Handling

March is the long, dark tea time of the soul for Ohio mountain bikers. The trails have lost the good freeze of winter, but haven't dried out yet. Spring rains and the freeze/thaw cycle make our trails a peanut buttery mess until April, if we're lucky; May, if we're not.

So, time to hit the road. Eager to ride my new Jones, I jumped on a pair of super fat Schwalbe slicks that came across one of my bike lists. I mounted up the Big Ones and was ready to roll:

My first impression was all good, but that quickly changed.

70 degrees in February

Do you know those weeks where it's nice all week and then rains on the weekend? We finally had the opposite experience here; nestled in between two cold weeks, it was nearly 70 on Saturday and low 60s today. With weather like that, I had to get out and ride, three rides on Saturday:

Ride one was a morning loop on my now 30 year old Raleigh Technium:

I think these old Techniums are underappreciated bikes. It rides quite nicely and has decent tire clearance. It feels heavy when I get it down from the ceiling, but moves along with vigor. It's the most comfortable drop bar bike I've ridden. Not bad for $25!

The kids spent the morning playing in the creek behind our house:

Steel. 29+. Here.

I've been thinking about it for a while, but I finally did it:

Skating on Thick Ice

Last Saturday, we headed north to visit our future homestead. Our neighbors now have a big hole for their basement, but we still have just an empty lot. We still managed to entertain ourselves on the frozen pond next door:

Kate is talking about buying ice skates for next winter. We'll see!

I also kept busy in the cold with a bit of work in the garage. I sold the Camargue; I'm a bit envious as it's off to warm Arizona. That let me build up the Privateer with the front bag and rack from the VO:

January Fleet News

I braved a windy, 25 degree January morning to take some of my bike fleet out for a spin. After being sick, then cooped up inside for the last few weeks, it was good to get out for an hour or so.

First up was my Monkey. I bought this frameset on a whim, but it's quickly muscled its way to the top of my mountain bikes:

As I described in my last post, the KM is most things I want in a bike: simple, steel, big tire clearance. Add in a low Q, vintage Suntour XC Pro crank, and it will be hard to top this combo:

It has already pushed the Mukluk out the door--it was sold last weekend, and the Ritchey is on the chopping block.

Fat B Nimble, Fat Be Quick

Just a few days after I built up the 29+ wheel set for my Mukluk, I got my Christmas gifts to myself in the mail. Two updates for my KM:

- a vintage Suntour XC-Pro crank I found on ebay. Now I have two of these as I circle back to 94BCD for my ideal cranks. I love the thin arms and low profile of these cranks--I dropped my Q factor an inch when I changed out the Shimano Deore crank (179mm to 154mm)

- a Panaracer Fat B Nimble tire. For a nominal 29+ tire, this has a smaller casing and is only lightly knobbed. I figured it could fit in the rear of the Monkey, and I was right:

This combination of a steel frame, fat tires, and sharp handling will likely spell the end of my fatbike ownership. The KM is everything I want in a mountain bike right now. Let me explain.

New Year and New Wheels

One of my long running projects has been to build a set of better 29+ wheels for my Mukluk. I've been running the fat wheels on regular 29er wheels, about 20mm internal width:

Both Surly and all the punters on the internet say this is a no-no: mid fat wheels should be on a rim of at least 30mm internal width, such as the Blunt 35 rims I have on my Karate Monkey. I haven't really had any issues with the narrower rims, but I wanted to see what a bigger rim would do.

Several months back, I picked up some 44mm Sno Cat SL rims off the iBOB list. A few months ago, I won some Schlick Northpaw fatbike hubs off ebay for a very good price. Finally, I completed my parts inventory by ordering some very reasonably priced double butted spokes this month. Add some beer and afternoon NPR on the radio, and I was ready to get building: