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| Click for big: I've never been on a mountain bike ride with this many people. I'm about mid-pack here. There were 19 of us on the HD trails Saturday morning, for the grand opening ride of the new LBS in the 'hood (which, btw, DOES have beer thank you very much): This Bike Life. It's a great shop, designed around the idea of building a little bike community. Very cool. Anyway: I showed up for this ride on the Pugsley and in my jeans, expecting a chillaxed ride around the hood to the trails. But as kitted up dudes and their super bikes showed up, I got the feeling we'd be taking a real ride. The Pugsley did not slow me down. |
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| The Hozan Rock Ring Wrench. If that's not great I don't know what is. That is so great. |
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| Fetish bike photo. So, before I got this bike, I had the same misunderstanding of the capabilities that most bikey casual observers have -- and it's this: that the Pugsley is really for snow and sand. And that for everything else, it's just ok. I'm here to tell you: this bike is fun and super capable for all sorts of trail and dirt fun. I've taken to bombing a couple of my favorite sections of the HD trails in the last week. I can bomb on the Pugs, like I can on no other bike. There are two reasons -- that work together to make bombing super rad: zero worry of pinch flatting + monster grippage afforded by the ridiculous knobs/contact patch. Hear me now or hear me later. But hear me! |
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| Your basic falls photo. This trail just got knocked in. I'm thinking you'll be seeing a lot of folks lining up for photos in the future. I wanted to have the first Pugs shot. |
5 comments:
Nice fetish bike photo. The creek is frozen. That's cold.
"Click for big" I like your style.
Also I see a lot of our blog friends riding off road and I feel the enjoyment in the ride reports.
If you're like me, you may come to dislike the term "snow bike", as it is too limiting a term for a bike capable of so much more.
I love that super wide bar, but know you're partial to drops. There is a precedent for drops on a Pug. Check out the Nicholas Carman's' purple Pug from a couple of summers ago at http://gypsybytrade.wordpress.com
Patrick -- I should've photo'd the Latah piece that runs through Vinegar Flats a few days ago. It was solid and really smooth and cool and creepy.
Andy: yeah, I already sort of don't like "snow bike." but i'm a grouchy fucker as I get older, so it's hard to gauge what informs that angst...
As for drops: yeah -- so, I'm thinking someday possibly that I might put the Midge bars on here, but there are a couple things tghat might block this.
the first is that I am really getting to understand these monster bars. there are times when I really ahve to manhandle the front end of this bike in surprising ways -- it reminds me sometimes of a ultra-tight headset.
secondly: these frigging bb5 cable disc brakes are bugging me. I'm going to want hydro love on there and i don't see a viable drop-bar hydro lever in my future.
gypsybytrade: frigging rad. I just breezed through the pics and it's totally got me pondering some potential adventurin' -- the fact that one of the main actors uses a berthoud seatbag as a primary hauler goes a long way in my book
I saw the light, Blues Brothers style, when I test rode a Krampus with a 780mm Whammy bar. Ever since, I've been a convert to wide bars. Since I installed a 750mm Salsa Rustler on my Monocog 29er, the stock 660mm Salsa Moto Ace on my '12 Pugsley seems too narrow. A wide bar on a fatbike really cranks up the feeling of control.
I've used BB7s on several bikes to great effect and without incident, but I've heard of trouble with BB5s. My wife's 29er has them, and though I've had no trouble working on her BB5s, she is a low-demand rider. I've been interested in hydro, but never felt the need to swap. The Pug comes stock with 160mm discs front and rear, so swapping for 185mm might make a difference.
Gypsy Nick and Lael are living the dream; alternating between working a few months and touring mostly off road for half a year or more during the past several years. He rode his Pug from Alaska to New Mexico last year with a stop at my house, and has so far done Western and Eastern Europe off road and much of the Arizona Trail so far this year. He's on an ECR now, but will be getting back on a fatbike in Alaska soon.
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