[url=https://flic.kr/p/TYj9No]Dune under[/url] by Kayak23, on Flickr
It is just a fantastic bike. Can’t fault it one bit…..but, you know how it is….
I love steel frames. Got a Production Privee and a Cotic. It’s steel all the way for me, so at some point I’d love to swap the Dune frameset for a steel one.
The look of skinny steel tubes accentuated by those fat tyres is great I think. Like this Stooge (which I’m not sure is out there yet?)
So, what’s out there? Any boutique brands kicking about I might not have on my radar?
Anything that can avoid huge weight penalties? Anything that’ll allow a straight swap of components from the Dune you know of?
Singular Puffin, no idea if it’s light or not but it’s probably one of the more ‘Boutique’ steel options and looks like a steel bike should, not sure if it’s still available new.
Anything by Surly, the Wednesday is their ‘trail’ fat bike (the rest being more ‘expedition’ biased).
The Stooge looks cool, dunno if it’ll ever see production, seems like the Fat bubble has passed and there hasn’t been much in the way of new frames from anyone for a while.
What’s your budget? Shand and BTR have both done custom builds. If I had the money I’d really like to see if Curtis could do one!
I had my Chinese-built custom titanium frame built for less than the price of a Surly ICT. At least standards have settled down in terms of 150mm fork and 197mm through-axle rear that copes with all available tyre sizes.
Surly ICT. Steel, a bundle of laughs and uses the same 197/150 “standard” and the Dune. Mine (Large) is also probably going up for sale soon after I upgraded to a carbon fibre Dude. No, you’re right, it wasn’t really an upgrade, but it’s done now 🙂
@ RP – I still think you should swap back and sell the Dude
So do I, some days. That’s why I never actually get round to listing it 🙂 The Dude would be worth more and if I spent that on some trick parts for the Truck the weight difference would be smaller. Plus, I still think the truck looks great. I’ll probably just do my usual trick of swithering on here until somebody makes me an offer for one or the other and makes my mind up for me though 🙂
I like the look of the Surlys, but they look very expedition orientated, the ones I’ve seen at least with hundreds of luggage mounts.
I think, I may be wrong, that the ICT is the expedition one and the Wednesday is the trail one, it’s geometry quite close to the On-one bikes? But yes, a bazillion bottle mounts to gouge yourself on in a crash!
ICT is slightly slacker HA actually but 5″ tyres compared to the 4″ ones on the Wednesday (complete builds). Both are Bluto ready so to speak, which would lose some of the ‘expedition warts’
The truly more expedition focused ones are the frameset only Pugsley and Moonlander.
Still liking the Dune overall though, but think those stock tyres are ready to go, they aren’t the best in general mud. Good for deep, wet bogs, but not shallow slippery stuff.
The ICT is something of a trail hooligan. I will ride stuff on it that I would struggle to do on my Turner Sultan. It is a very capable and fun bike. It’s not light but by jove, it makes me smile!
I have tried the Ti Stooge – great bike. Very rapid and comfy.
If he did it, I would love a Ti Jones spaceframe fat bike.
A Surly is for life, not just for Xmas – they are really good bikes, very well finished and fun to ride.
Pugsley and a Ritchey Commando here – the Ritchey is like a zingier, lighter, faster Pugsley. Sizing wise the large Ritchey was almost identical to the 18″ Pugsley. The finish and level of detail on the Ritchey is incredible but it isn’t one of your ‘fast trail’ geometry frames. Love them both.
^ my (biased) advice:
Put the ICT back together and go for a spin or two and see if the smile is greater than the Dude induced grin.
That’s not bad advice. It would require a bit of shed time to make the comparison fair and time is tight so I’d usually prefer to be out there riding whatever works. But you are right, there is no rush, so I could give it another go.
I do like the look of the ICT I have to say, and this is probably not a phrase you should use in relation to fatbikes, but I wonder if it’s a bit ‘overbuilt’?
The Dune is light for what it is and again, inappropriate phrase for a fatbike, but I wouldn’t want to think I’d lose that nimble-ish kind of feeling on it.
How does the Wednesday compare? Anyone ridden both?
I like the simplicity looks-wise of the Wednesday, so long as I could lose a few bottle mounts. 🙂