Karate Monster?

Monkey Cross?

Now that the race season is over for me I get to try some goofy stuff. I had planned to do this to my Soma, but I had to sell that frame.

The conversion was simple enough. Shorter stem with more rise, drop bars, long pull road levers, and a bigger gear.

The fit is pretty good, feels a little tall, but not too bad.

I wasn't enjoying climbing on it today. This might have as much to do with the 54.5" gear(34x18) or coming off a cold, as the position. The bars are narrower, but I still felt I had good leverage.

A 54.5" might be fine for some, or tiny for others, but was rather "uncomfortable" riding the res. Maybe it will be good on an actual CX course (maybe too small even?).

But I'll tell you what (A friend of mine knows this guy who would start every sentence with "I'll tell you what", we figure when he talks to himself he says "I'll tell me what"), once things turned downhill the fun began.

Riding singletrack or fireroads downhill, in the drops was awesome. Felt so "in the bike". Never have I had so much fun riding a fireroad.

Today I'm backing it down to a 49" gear (34x20); we'll see how that goes.