Wilde Dark Star - MTB Hardtail (Frame Only)

*Frame only!

The Dark Star is a premium steel hardtail built with a custom drawn BOSS tubeset and sliding dropouts. The sliding dropouts are useful for single speed adaptability as well as adjusting your wheelbase/rear triangle length for your terrain and riding style.

The geometry is fun, fast, and playful. It is designed to be used with a 120 or 130mm travel suspension fork or our own Future Proof rigid fork.

Designer's Notes

Modern jargon might call it a "downcountry" bike, but I call it the perfect all-around MTB for daily off-road riding.

It bucks the current hardtail design trend of long wheelbases and super slack head tubes. These things make sense to me on my 150mm travel dual suspension bike, but on a 120–130mm travel hardtail I feel they miss the plot. I reach for my hardtail for typically two reasons: one, it’s the most fun on tight techy singletrack (which we have a lot of around here), or two, because I’ve got some pedaling to do and I want to do it fast and efficiently—whether it’s a big climb, riding to the trails, a local race, or simply a lot of ground to cover that day.

Here’s what I want from my hardtail: I want it to feel fast as soon as I lay into the pedals, to be able to turn on a dime and be super flickable. And I want it to be fun and encourage me to hit all the little jumps and side hits that come my way. A mid-travel hardtail needs to be lively and handle correctly in all riding situations, not just when pointed downhill.

The Dark Star has a 66.5° headtube angle, which I feel strikes the perfect balance between descending confidence and slow-speed maneuverability. It also has a tall-ish bottom bracket for tight techy rock sections and ease of bunny hopping. Its adjustable dropouts allow the rider to change the chainstay length from 425–440mm so it can be fine-tuned to your terrain and riding style.

To me, a short-travel hardtail is all about immediate gratification—immediate fun from your house or the parking lot and all-terrain utility. It's sharp handling, but not too twitchy. You could race it if you wanted to, but you could also have a heck of a time blasting jumps or even do some bikepacking.

– Jeff

The Dark Star is made by the fine folks at ORA in Taiwan.

Why we recommend also purchasing a Future Proof rigid fork:

If we had our way, every single person who buys the Dark Star frame (or any hardtail) would also buy a rigid fork to go with it. We hate the notion that MTB standards change so quickly that in five years your new MTB may be “obsolete.” This problem is easily solved though.

Paired with a rigid fork, your MTB will forever be a useful tool as a transportation or bikepacking bike. Just look at all the 30-year-old 26” wheeled hardtails that have been resurrected for daily driving duties the past few years. The Dark Star with the rigid fork is like that, but way more fun and playful as modern MTB geo and technology is a real marvel.

Features

• BOSS Premium Steel Super Tubes
• Sliding dropouts for adjusting wheelbase or single speed operation
• UDH Compatible
• 29 x 2.6” tire clearance
• Bottle Mounts: two in main triangle on Large and X-Large, one on Small and Medium
• Three-Pack Mounts: under downtube (all sizes)
• Top tube feed bag mount
• Stealth dropper routing

Geometry

Fast, aggressive, and playful trail geometry. Our ideal blend of fun to pedal and easy to rip.

Tubing

BOSS Super Tubes
These are a Wilde exclusive, made just for us according to our precise needs and priorities. BOSS Super Tubes are air-hardened, custom-extruded, seamless steel tubing—super premium. We are no longer tied to the available off-the-shelf options; we can truly pursue the boundaries of strength and lightweight without constraint.

Whatever tube diameter, wall thickness, or butting profile we believe is best for an application, we can now just make it. We can also do outlandish and techy stuff. For instance, you might notice that the Dark Star lacks a gusset on the downtube/headtube junction? That’s because the steel downtube itself is asymmetrically butted at the headtube junction. It’s thicker at the bottom of the tube where it meets the headtube. This means there’s no need to weld in an additional gusset—resulting in lighter overall weight and fewer heat-affected zones. Neat, huh?

Frame Specs

• Boost spacing
• 73mm English threaded bottom bracket shell
• Headset: EC 34/44
• Max Chainring: 40t
• Seatpost: 31.6mm
• Seat Collar: 35.0mm