Bikes Of 2024: Karate Monkey

It's another late November/December here on the blog. You know what that means? Yep! Another round of my bikes I used in 2024. This round-up will not include some of the bikes I did not use this year much, or at all. I focus only on the bikes that played a big role in my riding during this year.  

As always, any changes or future plans for any bike I feature will also be detailed. I hope that you enjoy this year's round-up. 

The Karate Monkey I've had since 2003

This bike is a survivor, a bike that was an example of a trend that was destined to take over mountain biking, and a bike that is dear to me for several reasons. The 2003 Karate Monkey in Campstove Green. Now a commuter bike, for the most part, it is still one of my favorite bikes. 

The bike is a "survivor" because I almost had to retire it permanently at one point. Before it became my main gravel bike in 2004/2005, the Karate Monkey was at first my main mountain bike, then it went into commuter duty for several years. This meant it was ridden through Winter for several Winter's worth of salt, grime, and precipitation. This ended in a situation where my bottom bracket went bad and I needed to replace it, but it was frozen into the steel frame. 

The Karate Monkey was my first gravel grinder. Here seen in 2006

I was busy, I was doing a LOT of review work on 29" bicycles and products, so the Karate Monkey ended up being pushed to the darkest corners of the shop for several years. Then, around 2013, I decided to start working on the bike again. It took quite the effort, but the bottom bracket was extracted, and the Karate Monkey lived again to ride another day about eight or nine years ago now.

Last year I converted the Karate Monkey back to a flat bar bike for the first time in about 20 years! I did ride it flat bar at first, but not for very long. Now it is not only back to a flat bar, but I installed cantilever brakes last year for the first time on this bike.  

The set up hasn't changed for this year, but I did install a WTB TPU tube in the back tire for testing which has been awesome so far. I commuted on this bike for much of the year, but recently that duty has fallen to a couple of other bikes which you will see here soon in this series. 

As far as any future changes go I may return this bike to a drop bar set up with disc brake wheels and brakes if I should decide to start doing some more gravel riding on it again. But I am waffling on that point. I do think new tires are in order, at least for commuting duty. We will see. One thing is for certain though and that is that this bike is not getting retired anytime soon!