Trolls!

[goldfinch]

The trolls are sweet. Why are you dropping the studded tires?

[Thorn]

The trolls are sweet. Why are you dropping the studded tires?

Not dropping the studs, upgrading the studs. My commute is over an hour one way. Nothing wrong with the Kendas, but the Marathon Winter are a more bullet proof studded tire. When the temps drop to below freezing, I want that little bit of more reliability.

[OakLeaf]

Very cool!

But, if I named a bike "Detritus," I can't imagine I'd ever be able to bring myself to wash it...

[Owlie]

Dry humor, you say? Putting it on my list of things to watch.

Awesome bikes!

[Miranda]

Those bikes are absolutely awesome!

Thanks for sharing,

[Atlas]

Bumping an older thread because I'm wondering how your Troll worked out this winter? I'm thinking of getting one to build up as a winter commuter/all season commuter.

[Thorn]

Bumping an older thread because I'm wondering how your Troll worked out this winter? I'm thinking of getting one to build up as a winter commuter/all season commuter.

Hard to tell...."what winter?" But seriously, I like the beast. It took me a while to get used to it, but once I did, it works well. I had a couple of snow days and the bike handled well. It is a very steady-as-she-goes bike which is what I wanted in a winter bike. I put on a short 1000 miles on it (a normal winter would have seen about 1200). It makes a good commuter.

I thought that just having the splash guards (vs full fenders) would be a problem, but not really. I have seen pictures of Trolls with full fenders, but my LBS took the easy way out and it is working. On really snowy days I had to kick snow off the downtube (like the build up you get in your car's wheel wells), but other than that, no issues.

Note: I do not recommend the Kenda Klondike tire. Big, heavy, slow monsters. Replacing with the Schwalbe Marathon Winters made a huge difference. There are probably snow conditions the Klondike would have been better for, but I did 2.5" of fresh snow, ice, and yesterday's leftover snow with the Marathons with no issues. Given that I often have to take the Troll on days when it is 25 with ice in the morning and 45 and sunny in the afternoon, having a nicer rolling tire makes a difference.

And I'll probably be swapping out the Metro bars for standard riser bars. Nothing wrong with the Metro bars, I just think I'm more of a straight bar person.