Trolls!

[Atlas]

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.

Ha, I totally understand about the "winter". We keep saying we're going to move so we can get some snow. Thanks for all the info.

[Thorn]

Can't believe I missed this. Those bikes are cool! And do I detect Brooks heaven?

Thanks...yes, we are a devoted Brooks household although I'm thinking of contacting Rivet and asking if they'll have a B-68 width road bike saddle. I saw a Rivet last week. Very nice....and I have a reliable early adopter source that says they hold up much better than the Selle Anatomicas ever did. One of my Anatomica-ized Brooks has distorted almost to the point of uncomfortable. But, then, it has almost 5-10K miles on it so I guess I shouldn't complain.

[tangentgirl]

never mind. just read through.

Cool bikes!