Bikes Of 2020: The Blackborow DS

The Blackborow DS as seen in January of 2020.

 It's THAT time of year again when I have my year-end reviews. This series will cover my bikes I used during 2020, any changes made, and why I still like each one- or don't! Thanks for reading!

Snow. Ice. The cold of winter is coming....maybe? Last year we experienced a Winter so unlike that of others it cannot be expected that we will see anything like it again for a while. maybe. You just never know, right? I mean, this is 2020! 

But the Blackborow DS almost didn't get used at all. January started out being unseasonably warm. We had several 50+ degree days and even one that I documented which went over the 60 degree mark. Weird! And I just do not use this bike unless conditions actually warrant it. 

Then in mid-month, we got it! The snows came and the white stuff mounted up so that I had several great rides on the Blackborow DS. Of course, being between jobs as I was then, I had plenty of opportunities to take advantage of good days to ride. This meant that I was able to discover that I could get this bike to do some pretty incredible things. 

The nearly five inch wide tires, Surly Buds in this case, on 100mm wide Surly Clownshoe rims, makes for a very capable rig to slog through 8" of untracked snow, if you have a mind to do that. I did and I did. Ride it through 8" of snow that is. Of course, the Blackborow DS can do a LOT more than that, but when I have so many options in bikes, this rig only sees time when the conditions specify that only this bike will do. And January provided those conditions in spades. This lasted a month. By mid-February it went all to mush and by the end of that month I'd swapped over to riding gravel and the Blackborow DS went back down into storage for the year. It was a fantastic month of riding though, so good that I called it out as probably the third best fat biking season I'd ever experienced.

The bike? No changes. None necessary. In fact, the bike is so good the only thing I have ever swapped out is the handle bar for a Jones Carbon Loop Bar. Even the tires are tubed on this rig! Which leads me to say that in the area of tires and wheels, I would make a change, but it would be a very expensive one for not a lot of gain in practical terms. 

That, of course, would be to go to a new tubeless wheel set with carbon rims and new tubeless tires. That sort of an upgrade would likely run me what I paid for this bike. So, in other words, I'd have twice as much wrapped up into a bike I use- at most- three months out of a year, likely less than that. So, it just doesn't make sense. 

But never say never, right? 

Look for more "Bikes of 2020" posts coming soon.