Reader’s Rig: Emory’s Liberation Fabrication Anti-Cross Disc

Words by Emory Hancock, photos by Andrés Piedrahita and Eva Kloiber

Hi, I’m Emory (they/them) from Atlanta, Georgia. I like to boulder, ride bikes, and make my friends smile. Sometimes I torture them with mean interesting bike rides. My favorite types of riding include big single-speed gravel races, track racing, and mostly riding around town.

This bike was thought up after a few thousand miles of riding my Squid Squidcross. The Squid is rad and fits me well, but I wanted a few small changes that would make for an ideal daily driver. Some of the changes were functional, such as rocker dropouts instead of an eccentric BB and adding fender mounts. Some changes, like the pink paint and standard diameter steel tubing, were driven by my aesthetic preferences. I reached out to my friend Eva and asked if she’d be interested in building this bike for me.

We exchanged a few messages and zeroed in on the geo I wanted as Eva balanced things like stack and reach with available carbon forks that met my needs. A few months later, I had a tracking number in hand as frame and fork were en route to me. Days after delivery, and thanks to my local shop, the bike was built up! It works great for most of the riding I sought out, including paved MUP scooting for errands, the short ride to my job or climbing gym, and longer off-road and singletrack rides all accessed from my doorstep.

• Frame 2022 Liberation Fabrication Anti-Cross Disc
• Fork Rodeo Spork 1.2
• Rims Nextie / Roval
• Hubs SP SV-8 / Roval (DT-Swiss EXP)
• Tires Specialized Pathfinder Pro 700x38mm
• Handlebars Salsa Cowbell 38cm
• Headset Cane Creek 40
• Crankset SRAM Force & 42T ring
• Pedals Time ATAC or Raceface Chester
• Cassette SRAM XX1, 11s, 10-42 XD
• Derailleur SRAM Rival 1x
• Brakes SRAM Rival
• Shifter(s) SRAM Rival
• Saddle Specialized Power 143
• Seatpost Thomson Masterpiece 0mm setback
• Stem S-Works, -17º, 10cm
• Rack Rat King RIP Rack (Painted by Eva)
• Rear bags Outer Shell Mini Saddlebag
• Lights B&M IQ-X and Micro lights
• Fenders SKS 52mm fenders with buddy flaps made by Gurpstitchwork

Hot summer weather and my physical and mental health have kept me from long rides in the hundreds of kilometers, though, as fall is in the air, I hope to get out on some longer rides. So far, my Liberation has done everything I ask of it on shorter 50 to 100-kilometer days, and the bike provides me a stable and reliable platform for anything I throw at it. I’ve also absolutely fallen in love with how it looks, and I look forward to working with Eva again in the future.

A few notes about the build: 1.) Metal screws will self-tap when put into plastic SKS fenders. This makes attaching buddy flaps much easier. 2.) The tires on this bike are nearly three years old. They’ve never flatted and are still going strong after thousands and thousands of miles. I can not recommend Pathfinder Pros enough for a mixed-terrain bike. 3.) The Ratking RIP Rack is a lovely lil rack that is very well made. I have not put a basket on it, as my slammed setups never play well with baskets, though I think it ties the whole bike together very well. I run an Outer Shell drawcord handlebar bag on it as the world’s smallest rando bag.

You can see more from Emory on Instagram @emor_e.

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