Matt's Bike Thoughts

So I've got a drop bar Mukluk. It's awesome. Here's what you need to know in order to successfully do a drop bar conversion: Geometry This step is really important, because it will determine if the end result will fit you. It would really suck to finish the rather expensive conversion and have a bike that was too big! The geometry of the bike will change. While flat handlebars are, well, flat, drop bars have significant extra reach associated with them. The Salsa Cowchipper has a reach of 68mm, and the Woodchipper has a reach of 56mm. The Salsa Rustler handlebars that came stock on my Mukluk had a 11 degree backsweep, which worked out to roughly -20mm of reach when I measured it. So, we're talking a total reach difference of 88mm. The stock stem on the Mukluk is 60mm, and you can get 30mm BMX stems, which gets us to a 58mm difference. What I found is that your lower back angle doesn't change as much as you might expect due to the narrower bars. If we d...

My Mukluk's 29er wheelset has been a bit of a weird spot for me. I got a Stan's Flow wheelset with 29mm internal diameter. They advertise it as capable of running 2.35" to 2.8" tires. My first tire was the Maxxis Aggressor - 2.5", right in the middle. It worked well, but it was a somewhat heavy and aggressive tire for the riding I do. Next up, I tried the Terrene McFly tires. Unfortunately, the Flow rims don't really work on 2.8" tires, and I experienced quite a bit of squirm and self-steer - typical problems with too much tire on too little rim. The next set I'm trying is the Maxxis Ikon and Rekon combo. I got the Ikon 2.35" for the rear tire, and the Rekon 2.6" tire for the front. These tires feature frequently on the Tour Divide, and I anticipate that they'll handle the bikepacking and adventuring I like to do. I'm also intrigued to see how they handle dirt and singletrack. I've put about 40 miles on these tires on a mix ...