Awhile back I introduced the Salsa Cycles Mukluk and also showed you my "Special Project" Mukluk Ti frame. Well, here is the complete build for your perusal.
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| Salsa Cycles Mukluk Ti |
Frame/Fork: 19"/Large Mukluk Ti frame
with a Salsa Enabler steel fork- The aluminum Mukluk I have is the same size, fits me
great, and that's why I got the titanium frame in the same size.
Result? Fits perfect, just as I expected. I could have gone with a
carbon fork, lost a bit of weight on the build, but at the cost of
versatility and at a much greater expense. Result? The Enabler fork
wins. I need that versatility, and the weight savings wasn't worth the
cost monetarily or in terms of limiting my options.
The
other reasons for getting this frame are many- First off is that,
(obviously), it is titanium. Weight savings were not the driving factor
here.What was the decision maker was ride quality. Sure, I could have
gotten a titanium El Mariachi, or another brand's titanium bike, but the
Mukluk Ti wins over all those for the fat bike factor. However; there
are options other frames made out of titanium for fat bike wheels cannot
match. I can put a single speed set up on this one, for instance. Plus,
it could be set up with drop bars, out fitted with racks and/or frame
bags, and be a touring bike for off road with either fat bike wheels or a
special set of 29"er wheels. Those same 29"er wheels can also turn this
into a full time geared or single speed off road bike for anywhere. I
could even use a suspension fork in that instance.
Wheels: Obviously
a very important component of a fat bike, the wheels were chosen to be
configured for year-round use. I went with 70mm Uma II rims from
Fatback Bikes via
Lacemine29.
Mike Curiak, the wheel builder at Lacemine29, recommended these rims
over all others for my purposes, and I am satisfied that these will be a
great balance of off-road-ability and fat biking strengths. They built
up very nicely, considering they bounced around my basement for three
months plus!
The rims also feature a bead seat, which
looks a lot like the ones you see on 29 inch tubeless type rims. Very
secure for ultra-low psi settings in softer conditions.
The hubs for this build are a hybrid set up. I used an old, rare
Surly single speed disc hub in anodized purple. The rear is a standard
Mukluk 2 hub in black anodized color, since Salsa doesn't offer purple hubs.....
yet. (Just
hoping out loud here!) The rims and hubs are connected by Wheelsmith
straight gauge spokes and brass nipples. Standard 3 cross build. Rim
strip, which is visible through the cut outs in the rim, is "chrome duct
tape". Surly tubes with wire bead Larry 3.8"ers, for the time being. I
plan on getting some
45NRTH Husker Du tires later in the winter or early spring.
Finally, to top off the wheels in the looks department are these pre-production
Salsa Cycles skewers
in anodized purple. These skewers are refined now to have captured
springs, washers, and stainless steel collars. These will become
available at some point. Don't know when though. These were kindly sent
over by Salsa Cycles, so that is as much as I know!
Other bits are purple as well. I'll get to those as I go along here, but for right now I'll mention that
Chris King head set in purple ano, which I've told the story about here before.
The brakes are new,
2012 Avid Elixir 9's.
These have some refinements in the master cylinder to make bleeding
more easy, as well as the calipers, which also were tweaked. The levers
are carbon, and the calipers are a kind of gun metal blue anodized hue.
The rotors are also new, as can be seen here. Elixir 9's basically take
the place of the current Avid Elixir CR models. These brakes were sent
over by SRAM at no charge for test and review, by the way. I will be
writing up my thoughts on those later on
Twenty Nine Inches.
I'll
also be shortening the rear brake line and using Avid's new bleed kit
to do that with, so stay tuned for how that process goes in the near
future.
Moving to the
handle bars and
stem, these were parts provided by
FSA from their SLK line of parts. Again, look for a review on those. The grips are
Ergon Bio-Kork models
which locked onto the FSA bar with zero issues so far. No twisting or
turning! Plus I get the comfy feel of the shape with the material which
shouldn't make my hands get cold in winter and have already proven
themselves in summer time for me.
I'm running one, lonely shifter which is a
SRAM TT shifter on a
Paul Components Thumbies mount. This shifts the
SRAM X-9 rear derailleur in gray and carbon over a
SRAM 10 speed cassette with a 36T low gear.
My crank set is the old, ISIS drive type Bontrager crank, (with removable spider!), which is mounted with an
E-Thirteen "Guide Ring" in their "Grape Drink" color that has 32 teeth. Hovering over this chain ring is a
MRP chain guide
which mounts from the bottom bracket, which is a FSA Platinum DH 100mm
spindle model. Gotta have a chain retention device of some sort with a
1X10 set up, and the MRP guide should keep the
Shimano 105 10 speed chain in line for me.
I
figured a 1X10 drive train would be more than enough for where I ride
these fat bikes here. On The Snow Dog, I rarely ever get out of the
middle ring at all. If I ever do want to go with more gearing range, it
will likely be lower, and I can add a granny ring to this crank set,
mount my other thumb shifter, and mount a direct mount front derailluer
for those times when low, low gears are necessary.
Of
course, I needed a chain guide with this set up, and it had to mount in
between the cup of the bottom bracket and the shell, and the MRP version
here does just that. The bottom bracket is the best you can get to fit
a 100mm wide shell in ISIS right now.
I
used some old, crappy Welgo flat pedals for now. At some point I will
replace these with nicer flats for winter and SPD's will go on for
spring, summer, and fall rides.
The seat collar is a
Salsa Cycles in purple ano. The seat post is another FSA SLK piece, and
that is crowned by one of my favorite saddles, a
WTB SST saddle.
So,
how does it ride? Really smoothly, and quite similar in handling to the aluminum version of the Mukluk I have. There really is nothing quite like a titanium frame, and this bike should provide years of enjoyment with a finish and material that defies aging, and it won't corrode.
If you are interested in something like this, we are capable of pulling parts from disparate sources together, as exampled here, to complete a build of your dreams. Let us know what we can do for you to get you that perfect bike.
Okay, that's my new Mukluk Ti, which has been dubbed "By-Tor". Hope ya'all enjoyed the tour!
