Today is a good time as any to give my review, as the whole house is down with the sickness 🙁
So I was able to borrow Jdogs Krampus over the holidays which is where I give it a good shakedown on the mooch trail system. Not to mention my last 2 city commutes.
I had a few of those moments where I thought about the N+1 would be a fat bike, but those parking lot rides of those I rode were uninspiring. I was totally intrigued by the Krampus though when I first read about it, yes I read all 68+ pages over at MTBR.
Why, because it was a platform I was on board with. Rigid, SS capable and steel. As I have gotten older I favor simplicity over the latest greatest bouncy carbon things.
The Bike is is Surly's 4130 CroMoly steel, with room to fit there 50mm Rabbithole rims and the Knard 3.0 tires. A slack 69.5 HT 72.5 ST 44.8 WB for the large I rode. What this equals was a extremely stable machine. Low speed pick your spots stop then go, though I was missing the engagement of my king hub vs. that of the DT Swiss that Jdog had. Here is where the bike really shined, when you pointed it down hill on those fast descents. Butt puckering oh shit moments yet never losing control. The massive Knard tires beg you to lean over in turns and I mean lean way over, I don't think I ever had a bike that could be laid down that low unless it had a throttle. This bike will not win any weight weenie awards which is fine with me but really for such a big bike it never felt sluggish. Fact is once you got up to speed this bike begs to just rip.
I was able to put it through as much disciplines as I could though I missed out on a true snow ride. What impressed was the slow crawl up wet rocks and gnarly roots. Krampus is truly an all day adventure/fun bike. I wondered how the tires would react to the road so I did a few rides from the house plus city commutes and other then the cool buzz the Knards roll quite well. I could defiantly see this as being "if I could only have one bike" to fit that bill. For NJ riding where you don't have 2 hour climbs and all winter snow this bike makes a lot of sense.
Surly once again hit a homerun with this new 29+ platform and already has others jumping in with frames wheels tires and specific parts. And why is this better to try then a fat bike because you can swap over all your standard 29 parts.
Get to your local Surly dealer and demand a Demo, you will be glad you did...
http://surlybikes.com/bikes/krampus/bike_info
So I was able to borrow Jdogs Krampus over the holidays which is where I give it a good shakedown on the mooch trail system. Not to mention my last 2 city commutes.
I had a few of those moments where I thought about the N+1 would be a fat bike, but those parking lot rides of those I rode were uninspiring. I was totally intrigued by the Krampus though when I first read about it, yes I read all 68+ pages over at MTBR.
Why, because it was a platform I was on board with. Rigid, SS capable and steel. As I have gotten older I favor simplicity over the latest greatest bouncy carbon things.
The Bike is is Surly's 4130 CroMoly steel, with room to fit there 50mm Rabbithole rims and the Knard 3.0 tires. A slack 69.5 HT 72.5 ST 44.8 WB for the large I rode. What this equals was a extremely stable machine. Low speed pick your spots stop then go, though I was missing the engagement of my king hub vs. that of the DT Swiss that Jdog had. Here is where the bike really shined, when you pointed it down hill on those fast descents. Butt puckering oh shit moments yet never losing control. The massive Knard tires beg you to lean over in turns and I mean lean way over, I don't think I ever had a bike that could be laid down that low unless it had a throttle. This bike will not win any weight weenie awards which is fine with me but really for such a big bike it never felt sluggish. Fact is once you got up to speed this bike begs to just rip.
I was able to put it through as much disciplines as I could though I missed out on a true snow ride. What impressed was the slow crawl up wet rocks and gnarly roots. Krampus is truly an all day adventure/fun bike. I wondered how the tires would react to the road so I did a few rides from the house plus city commutes and other then the cool buzz the Knards roll quite well. I could defiantly see this as being "if I could only have one bike" to fit that bill. For NJ riding where you don't have 2 hour climbs and all winter snow this bike makes a lot of sense.
Surly once again hit a homerun with this new 29+ platform and already has others jumping in with frames wheels tires and specific parts. And why is this better to try then a fat bike because you can swap over all your standard 29 parts.
Get to your local Surly dealer and demand a Demo, you will be glad you did...
http://surlybikes.com/bikes/krampus/bike_info
