Two similar do-it-all bikes from the world's biggest small bike company, the Straggler and the Crosscheck are both great practical machines. They've both got sensible, comfortable steel frames with room for fat tyres and mounts for mudguards/racks, and they're both at home around town, on a tour, or riding down dirt roads and trails. Here's what we think their key differences are: 1. Brakes. The Crosscheck has V-brakes, whereas the Straggler has discs. 2. Geometry. The Straggler is a little racier, with a lower BB and a few other tweaks. The Crosscheck is a little more stable. 3. Options. Both bikes have a couple of variants in addition to the ones you see here. The Crosscheck SS is a complete singlespeed bike...
Every now and then we find a product that we think is really awesome. This piece of kit is a dream come true for home mechanics and race days - a top-quality floor pump that also effortlessly beads up tubeless-ready tyres. It's perfect to keep in the car in case you burp all the air out of your tyre, or if want to install new tubeless-ready tyres at home. We've already nabbed one for shop events. If you're interested, we have one on the shop floor for demonstration, and you can find them for sale on our website.Here's how it works:1. Uh-oh, one seriously burped tyre. Well actually, we just deflated it. 2. Pump it up. Pre-pressurise the pump's internal reservoir (or...
We've all been contemplating the Surly Krampus demo that has been sitting in our showroom for a while - is it a fatbike, an adventure machine, a big trail bike, or what? This weekend Lewis finally took it out for a couple of hours at Bethunes & Forrester, and here's what he has to say:"Within minutes it was clear that the Krampus is a proper trail-ready mountain bike. I've ridden fatbikes before - they're ponderous and super-stable, but the Krampus has a long, low toptube, a slack(ish) headangle, and a short wheelbase considering the size of the tyres. Consequently the handling is pretty snappy considering the size of the tyres; with the modern geo it actually handles better than my rigid On-One...
Shimano XTR Di2 is the first commercial electronic MTB shifting system. Yeah, we know it's expensive (we haven't nailed down pricing but expect it to be about $2500ish for the deraillers & shifters alone... ouch), but it's undeniably bloody cool. How does it ride? We don't know yet... the Shimano reps have given us very clear instruction to keep this demo system in the showroom, but bikeradar have a great video here. Our first impressions are that it's very, very slick and smooth. The shift triggers require a firmer push than their Di2 road counterparts, and this is probably a good thing for mountain bikers. The rear derailleur always moves with pinpoint accuracy, and the front derailleur automatically trims to match -...
The other day this guy comes into the shop... turns out he's Monty Bevins, a singer song writer and about to embark on a country wide bicycle tour, singing gigs along the way. So after chatting a while he tells us he'd be keen to use our bicycle showroom for a little gig after the trip to show off some photos and sing some songs! How could we turn that down!? So Bike Otago is now officially hosting its first ever gig on Friday May 1st, 530pm. Not sure what we'll do about alcohol, but we'll figure something out... Check out Monty in the video below. Turns out he's got an incredible sound and we're a little ashamed not to...
