Not a
Troll under a bridge but a KramPug...
Friday half day and i slung the Surly KramPug on the back of the car and drove to Pencaitland, time to ride some woodland trails and try out the KramPug with gears.
Friend Colin who owns my old red Surly Karate Monkey 29er which i built with 47mm uni cycle rims, rebuilt my rear KramPug wheel with a Hope Pro 2 hub swapped from the Surly Karate Monkey 29er - that bike is now going to be a single speed for winter trails and night rides.
Colin used to be a bike mechanic in Edinburgh and being an ex Scottish road cycling champion has built more wheels than i have had school dinners. He has built everything from road bike wheels to track bike to Tandem wheels to wheelchair racing wheels, but never a 27.5mm mm offset wheel and enjoyed doing something new,
I fitted the Surly
Monkey Nuts to the Pugsley from the Karate Monkey to allow fitment of a front mech - the 29 x 3" Tyres are larger diameter than a regular 4" fatbike tyre see so luckily i have these from the Monkey, that's what i love about Surly bikes is that many parts are interchangable with often the same multi purpose chainstays and all the hub sizes etc are the same and you can do loads of set ups when you change your bike builds. I had already bought the front mech and a direct mount mech hanger made by
Problem solvers when i bought this frame so had nothing to buy except the spokes. How can i buy, and including £7 postage 64 (for 2 wheel builds) spokes from Germany and they are cheaper, and arrived in the UK in 5 days - and that was over a weekend?,
I will use
Rose Bikes again...
I rode around the woodland trails at the village beside the river then heading along the river Tyne for a bit i then rode uphill to a wood i used to ride regularly years ago when i live at home in Longniddry with my parents...
I spied some Endomorph prints and Maxxis prints in the riverside sand... Knew who it was as seen a facebook post the evening before and it was friends Mike and Dave who were out last evening...
Not been any 3" Knards here yet though... -:)
When i lived at home with my parents in Longniddry Buttertdean Woods was 2 miles away and one of my local woodland haunts. I used to know every exposed root on the single track trails of these woods...
Root fest!.
Today the roots were dry but when wet these trails take on a bite as they get really slippy. I have rode all types of bikes through here, probably the fastest was my old Cannondale Uber V - a Super V with a Raven swing arm giving 6" travel and with that conversion a higher BB that was good for trails like this.
The KramPug has an inch higher BB than a stock Pugsley and while a stock 4" tyre Pugsley is more comfortable over the roots the 3" tyre Krampus rims and tyres have little to no rebound so your more in control.
The longer swing arm with the monkey nuts installed has changed the ride of the Pugsley too, harder to wheelie but a nice drifty rear end when i later rode sweeping wind dust trails nearby at Winton Hill, again this has made the KramPug concept more sit down XC type than Krampus out of the saddle and going for it, so it is ideal for East Lothians varied trails...
Root fest! ...
There is now new trails leading off of the old loop since i first rode around here way back in the late 1980s, but the original woodland loop is still the same, and if you have ridden here you will know it is a bit of a workout with the exposed roots.
I did a non stop Chest Camera film with the Go Pro camera, of a 10 minute lap of the original 1 1/2 mile boundary trail around Butterdean Wood to show you how good this trail is. I could have went a bit quicker but its the end of a weeks busy work and so i sat most of the bits where i could, 10 mins on the pedals is a long time!. If you ride here then take note this is a fully ridged bike being ridden around here over the roots, that's how good the 29+ concept is. Be great when the Surly `Dirt Wizard` tyres come out for UK mud conditions, be up here mid winter for more film on those slimy slippy roots...
Honking around here i was caked in sweat and shredded my arms on over hanging thorn bushes,
So you make your self a coffee or cup of tea, or open a cider, and sit back while i do the work...
Song is `Primary (extended)` by The Cure
click on the cog icon to view in HD
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While i was at Pencaitland i caught with friend
Mike and i got back a Surly Tugnut which i need for the Karate Monkey 29er as it is going single speed now. Then Dave G turned up and once Mike had to go to work i went to Dave`s house for a pizza and also a catch up, Ended up buying Dave`s standard Pugsley wheel set as he has upgraded to a Hope hub wheel set, and also bought an as new Endomorph tyre, so came home with a load of Surly goodies...
So with some old discs i had fitted, and a decent Larry tyre up front i now have if needed another Pugsley... -:)
So is that me done building Pugsleys?. nope!
The `Jugsley` will be A BUILD build ON A NEW BLACK Pug frame with the Jones truss steel fork i already have over the coming winter months, it will be Hope hubbed, Marge Lites, folding Knards, Middleburn square taper/ 100mm Phil Wood BB, and be a real light XC 2x9 Pugsley...
This is why i like Surly bikes, with all the same hub sizes, many of the parts i have on them have been on other older bikes and transferred over onto new builds.
Always loads of options with these bikes reusing existing parts from others as they get up graded or down graded to older parts. It is like the Meccano or Lego you had as a kid, always loads of build options
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