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| No decals! |
I decided to take the plunge and I ordered a new Salsa Cycles Mukluk Ti, or in other words, a titanium Mukluk frame and steel Enabler fork.
Having seen other titanium Salsa Cycles products, I was quite aware of the quality of workmanship that a titanium fat-bike from them would bring to the table. When I saw that Salsa was going to do a flotation bike last year, I knew a titanium one would follow shortly. It just made too much sense. Then when the call went out for pre-orders to Salsa Cycles dealers, like the shop where I work, I jumped on the bandwagon. I didn't know exactly when it would come in, but it has now, and I will begin getting parts for this rounded up.
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| The Muk 1 comes with a SS dropout and a geared one. |
Since most of the year is snow-free here, the titanium bike will be the non-snow rig. (But that doesn't mean I would not ever use it in snow!)
The tentative plan now is to go 1X9 or 10 with a SRAM TT shifter on a Paul's mount thumbie style. If I gear correctly, it should be just peachy for almost anywhere I go with this bike. I will be using an ISIS crank, but I have not determined what it will be just yet. For times I go to the mountains, I may swap over to a Origin 8 Sub Compact crank for even lower gear choices and then I'll use an XT direct mount 2X derailleur. But for now, it's 1X. I may even do a single speed set up at some point.
The wheels will be a bit different. I am going to use a Surly rear single speed hub as a front hub and a Salsa Cycles rear 170OLD hub. These will be laced to Fatback UMA II 70mm rims that are drilled out. No need to have the widest rims on a summer fat bike build, and the Fatback rims will be lighter than Rolling Darryls too. Tires will eventually be Husker Du's. (They are not quite available yet.) I also have spare 3.8 Larry tires to swap over to if I desire.
The rest of the build will be pretty swanky stuff, most of which I already have. Chris King head set, FSA stem, carbon bars, and carbon seat post. I'll probably get a WTB SST saddle on there, and Ergon Bio-cork grips. Brakes will be the new Elixir 9's from Avid in a pewter hue, which should go well with titanium. The blades will be carbon fiber on those as well.
It will be awhile before this one is ready to roll, but I will put up some progress reports on the build as I go. Stay tuned for the "as yet to be named" titanium Mukluk!
6 comments:
oh man, that is gonna be one sweet ride (to add to all your other sweet rides!).
+1 for By-Tor
Congrats on the Ti Muk. I have been riding a ti selma and a ti mariachi and they are wonderful bikes. I would really like to see a full coverage fender for my pugsley. I friend took a cascadia 29er fender, cut it lengthwise with a band saw and expanded it. Lots of work was put into it but it is perfect.
Ari
what about a white brothers carbon fork?
@Efrain Aguiluz: The White Brothers Snow Pack is a fine fork. However; it is very expensive and only saves a minimal amount of weight over the stock Enabler fork. Added to this is the lack of versatility of the White Brothers fork, which has no braze ons, and also requires a specific hub, thus eliminating the possibility of swapping it over to my other Mukluk if that became necessary.
Hey GT, long time reader etc etc...
I'm seriously thinking of a Muk' Ti myself. Currently the only thing stopping me the rear hub spacing. See... I'm an IGH kinda' guy.
I was thinking of getting a custom LH Alternator dropout machined by my local framebuilder to allow for the "extra" 35mm. What do you think?
Also regarding forks... what about http://www.german-a.de/en/flame.html
@Elvis: Thanks for your comment and for reading!
I think it would work fine. Obviously, Salsa offers a similar drop out adapter for the aluminum Mukluk, so a swinging drop out shouldn't be an issue from a technical stand point. Now getting the design, machining, and cost covered might be a different kettle of fish!
Good luck!
ps: LOVE the ride of the Ti Muk so far. Definitely worth it.
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