Dear Mr. Cyclofiend -

Here's my current 'mountain' bike - a Surly Karate Monkey that I picked up last year. It's a great bike. It was originally a single speed, which I road as such last summer. Off road single speeding is a lot of fun, but being in Colorado (and with so-so fitness) I decided some gears were in order. Last winter I built a new rear wheel on a lightly used XT disc hub and Salsa Delgado rim. It's now setup as a 1x9 rig w/ XT rear derailleur and 11-34 cassette. I've run it with both Midge bars and the original Surly Torsion bars, friction shifting only for the most part.

As always, thanks for the excellent site

- Michael Kullman

mk@tdi-bi.com