Friday News And Views

It's as if a Jones Bar and a Velo Orange Casey's Crazy Bar had an ill advised relationship.

Alt-Bar Action From Surly:

The Surly "Mothership" released some newsy bits on their plans for 2017 stuff. one of those bits was news about a handle bar dubbed the "Moloko Bar". Wait.....what? I've heard that name before.

I read some commentary on the Facebook page for Surly and someone mentioned a Gen I version that may or may not have seen the light of day. Then I knew I'd seen this bar before. Well, not this bar, but the Moloko Bar introduced at the 2012 Interbike show. That Moloko Bar. The new version is......well....... Goofy? Weird looking? Hmm.... I am not quite sure what to say about the looks. Maybe it works really well, but it almost defies description and not in a good way, necessarily.

I'm going out on a speculative limb here and I am going to say that it looks the way it does to avoid a lawsuit or some other legal action against it. Maybe I am wrong here, but the intentions of the bar seem to be very similar to the Jones Loop Bar and anything made close to that design might just draw the attention of the legal team. Maybe.

I sure could be wrong here, but when you see what the first Moloko Bar looked like, it might make more sense. I am not sure this version ever came out for sale, and if it didn't, I could be right and if it did, well, color me wrong. I'm okay with that.

The first Moloko Bar. Did anyone ever get a hold of one of these?

Well, I am not sure I'd ever get a Moloko Bar, and there are other reasons besides the looks. That will make more sense in the coming days, but that bar isn't what I am really excited about anyway. Nope, it is a tire that has me excited.

Imagine this in a 29" X 2.5" size. Yes, I can......

The Bigger Extraterrestrial:

 The 29"er version of the Extraterrestrial is coming out next year early. I have been rolling the 26"er version on my Surly 1X1 for almost a year now. This tire is flat out awesome in 26"er size, so I cannot imagine it will not be similarly great in a 700c format.

Yes- it will weigh a lot. But.....these tires wear like iron, can be set up tubeless, and roll like crazy. I can think of a couple of great reasons to own a set. This would be the bees knees on a Salsa Powderkeg Tandem, or they would be super cool on my Karate Monkey single speed bombing around town, or think of the possibilities of these tires on a Fargo. 

I will be getting a set when they come out. Then I will figure it out. You know......how to use them and on which bike. My initial feeling was that I would get them on my 2003 Karate Monkey because then that bike could be a great urban/gravel grinder machine. Would they fit? Don't know. Probably depends upon the wheel set I choose. These tires necessarily would need to have a wider rim to really work like they should, so a new wheel set would have to be set up. Yeah......I could do that. 

 Geezer Ride Update:

Yesterday I detailed a bit on the course for the Geezer Ride. However, I forgot to say that I have decided to modify a few bits. For one, I went a mile too far South on my initial leg, but it turned out for the better. Second thing was a decision to take a flatter section North in one part which I am sure many of you will appreciate when you find out Streeter Road, the route I originally penned in, is nothing but steep rollers. Plus, where we would have come out to turn off that road we would have had to have gone by a home that usually has four dogs that are all chasers. So, I put the ixnay on that choice.

By the way, the course revisions make the route 42.3 miles long. Not too shabby, and I managed to get Bennington School back in there, which was out as of yesterday. Can't leave that gem out of the equation!

Okay, it's the last big holiday for a while. End of Summer, and all of that, so go get rad, be safe, and have a ride on that two wheeled contraption thingie you probably have. It'll do ya good.