively uses Gates for their belt drive systems, and can cost up to $300 extra for a belt drive setup. Is belt drive worth it? Worth every last penny.

Aesthetically, we wouldn't necessarily choose our test bike paint and decal scheme, but Paketa offers a variety of color and decal choices so your bike is truly one of a kind. We just hope that along with all these custom options there's a checkbox for "seat tube water bottle mount", as our test bike wasn't equipped with one, forcing us to carry a second bottle in our jersey pocket.

Price

So now for the business end of this relationship. When I first went to the Paketa Custom Magnesium Bicycles website to check out pricing, I have to be honest, I got a serious case of sticker shock. Just the frame and headset alone come in at $2650 - and that's for the 26er. Expect to pay even more for the fad of owning a 29er. Fully built with their high end singlespeed component package including the Fox fork, Gates belt drive, WTB wheels and Magura Marta SL brakes, you're gonna be signing away over $5000. That's for one gear. Uno. And no rear suspension.

Although the Paketa is spendy, keep in mind that for this price you're getting one of the most custom-built, handmade in the USA mountain bikes that money can buy. Every single element of the bike build is up to you. Additionally, you're getting a frame that is lighter than aluminum and titanium, with 10 times the amount of damping capacity. And of course, you're getting the exclusivity of owning a magnesium mountain bike. Just make sure that your bike isn't the one which gets "accidentally" tossed in the campfire by your drunken cronies.

In Closing

Paketa has a terrific mountain bike in the Wac Corporal. It's light, fast, responsive, doesn't hammer you to death like aluminum does and of course, is a bike you can truly make one-of-a-kind to fit any kind of riding conditions. Paired with the belt drive system, we were remiss to pack it up and send back. It was a fun bike, especially on those long, bomber downhills.

Although we came away really impressed with how magnesium performs, the jury is still out on durability, as magnesium is still a relatively unproven material in the cycling world. But if you're in the market for a fully-custom hardtail, and you're looking at the equally spendy titanium and carbon, you owe it to yourself to also check out a Paketa Wac Corporal. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get out on my bike and listen to the snarling serenade of angry mutts.