Bikes Of 2025: Black Mountain Cycles MCD

 It's another end-of-year period on the blog. You know what that means? Yep! Another round of my bikes I used in 2025. 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 Black Mountain Cycles MCD has been a part of the stable now since 2018. This is kind of a transitional model between the Monster Cross and the Mod Zero model currently offered by Black Mountain Cycles. So, this MCD has been discontinued, but a Mod Zero is a great alternative and better in some ways to the MCD. (In case you were wanting something like this bicycle.)

I always wanted a pink bicycle. I am maybe weird this way, but ever since "Captain Dondo" wrote about his pink Specialized mtb in "Dirt Rag" I have thought about owning a pink bicycle. Then I missed out on Mike Varley's offering of a pink BMC Monster Cross model and I was sure I missed the boat there. However; in 2018 Mike tipped me off about his offering a pink MCD model, one of the first of the run of this model, and I bought in immediately. 

I think of the MCD as my "skinny tire Fargo", or a Vaya-like bicycle. I've ridden both extensively on gravel and there are characteristics of both Salsa models in this MCD. That's a good thing. 

In fact, initially I set the MCD up to mimic exactly my then Fargo Gen I set up. It made this bike instantly comfortable and easy to get along with. 

I swap out wheels so much on this bicycle I never really get a chance to hone in on anything super-specific about the way it rides, but I'll just say it is very good. 

Changes? Well, maybe sticking to a single wheel set and tire combination for a season! I might switch out more components to GRX, or maybe a new group set at some point. I have enjoyed the carbon VentureMax handle bar on this bike, so this component will not change. 

My only big change I really want to see is riding more on this bicycle than I did in 2025. The MCD was minimally used this year, and I often wished it could have been out with me more than it was. This will be a goal for 2026.