Richard is from Portland, OR. His astute reading, and loyal following of the fat-bike.com site, revealed Gomez’s stickers-for-a-story offer and this prompted him to send in this story about his Moonlander! Thanks, Richard! He says:
After several years of lusting over fat bikes I decided to pick up a Surly Moonlander. I went with the Moonlander because I wanted 135mm spacing and horizontal dropouts for a IGH setup in the future. This version came with the offset fork which gives me a bail out of 22t cog on the front in case the IGH fails.
The bike is a stock build aside from Chromag OSX bars, ODI Rogue grips, Avid 200mm HS1 rotors, Salsa stem, and WTB Silverado saddle off a Salsa Fargo. Bag duties are handled by Revelate.
Up front on the fork mounts we have a Growler Cage which also fits a large Hydro-Flask…hmm cold beer or water all day, perfect. My Moonlander is special to me because it has changed my outlook on trail riding. It’s made me slow down so I’m not just bombing down trails, and giving me a new approach to old lines while taking in more of the scenery.
Before winter the bike will be fitted with pogies and the Alfine 8 IGH.
Another thing I love about fat bikes is that it’s intrigued my wife to the point of building her a Pugsley and getting her on the trails with me.
Thanks for showing us your bike(s), Richard!
Do you have a fat-bike that you are passionate about, makes your life better and that you think our readers would dig hearing about? Shoot me a note to greg@fat-bike.com and we will check it out.
Great bike – love the growler cage. Will the front wheel work as a rear if your IGH fails? Fork offset is different to the frame so your wheel dish will be different, no?
Front and rear have same off-set, 28mm I believe…unless one has a symetrical fork.
Aha! Thanks. I’m looking at buying a Moonlander frame (UK) and they all seem to have the symetrical fork – I didn’t realise it also came with the 28mm offset to match the frame.