March In Like a Lion Rides

[north woods gal]

You guys are so nice! Thank-you for thinking of me. Like the looks of the Marin, but no one in our area carries that brand.

Well, I just went ahead and ordered the ECR 29+ from our friends at our local bike shop! Be here in a few days. These are such great folks and bend over backwards to help their customers. They really appreciate our business. Pretty tough to keep a bike shop going in an area with such a low population. Glad to help them.

Anyway, wasn't too hard to choose the ECR. Been looking at it for, years. Finally did it! Given my familiarity and loyalty to Surly bikes, about as safe a purchase as I could make. Even the components are familiar to me because I have them on our other Surlys. The components work and they last. Nothing fancy, but they're simple, durable, easy to work on, and a good value - typical Surly philosophy. May or may not do some upgrading, down the road, but it's mostly the ECR frame I wanted, anyway.

The frame and geometry of the ECR IS different from my Krampus. The ECR is about dirt, gravel, logging roads, roads of all kinds and carrying loads along the way. The Krampus is a trail bike, at heart and not so much a mule for carrying loads. Now that I have the ECR on the way, will convert the Krampus back to its original trail bike setup with more aggressive trail tires and a standard flat bar.

Yes, I have the original Pugsley and could do the cargo thing with it, up to a point. The Pugs uses an asymmetrical, offset frame design, though, which makes adding racks and carrying heavy loads a bit funky, not to mention those big fat and heavy wheels are really overkill on anything but the nastiest sand roads. We do have some of those in the area, though, so the Pugs will not be neglected.

Anyway, so relieved that the fretting and decision making is over. I now have a bike that I could load up with my camping gear and ride across the country on those rough, backcountry farm and ranch roads or just stay at home and load up with groceries or tools for working on my trials. Neat! Can't wait for the new bike. You know how that goes.

Again, thank you for thinking about me. Will report back on the ECR.