Jordan Rapp’s WBR Project Buffalo Litespeed T3
The star of the show is really the paint job done by Toby Stanton of Hot Tubes. Toby copied the basic design of WBR's Buffalo bike but tweaked it for the different tube shapes of the Litespeed T3 frameset.
The real McCoy and the inspiration for the design.
The cabling up front masks the WBR logo and the tagline "POWERED BY WBR," but the bike still sports a clean profile.
A close-up of the beautiful detailing of the paint work. The red anodized cups of the Cane Creek 110 headset highlight the red in the World Bicycle Relief logo. The cockpit is a Zipp Vuka Sprint bar and an SL Sprint stem. The stem was chosen primarily for fit purposes (it's a -12deg stem), but it's beefy design fits well with the beefy design of the original Buffalo and also the namesake of both bikes.
The slender seat stays didn't leave much room for paint, but that was no problem for Toby. SRAM RED mechanical brakes provide the stopping power.
The 11-32 11-speed cassette gives a wide range of gearing. The Force1 roller clutch rear derailleur sports a hidden upgrade with anodized aluminum CeramicSpeed jockey wheels in the 1X specific X-Sync narrow-wide configuration. The black anodization matches the black plastic of the original.
Up front, a single 50-tooth X-Sync chainring is paired with a 110mm-BCD Quarq Elsa in BB30. Red Speedplay Zero pedals with a short stainless steel accent keep the red theme going. The crank spins on a CeramicSpeed PF30 bottom bracket with flashy red anodized cups. Zipp Firecrest wheels with Zipp Tangente Corse 25mm tires round out the Zipp kit and have proved incredibly durable in all conditions as daily use wheels.
The Buffalo logo is a great and simple design paying homage to Africa's mighty cape buffalo.
The downtube says BUFFALO, but Litespeed was kind enough to help support this project with a discount on their wonderful T3 frameset. When I started this project, I knew the bike had to be metal, and Litespeed titanium was an obvious choice. The frame is welded by hand in Tennessee. No buffalos there, but it's still pretty wild country.
A simple Cobb HC170 saddle sits on top of the classic Thomson Elite setback seatpost. The red, black, and silver theme wasn't the main reason I chose this saddle, but I'm glad it worked that way too.
This bike cuts a bit of a sleeker profile than the workmanlike bike that was its inspiration, but it's still plenty workmanlike in its own way. You could certainly race this bike, but it carries me on most of my training miles. It's a daily rider, just like most of the Buffalo bikes in the field are for the students, farmers, and aid workers who ride them.
Thanks to the hard work of the folks at World Bicycle Relief, over 260,713 people (as of today) are POWERED BY WBR!
Project WBR Buffalo
Frameset: Litespeed T3
Size: 58
Paint: WBR Buffalo by Toby Stanton of Hot Tubes
Stem: SL Sprint 130mm x -12deg
Bars: Vuka Sprint 40mm
Controls: SRAM Force1 DoubleTap mechanical
Bar Tape: Zipp Service Corse
Cables & Housing: SRAM
Bottle Cages: Specialized RibCage Carbon
Seatpost: Thomson Elite Setback
Saddle: Cobb HC170
Brakes: SRAM RED mechanical
Wheels: 404 Firecrest CC
Tires: Zipp Tangente Corse
Skewers: SRAM
Pedals: Speedplay Stainless short-axle
Crank: Quarq Elsa 110BCD 172.5mm BB30
Bottom Bracket: CeramicSpeed PF30
Chainring: Force1 50 X-Sync
Chain: SRAM RED22
Cassette: SRAM RED22 11-32
Rear Derailleur: SRAM Force1 with CeramicSpeed jockey wheels
