Surly Karate Monkey for micro adventures
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- čas přidán 26. 07. 2024
- I've owned this Karate Monkey (I call purple nurple) for about 3 years now. I've gone between single speed and gear 8 times. Going back to gear now, and swapping out a Ritchy Venture-Max drop bar for my Jones H-bar. I really like this set up for slow meandering in the country and micro-adventures.
#surly #karatemonkey #bikepacking
Awesome video. Looking foward to see more bike working and your routine.
Thank you! I appreciate that. I’m looking forward to filming more of that stuff. 👍
Thank you as always, sir! Getting me in the right frame of mind for the forthcoming weekend. I need to replace the chainring, chain, cassette and all the cables on my pavement pounder/commuter. It's covered in 6 months of road grime so I've put aside all day Friday to can strip it back to the frame, clean everything and get it running nice and smooth for the summer.
Right on! Always excited to do the spring tune knowing it will be followed by warmer riding weather 😃👍
What a great bike.
Thank you!
After looking this Video 5 times ill get used to the purple....normally I would go for boring black...but this looks GREAT!
Thanks! Yeah it does start to grow on you after a bit. The same thing happened to me when I was in the bike shop deciding if I wanted to buy it or not. 👍
if I lived somwhere that flat I'd be on bike a lot more :D
I've been running the Jones bars on my bikepacking bike for 5 years now, as well as the similar Surley bar on my Fatbike. They are the best! Once this chaos is all over we should meet up for a Strathmore Bikepacking adventure. When I am out riding around on my bikepacking rig around town I sure get strange looks... Pretty sure there are not many people who even know what it is.
Yes! Let’s do it for real! We can formally start the Strathmore Bikepacking association or BPA! Are you on Instagram? We could dm through something like that. I would just give you my email address but every time I leave it in the comment section I get a new batch of companies who think I should be on their mailing list 😆
Since moving to Strathmore a year ago I have joked about being the only member of that Association. @ar700bike on Instagram.
Oh sweet! We already follow each other there 😆👍
heyy,cool video, cool place you live, im thinking to make my tomac flint 29 er for a rigid bike micro bike packer,do you think is a bit silly thing to put a dropbar on a xc frame , i have installed a salsa firestarter carbon fork ,now I just need to get a wide dropbar , or a surly moloko would be better ? no jones bars here in europe i guess, so have to go with surly-- or salsa parts ... thinking of walmer bars but thats again just from australia which gives me headeache .. thanks for the tip :)
Nice! Still a little cold outside...
Yeah it is. Slowly warming up 👍
Nice
Thank you 👍
5:45 … “handy dandy” sounds like something ned flanders would say.
Hahahaha 👍
That purple nurple is a pretty bike. I want a KM. I don't know of anyone that's made a monkey comfortable with drop bars. I don't know if its really possible given its geometry. For comparison to a Fargo, which was designed with dropbars in mind; reach (all medium) KM = 427, Fargo = 368; stack KM = 597, Fargo = 643. Others follow, head tube length, ETT all very different. I mean, I suppose it could work as I've seen drop bar Ogres, and until recently Ogre and KM had the exact same geo. The ETT on a medium KM is 610. That's longer than my road bike. I think that long reach is why so many like it with the swept back bars like your Jones. Maybe try a major reduction in stem length next time you break out the dropbars given that the drops are increasing your already longer reach?
Hope it works out for you. One nice thing of drops is (if they're wide enough) you can more easily run handlebar bags than on the altbar/H bar style bars. Although you've fixed that obstacle with the 24 pack. I think I might try the Jone's on my Ogre after looking more closely at the geometry from these bikes. Either that or the KOGA Denham bar.
Excellent input, thank you very much! I had not looked into those numbers but it does make a lot of sense.
@@jeremygoertz I did a very similar set up to what you had on your KM on a Krampus. AKA Drop bars with integrated shifters. I even ordered a slightly smaller frame to give room to add a longer stem for the drop bars. All in all it worked (and looked fantastically punk rock), but I could never get past a sense that it just felt like something was a bit off. The sensation was a lot like the bike just didn't want to initiate into turns. Personally, I figured that the biggest factor was the slacker head tube angle. Oh well, I swapped it to a regular flat bar set up, and hot dog the Krampus rips now! Thanks for sharing your experience in experimenting with things like this. It really is helpful to know people's real world experiences with various set ups.
Damn legit bear trap pedals. Big bucks nowadays
Yeah. I need to redo the bearing in them. I had a few other sets that I sold on bikes over the past 5 years. Shoulda take them off 😆👍
Did you try bringing the bars in, instead of up? I've found bringing them in is a more noticable difference in relaxing the comfort.
That is a very interesting point, thank you. I might have to look for an even shorter stem and see what difference that makes. 👍
Cool vid, what size KM are you riding? Is that 29 or 27.5 mode?
Thank you. It’s a large with 29 👍
I was thinking some Jones bars would be nice
Cut to so I’m gonna put my Jones bars back on
Yeah, I have such a weird time with Jones bars. For certain riding (mostly just very relaxed) I really enjoy them. As soon as I’m riding anything that is even slightly technical, I don’t like them at all.
@@jeremygoertz that confirms my thoughts and experience. I've ran a 35° back sweep M-Bar for the past month and I ordered a 27.5° one cause it's too anfled for me. I can't imagine absorbing road bumps with a 45° bar
@@jeremygoertz I'm experimenting trying to find the right amount back sweep. I ordered the Ritchey Kyote handlebar (27.5°)
Having those multi position bars are awesome, especially when you get that hand nerve pinch numbness thingy. WAY back in '89 I got a set of Scott AT4's on my Team Issue Marin Pine Mountain. Man, those were some bars. Bit on the flexy side as they were shimmed (no center bulge). But on a 6 hr ride, they were the bomb. Stretch out like on triathlon bars and just jam.
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Man that first gear is huge, what number of teeth is that!?
And is there any reason for the small frame for a tall guy?
Been biking all my life i'm down to 5 working bike now, spent my teenage summers as a bike tech at a local bike shop here in Montreal.
Yeah it’s a 46 tooth. Wanted to try it out, certainly more than I will probably ever need. This is a large frame and I’ve found the new KMs fit a little on the smaller side. I had a KM back in 2008 and those seamed to have a longer seat tube for the frame size. Ultimately I didn’t want to wait to order a new one in so I just bought the large they had in store. I’m 6’2” and finding large enough bikes would be way easier if I were 4” shorter 😆👍
@@jeremygoertz hi! im 5'10" what KM frame size u recommend? thanks
If you ever buy again I think you would like a larger frame
I was thinking that too: Seat almost fully extended and bar risers raised up. A size higher may be very nice. He said he likes the size though.
grapes Apes
the frame appears to be too small for you, the seatpost is high and your posture seems cramped?!!! still nice bike, and for sure no pun intended!!!
I get that comment a lot but most folks that ride Karate Monkey’s have a lot of seat post sticking up. Also the frame geometry is designed to be a little tighter for single track riding. This is a large and I would fit on a xtra large (the biggest one they make) but even with that I would have a lot of seat post. The ultimate thing though is that this bike feels super comfortable to me so I’m happy enough with it 👍
The drop bars look to me to have the brake hoods to low..
Too*
The new KM is not meant to ride with drop bars.
Isn´t that bike frame a little bit small for your height? Maybe is that the reason you don´t find the sweet spot.
This is a large and I probably should have ordered in a xtra large but didn’t want to wait for a few weeks. Having said that, the Karate Monkey is designed with these dimensions as it’s design to be used for trail ripping with a dropper post. By the measurements from Surly, I’m right on the range for this frame size. The top tube is really long on this bike and was designed for flat bars. I think that’s the reason so many have a hard time making these comfortable with drops. 👍
@@jeremygoertz By the height you have the seat post it seemed to me that the top tube´s lenght was shorter on this frame. Maybe, the camera´s view confused me.
I see it is easy to social distance yourself where you live.
Yes, very easy 😄👍
because this is more like a mtb, isn't it? thats probably why the dropbars won't work
Ride one for a while. Maybe after that you’ll have some insight for me.
Nice
Thank you!