Want it Wednesday: Salsa Mukluk

These week’s Want it Wednesday is the fat tire Salsa Mukluk. Oh man this bike is so stupid I cannot believe I want one so bad. I think full suspension is silly excess and I am suspicious of 29ers (though I’m starting to like both) yet here I sit lusting after a 34 lb. bike with 3.8” wide tires (that's tyres for my friends in the UK). In the neighborhood where I grew up there was a kid whose dad somehow laced Yamaha dirt bike rims to the Sunshine hubs on his Schwinn Scrambler. We all made fun of him but I secretly envied his bicycle. Maybe my affection for the Mukluk is just some type of manifestation of unresolved childhood issues. Who knows.

I considered trying to write a real review but, as a rule, I try to keep my posts to 400 words or less to match my puppy-like attention span. Plus I would probably just plagiarize this review. The first time I saw a Mukluk, or Surly Pugsley (I honestly can’t tell the difference), I just rolled my eyes; what a silly set up. People started showing up on winter rides with fat tire bikes and they began to make sense. Daniell Musto averaged 17.2 MPH this spring at Barry-Roubaix on a Mukluk. Daniell is a local pro so I am under no delusion I could make one go 17.2 MPH. When I raced expert, sometimes I would see her briefly as she lapped me, skinny little legs with a Slingshot tattoo flying up climbs. Anyway, the Mukluk isn’t as slow and lumbering as it looks.

Last weekend there was a bike demo at the Vasa trail. I rode the Vasa on a borrowed BMC but tried out a Mukluk on the BMX track by the trail head. It really is an interesting ride. It rolls over everything, like a tank. Someone else was on the BMX track with a borrowed Mukluk. We were both as giddy as 11 year old boys, a sure sign a bicycle is doing what it is suppose to. Or maybe that’s just another manifestation of unresolved childhood issues. Either way, it is a very cool bike.