Ryan Frahm might have something to say on this subject? Think he sold a Susie & got a Hardtack or a Moonshiner. Not sure.
Sent from my iPhone On Mar 11, 2025, at 4:39 PM, J G <cjust...@gmail.com> wrote:
Just a couple of thoughts to share as someone who had a custom built similar to this back in 2016:
This bike will take 4" 26er tires or 3" 27.5 and is currently pictured with 4" x 26.
Built to be a low Q, pure drop bar off road bike as an experiment and alternative to all of the proper dirt drop setups I run. If you have seen my comments on this subject here before, I draw a significant distinction between drop bar and dirt drop setups. This was designed around Cowchippers and it is fine for rolling doubletrack, but it is not fun for real aggressive singletrack. Riding hoods for technical trails is painful on my wrists and the curved drops provide poor ramps as a comfortable platform. I tried to channel my inner Tomac and it was not fun. I love dirt drops for off road, but hate traditional drops and associated setups for such when off-road is rocky, rooty and technical. Chunky ATV trails might be just fine however. For my use cases, bike refit with LD and Woodchippers.
Woodchippers are the finest off road drop bar I have used (Have run WTB, Midge etc.) and the long flat ramps and a setup where the drops are the only position with levers optimized allows for a loose grip in the hooks, a ton of control and the ability to move your weight fore and aft on the long ramps.
Jones bars getting some love here as well and I will pile on to that. If I am not running Woodchippers, I am generally running Jones and have even had custom Jones sweep bars built by Black Sheep for one of my Rivs. Jones bikes are great as well although mine is a Spaceframe from the early days with Merlin so strictly SWB experience here.
Good luck with your decision and let your riding style and terrain you frequent determine what will work best for you. Have fun and keep the shiny side up!
-Justus Mpls, MN On Tuesday, March 11, 2025 at 2:34:33 PM UTC-5 rmro...@gmail.com wrote:
Bill L mentioned LaCabra. By all accounts a swell bike that might fit the bill? And on sale right now (?) for a bargain price. Also & for what it’s worth; Jones are fantastic - loved mine. But I sold mine along with other bikes to get my Gus. Jones was my favorite ever MTB - until I got the Gus. Sent from my iPhone I must say the Moonshine sure does look rather good in that color combo ! 3" tires would certainly open up more possibilities for terrain. I wouldn't worry abut the "new" parts on it, you'd figure it out. Gotta start somewhere. As a now drop bar well below the saddle Bomba rider, all I can say is drop bars for rough terrain is awesome. It's not anything new as drop bar mtb's date back to the 80's.
On Tuesday, March 11, 2025 at 2:43:19 PM UTC-4 George Schick wrote:
Interesting bike, this Moonshiner. Also interesting replies from some Riv owners. I find it fascinating that, viewing the pics of the Moonshiner on their website, that it's set up with 3" tires and, amazingly more so, drop bars on an off-road bike like that. Geez... you'd think that would be a travesty among Riv-ish types with their absolute penchant for large upright, swoopy bars mounted to mile high stems for bikes like this. Wonders never cease ...
On Tuesday, March 11, 2025 at 11:50:18 AM UTC-5 maxcr wrote:
Hi Bunch,
Can you please talk me out of my latest crazy idea. As the title says, I'm considering parting ways with my 2TT blue Bombadil to free up funds and space for a Tanglefoot Moonshiner.
As always, I feel like I have too many bikes and too many projects for my lifestyle and available time. Yet, I find myself looking at bikes and wondering if they would be a better fit for my stable and whether I should give them a try (as an aside I just acquired a NOS Quickbeam prototype built by Curt Goodrich and painted by Joe Bell in a deep cobalt blue which I need to build - why do I keep doing this?).
Back to MTB: The logic is as follows: as beautiful and elusive as the Bombadil is, it is very similar to my Hunqapilar in terms of capabilities. They are both beautiful in their own right, but they are comparable frames. For whatever reason, I'm in love with the Hunqa, it's my most comfortable bike and don't have any plans to sell it so it's the Bomba that might go to the chopping block. Now, the Moonshiner is described as a bike for 'super chunky ATV trails'. To be honest, I don't go out to the mountains in Vermont (or anywhere else) that often, but I am sometimes tempted by the rides organized by Analog Cycles and I feel like might end up underbiking with my 2.1" Thunderburts on the Hunqa. This might be heresy for this group, since the moonshiner would have more modern components, disc brakes and 3" tires. I don't have much experience with any of these new fancy looking parts, but for context I'm looking at this: https://analogcycles.com/products/tanglefoot-moonshiner-large-demo-sram-gx-rival-12-speed (another cool alternative would be a Jones spaceframe)
The biggest con to this whole endeavor is that if I sell the Bomba, it's unlikely that I could replace it later since they just don't come up for sale ever and I don't want to regret letting it go.
What do you all think?
Thanks Max
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bun...@googlegroups.com.
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/492c0967-41c0-4262-8c76-9bb450f2a543n%40googlegroups.com.
<IMG_0021 (4) 2.JPG>
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/9C669125-EB87-437B-BBEF-5A6BD10F9F5E%40gmail.com.
|
