This weeks project completed!,
And after a half dozen bikes after the first Pugsley 7 years ago it has all went full circle as i have decided that i prefer the Surly Pugsley frames to Karate Monkey 29ers etc which are now all sold, as the Pugs can fill most roles for ridged 29er stuff off road cycling around here in East Lothian and can take a load of wheel sizes and gearing options,
Never underestimate the power of the Fatside...
In the last 7 years i have cycled an estimated 12,000+ miles on Pugsley`s. Been a long time now since i picked up the Grey Pug at Glentress... And the worm turned as i turned to the Fatside...
And that grey Pugsley took me all over the place, you may have seen this old film i made 5 years ago of this bike after the first 2000 miles exploring...nearly 50,000 views!
That frame then came back to life after being retired and sold on to a friend when a Purple pug frame turned up, you can read about how it all started and the second frame set here; Purple Haze
But it was a visit to Forth Fat Gathering by Eric and Tyler from Surly bikes that started the whole 29+ wheels on a Pugsley when Tyler gave me a single speed Rabbit hole wheel set as a thank you for being a Surly Ambassador... you can read about that here; A present from Surly
Or watch the film...
That was a great Summer, the hottest on record riding the reborn grey Pugsley-now powder coated black on those big wheels which roll like hell...
More versatility needed with this concept...
I enjoyed the single speed and how quite it is, it gets you fit and need minimum cleaning and maintenance, but i wanted more versatility from the KramPug and need gears, And now that `Pumpkin orange bike is finished with another Pugsley frame in Olive green...
Another 29+ bike- The Surly ECR
This came about by buying a secondhand Surly Krampus wheel set at a good deal i could no refuse on a Forum, i planned to fit these to a Karate Monkey 29er build and add the biggest tyres i could to build a comfortable steel ridged 29er MTB with regular 73mm Bottom Bracket,
However the Maxxis Minion 2.5" wide rear tyre was too tight for mud clearance, hence the idea to swap all the parts onto a Surly ECR 29+ frame set, this has the same BB height as a Karate Monkey...
It had Salsa Woodchipper drop bars but now has regular MTB riser bars fitted.
I have the drop bars, lever and brakes etc hanging ready to swap over to this bike or the Pumpkin Pugsley if i ever fancy using them as the Pumpkin Pugsley and the ECR bikes use 9 speed gears, Avid BB7 160 brakes, and all it costs me is a rear inner gear cable and a few cable ties...
SS KramPug is reborn...The Green/Orange KramPug has a brother in the original 29+ SS Pug returning to a build option of a SS KramPug with a set of Single speed reversible wheels i built one evening this week...
With the old Pugsley now fitted with an Alfine hub these 29+ Rabbit hole rims that good friend Gary B kindly gave me along with a hub and some spokes made it able to build a pair of Surly New Ultra hub offset Rabbit hole wheels with giving me reversible wheels which at under a minute to swap the 20t to 18t is ideal... :)
And built...
Next evening i checked they were centre...
Then i ground down the ends of some protruding spokes these were 300mm to make up enough with the 296mm lenght spokes...
One of the Surly Ultra Hubs had the old cone type axle...
And seeing as i had a the newer type `New Ultra Hub` on a spare fat wheel which did not have free wheel threads i swapped the axles...
And now i can run the wheels with the Allen bolts as shown below...
Or tool free for swapping wheels using QR axles...
A few tweaks and all done...
Off road commute...
And off to work this morning and i used to ride this bike set up on the 32 x 18t ratio,
I had a spinning class session cranking wildly on the lower 20t!- i should have checked it last night along the road first!... swapped the wheels once at work and better now!...
Wettest summer on record in Scotland?, Not here on the east coast!
The news is full of horror stories of sodden grazing land and wet weather in Scotland, wettest on record their saying, maybe on the west coast but were in a state of drought at Whitekirk!,
Parched fairways, and mounds on greens drying out despite the usual nightly watering...
Yeah we have had a dry lovely April/May, then a cloudy and cool July, then some downpours in August but i have only had waterproofs on once to commute and have cycled to work nearly every day,
There was a really wet Monday, i was on holiday in Lincolnshire and it rained a bit there, but it was still less rain in that one really wet day than the monthly average.
Were flat out watering between the usual work, an hour of sprinklers, yet this will be bone dry in an hour...
Forecast is heavy rain all day Friday, but got to keep watering today just in case we don`t get it...
Job done and off home..
Here is how dry it is, check the dust from a tractor behind!...
Happy days...
More soon...
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