Pink

Spring is most definitely in the air (you can smell 6 months worth of dog waste melting out of the snowbanks) and we have been blessed with a good long stretch of beautiful cloudless days.  The trails have remained in fantastic condition, freezing firmly on the cold clear nights and staying firm almost all day long, and I have been fortunate enough to get some excellent riding in on a new (to me) bike.

That pink fatbike you see is now legally mine.  The previous owner was kind enough to allow me a good long window to test ride and think about the purchase.  Mrs. was in love with it the minute she saw it and has no qualms about being married to a man who rides around on an XL pink bike.  Getting her stamp of approval was not insignificant.

The bike fit me amazingly well as soon as I threw a leg over it.  It's not often I hop on another person's bike and don't feel the urge to fiddle with one thing or another.
The story is that the bike was originally built up by a local shop/fatbike company employee.  He put in the special request for a XL frame in pink and then decked it out in the parts you might expect from guy who gets a shop discount:  XTR rear derailleur, SLX front, Mr. Whirly crank, cut out Speedway 70mm rims,  Thomson stem, etc.
Apparently he moved out of state not too long after finishing the build and a casual friend of mine scooped it up for a steal.  However, it seems that for my friend the lure of 800cc snowmachines trumped pedal power and the bike saw almost no action for the past two winters.

Long story short, he was happy to let the bike go to someone who would ride it, the bike fit me and Mrs. approved.  I initially hesitated, but encouragement and sound advice from a couple of fellow bike junkies pushed me over the edge.

It may be pink, but it rides like the darkest black of a moonless night.

I'm secure enough to enjoy the obvious jokes that will ensue. My favorite so far was the woman on horseback asking if I had borrowed my wife's bike.
I've actually had a thing for pink frames ever since I first saw Pat Irwin's pink 1x1 eight or nine years ago.
I figure with one kid and another on the way my manhood is adequately accounted for and I shouldn't let a good deal pass me by.

Changes thus far:
The bike came with a horribly narrow carbon bar, so I swapped it for an On-One Mary bar before I rode it for the first time.  The Mary bar is nice, but I think I'll ultimately change it out for something with a little less back sweep.  I was thinking a Salsa Whammy bar would be nice, but it seems no one is selling them these days.  On-One Fleegle perhaps.  To be determined.

It also had Endomorph tires front and rear, which had amazingly awkward handling characteristics.  I've since swapped those for (27tpi) Larrys.  I picked one Larry up cheap at the local bike swap and acquired the other from a guy on craigslist who wanted to trade a Larry for an Endomorph, don't ask me why.  Handling was noticeably improved by the tire swap.





Down the road I'll likely get the MWOD rings for the Mr. Whirly crank.  I have absolutely no need for the big ring, and wouldn't mind moving the chain out from the rear tire a bit.

The little ski hill in town has closed for the season so I snuck over there one evening this week after a quick singletrack ride and goofed around on the groomed slopes.
Good times.

Q & A

First there was a question and I had an answer:

From rootsradicals@yahoo.com cargo bike listserve,

"I'd like a tire that can handle some off-road/gravel/hard-pack/maybe some mud, but which will also be fairly low rolling resistance on the the street. Right now I think my Xtracycle will see mostly street duty, but I'd like to have tires on it that will serve for those times that I might ride on the rough stuff. Also, after seeing some blog posts by a guy who uses his Big Dummy to carry equipment out to his research sites, I've been inspired by the idea of maybe using my Xtracycle to get out to do camping, birding, carrying my boat, etc."

So replied with this,

As a guy who has written "some blog posts by a guy who uses his Big Dummy to carry equipment out to his research sites"  I'll throw my two cents out there. 

(I don't know for sure if it was my posts that you read or not, but if there is somebody else hauling research equipment with a Dummy I'd love to have the link and the chance to pick his brain.)

First off I see you bought the Kendas.  Looked like a great deal on a quality tire, I hope you enjoy them and report back when you've got some miles and an opinion on them.

As for my set up, I am a tire tinkerer.  I enjoy experimenting with different tire/rim combos just to see what happens.  On the BigDonkey I've tried a number of things including:  2.4 Maxxis Holy Rollers, 3.7 Surly Endomorph (up front only), 3.0 Nokian Gazzaloddi, 2.1 Bontrager 'generic style mountainbike tires', 29x2.35 Schwalbe Big Apples, and my favorite set up 26x2.35 Big Apples.

All of these tires were run on a widish (~44mm) Alex DM24 rim, and a couple also spent time on a modified Sun Ringle Double wide.

If you were posing this question regarding a non-longtail setup, I would hands down recommend the Holy Rollers (which I've run in the summer on couple different bikes, including my Surly 1x1), but a cargobike is a different beast.
This spring a gypsy I crossed path with traded me some Holy Rollers he had for the Big Apples I'd been running on my Dummy.  A few thousand miles later he was switching to full on fat tires and offered to mail my Big Apples back to me, to which I enthusiastically said 'yes'.  I swapped the Holy Rollers off and slapped the Big Apples back on and everything was again right with the world.  Not that the Holy Rollers were bad or lacking, but I just find the Big Apples to be a little nicer, a little quieter, a little smoother and a little more pleasant to ride.

The Big Apples plenty of traction for almost all of the trail riding I do on the Dummy.  The long, stable cargo bike isn't getting rallied through corners quite the same way a regular bike would so cornering traction isn't a huge issue.
The flat protection from the tires is fantastic and the ride quality is super plush.  I think Gypsy Nick rode something like 3,000 flat free,  loaded, touring miles on my well used Big Apples before mailing them back. 

A flat tire on a loaded cargobike could be particularly inconvenient.
Knock on wood, but in the past 3 years I've had no flats on the Big Donkey that I can recall.
I have however shifted the chain off the top of the cassette a couple of times and learned how annoying rear wheel repairs in the field can be.

I've had more than one instance of slamming hard into an unavoidable rock and feeling my rim make contact with the rim.  Not only have I escaped without pinch flats, but I've also not had to true the rims.
It looks like the Schwalbe Fat Franks would also be a excellent option and perhaps provide a hair more traction.

Just my thoughts, no more right or wrong than anyone else's, but I'll put them out there for what they're worth.




Then I had a question I sent out to Allman and Gypsy Nick that went something like this:

Subject:  Thoughts?

6 miles through the woods to school. 

4 miles on paths home.

2 hours later, in the garage, rear tire is flat . . . tear at the valve stem (presta).

2 nights in a row.

Additional information available upon request.

I have a theory or two, but would be curious if you had any additional insight.


After all the holiday thankfulness I have to say I'm thankful to be able find answers to bike questions on the internet.  Not too long ago things were a lot different. 
Resources and answers were quite limited by today's standards, I try not to take it for granted.

Boxes From Bozeman, Fish Tales and Dirty Laundry

The Big Donkey hasn't quite been itself since I traded its tires to  Gypsy Nick.  I still had one Big Apple for it, but I still couldn't found a satisfactory arrangement using any of the tires I had around the house.

So when Gypsy Nick offered to mail the Big Apples back to me I could hardly say no.  He also refused to let me cover the shipping, so you can count on that sort of bike geek karma being paid forward.

Big Apples are back

His transition back to full on fatties was made in Montana and this week a box arrived from Bozeman, nothing in it but my tires with about 3,000 bonus miles on them.  I have to say they looked pretty good considering the long, loaded trip they've been on.

I wasted no time tossing one of them back on the Donkey.  Cruising around town feels right again (it hasn't hurt that it's been sunny and I've kept a spinning rod strapped on the back of the Donkey for the last little while).

Quick stop to catch a few rainbows on the ride home.

Noticed these tracks while I was locking up by another fishing spot.

Apparently after working on his trike for a bit the little one noticed how dirty my DIY footsies were getting and thought it might be worthwhile to toss them in the wash with some of my dirty clothes.

    

Glad I noticed before I started the cycle.