Drop Bar Woodsmoke: 6 months in

Alright, it's been about six months with the drop bar Woodsmoke, and I'm on the verge of another change.

I've named the drop bar Woodsmoke `Cutsmoke`. Overall, it's been great. I got it fully setup and tuned and fitted for bikepacking. I have not actually gone bikepacking on it due to illness, injury, some work stuff, and a busy life. 

Unfortunately, it has some issues as a drop bar bike.

The 67.8 degree head tube angle is pretty slack for a drop bar bike. It doesn't feel stable at speed. And the high stack + steerer tube + angled stem feels pretty wonky at speed while descending on the road. It handles rough gravel and singletrack superbly, but it's just not a great application as a road or gravel bike. No shit!

Meanwhile, the medium Woodsmoke has been absolutely stellar - with the fast gravel wheelset on there, it's extremely quick. The flat bars work great for the head tube angle, even on gravel. It has a larger frame triangle, so the frame bag is bigger and carries more. And I can throw aerobars on there and be totally fine for a longer gravel/road tour.

I don't feel like I need the Cutsmoke. Sure, drop bars are comfy, but when the Woodsmoke is so much better feeling on road/gravel due to the wider flat bars and the better overall geometry fit, there's just not much appeal to riding the Cutsmoke anymore.

So, what's next?

I'm going to build out the Cutsmoke as a regular small mountain bike and sell it.

The drop bar components will get sold off or put on my Soma Saga touring bike. Getting that setup as a 2x11 or even 1x11 would be a fun prospect. 

The Woodsmoke will then have multiple modes - between rigid/suspension fork and 27.5+, 29er, and 42mm race wheels, I've got 6 real setups in that bike, all of which are conceivably useful - the 27.5+ rigid setup would be fun in snowy/sandy areas, and the 42mm race tires and suspension fork are wild fun on a gravel course with some singletrack.

Then I'll be sitting at two bikes... a fun one and a commuter (which will also be made more fun). I like having three bikes. Will I get a road bike? Or a full suspension mountain bike again? Who knows.

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