Bikes Of 2022: Black Mountain Cycles Monstercross

It's the end of the year and time to review what's up with the bikes I used over the course of 2022. You'll get a brief overview, any changes made, and what the future has in store for each bike listed. Enjoy!

Another 'long hauler' of my bicycle fleet, the Black Mountain cycles "Monstercross" I have came out of the very first batch of frames Mike Varley made available back in 2011. Due to that fact, my bike has a bit different geometry and a bit different front fork than many Monstercross bikes that came later on. 

That made this bike not the greatest on really loose gravel on high speed descents. I mean, you could ride it, but it was sketchy and didn't feel as planted and stable as I'd like a bike to be in that situation. So, the BMC "Orange Crush", as I like to call it, became a bit of a conundrum for me. I liked the bike, but it wasn't the best at gravel in my region. 

But after reverting back to single speed use, and after installing 180mm long cranks, which made me lower the saddle a tad, effectively negating that high bottom bracket to a small degree, I think that this bike has found its niche in my stable.

Then later this past Summer this bike became a part of a handle bar swap with the Fargo Gen I bike. It also brought the BMC "Orange Crush" back full circle to its beginnings here. Here's how it all started....

In 2014, late in the year, I had a bad fall on ice which was the second bad fall on my left shoulder that year. I really did a number on it and on my left side of my rib cage. In fact, early on during the 2015 riding season I determined that I pretty much had to ride a Luxy Bar or a Midge Bar as they were the only two handle bars I could use that allowed me to ride for more than about an hour. Otherwise my shoulder would ache so badly that I had to stop riding. 

That meant a bar swap for the Fargo Gen I to a Luxy Bar and my other green Gen 2 Fargo got a Midge Bar, as those were my "long haul gravel bikes" for 2015, for the most part. (Also, come to think of it, I got hit by a truck on the 2014 GTDRI as well, which may have contributed to all of this)

Anyway, I never swapped the bars back off the Gen I Fargo and the Gen 2 Fargo was sold. I decided that the old BMC would someday get Luxy Bars again, but it did not happen until I had to review a Kitchen Sink Bar Bag on the Gen I Fargo this Summer. That freed up the Luxy Bar I needed and that ended up on the Orange Crush. Whew! Sometimes things take a long time to work out around here! 

As far as any other changes I might want to upgrade things like the brakes and get a single speed specific rear wheel going for this bike. But it is fine as it is, really. So, I may just let it go.