The Unstoppable Krampus

There’s been a lot of buzz lately about fat bikes such as our Pugsley and Moonlander, bikes with massive 4" and 5" tires designed to crawl over and through unusual or difficult terrain. These types of bikes are all about stability, traction, and floatation.

The Krampus is not the same animal. True, it’s got bigger-than-usual tires (29 x 3˝ Knard tires on 50mm Rabbit Hole rims, to be exact), a platform we have dubbed “29+”. But as you may know, we’re not the kind of people to just throw on bigger-than-usual tires for no reason, or to attract attention. While the big tires are impossible to ignore, and do in fact offer increased traction and some degree of float, don’t assume that these big tires are only for slow speed crawling. The Krampus’s frame (geometry, tubing diameter and thickness) has been designed with a long toptube and as short a rear end as we could get away with. This, when combined with the big, wide tires, results in a mad amount of rolling inertia and grip. It can go real fast. It responds well to body English.  

If you plan to use standard width rims and tires, you’ll be able to run a normal mountain triple crank. However, if you go with our 50mm rims and 3˝ tires (and why wouldn’t you?) then plan to use a 1x or 2x crank…a triple simply won’t clear the tire. For best chain/tire clearance, we recommend either a Surly MWOD 2x crank or a 1x system. Other brands’ 2x cranks will work but may cause some chain-on-tire rub in the easiest gear combo. Got all that?

Someday, when the bicycles and insects have merged their lineages and become the dominant, unstoppable race on the planet Earth, Krampus will no doubt be this new species’ Sarah Connor. We’re looking forward to it.