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I've found a used Karate Monkey Ops in great condition. The only trouble is I won't be able to view it. If any owners could give me a heads up on sizing it would be really appreciated.
The bike in question is a medium and I'm just north of 5ft 8" with a 31.5" actual inseam and long arms. My last two bikes have been a 17.5 2014 Trans am 29er and the same sized 26 wheeled Bfe. I can't find anywhere locally where I can go sit on a KM either 🙁
I know it's a tricky question as everyone is sized differently, but if anybody can give me feedback that would be great.
http://surlybikes.com/bikes/legacy/karate_monkey/karate_monkey_ops
Hope that helps. The Surly size guide is on the site too.
I bought an Ops back in December. I'm 5'11" (and a half) and bought a large.
Thanks Normalman. For some reason I didn't look at the Surly site 😳
How are you finding the Monkey, what are you using it for?
No worries.
General mile munching (bimbling) although I might do some endurance event with my son at some point while I still can!
I've only had a few rides as I picked up an injury which kept me off the bike for 6 weeks.
I really like it. It's a bit less playful than the Solaris it was bought to replace. But it's really stable and comfortable. I'm very happy with it.
I'm going to change the stem to one slightly shorter to see if that helps with the only real negative I've found. That being on some of the land rover type tracks across grassland that I use, I find that the front wheel is harder to get off the ground when hopping from line to another. It might be just my technique that needs tweaking but as I'm at the lower end of the size chart for a large, a shorter stem shouldn't hurt either.
A couple of threads you might find interesting:
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/show-me-your-karate-monkeys-please
Also my comments in a touch more detail within this thread:
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/solaris-at-140-mm-travel#post-8290765