Reader’s Ride(s) – Something Wicked This Way Comes

Written by Spinner Ryerson

This is my Krampus.  It’s my coolest bike ever.  I think it’s cooler than yours, but that’s arguably arguable.  The only things cooler that I can think of are:

Absolute Zero and possibly Bill Murray. In that order.

Krampus finished build

With the green frame I had a few ideas for color combos. I had a few suggestions that a Gold set up would look great, but for some reason I had purple on my mind as well.

I began working through the bike parts catalog and setting up my component list for the Green and Gold Krampus, when it was brought to my attention, that there is a football team in my new state (of just a year) with those same colors, and how cool that would be. I hit myself in the forehead. I’m an avid football fan and I hail from The Land of 10,000 lakes. Green and Gold was out of the question.

Then a pretty girl brought in an older but well kept Raleigh road bike.

It had a darker green frame and bright orange bar tape.  She was on to something.  And the color scheme for my Krampus started coming together.

Brilliantly Clashing, or Hideoulsy Beautiful.  It was just the right kind of Awesome Ugly.

Bonus – I was able to switch over most of my Salsa El Mariachi parts to this new beast.

The Old:

I had gotten the bars for $10 from Over The Edge Sports in Fruita, CO a couple years ago after snapping my previous set on the 18 road trails.  Those were going to stay.

The cranks, Hope EVO2 hubs, bottom bracket, Avid cable brakes, levers, and Ritchey seatpost all came over from my El Mariachi. It appeared online that there was quite a bit of confusion around that possibility because most people were thinking that the Krampus was a fat bike build with fat bike hubs and bottom bracket.  Well it ain’t.  The hub spacing is standard 100mm front and 135mm rear and the bottom bracket shell is the standard 73mm.  I had Tim tear down the old wheels and lace up the old hubs to the new Rabbit Hole rims.

The New:

The rim strips are lined with orange trail marking tape, which was left over from the First annual Platty Fatty in Plattucky (that’s Platteville, WI for the uninitiated).

I opted for a fresh set of Salsa skewers, cables and housing from Jagwire,

I decided to go with the new RaceFace grips to round out the front up top.

The headset is 44mm, not the standard 1 1/8″ that I had on the Mariachi.  I didn’t realize I needed that when I ordered it but caught on real quick once I started building it up and was able to get a 44 next day.

Of course the old 29er rims and tires would work but just wouldn’t do.   Surly Rabbit Hole Rims and Knard 29×3 rubbers, the real reason you want this bike.

Add in some fancy shiny new orange Crank Bros candy pedals.

To top it off I threw in a little bling with the orange bottle cage, valve stem caps and brake rotor bolts.

Surly Tug Nut – a must have for running ss on sliding rear drop outs and quick release skewer combo

I’m loving this bike. It is 7lbs lighter than my Single Speed Pugsley coming in right around 29lbs. I kept the gearing 2:1 with a 34×17.

(Radioactive) Viking Blood at the Decorah Time Trials

Her initial “race” was the Home Opener: Decorah Time trials.

She’s on schedule for Chequamegon 100, SSUSA and the Blockhouse Roll this season.

Editors Note: Spinner is a registered Bike Black Ribbon Test Pilot and is rumored to have radioactive, Icelandic blood. Check back frequently to get updates on how our (tres) Krampus perform this season for Colin, Spinner and Paddlefoot, along with more 29+ news and reviews from all of our test pilots.