Salsa Mukluk Carbon NX Eagle Assessment
The Takeaway: A decade of refinement produces a steady and polished adventure-ready fats bike
• Go-anywhere bike designed for large adventures
• Handles nicely, even when loaded down
• Suits as much as 4.8-inch-wide tires
Worth: $3,149
Weight: 28.1 lb. (XL)
I had at all times thought fats bikes had been an odd, area of interest product—nice for the meant consumer however not for me. However a couple of rides on the Salsa Mukluk modified that. To know why the Mukluk is so rattling superior for therefore many riders, you need to first perceive the way it—and all manufacturing fats bikes, for that matter—got here to be.
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Let’s begin in the beginning, method again within the late ’80s, not lengthy after the primary mountain bikes arrived in retailers. As far south as New Mexico and as far north as Alaska, curious riders on the lookout for simpler methods to traverse sand and snow began altering frames to accommodate the broader rims and tires they had been cobbling collectively—first by working wheels aspect by aspect, then by welding these rims collectively and reducing aside and stitching again collectively tires to suit them—all in an effort to create a wider platform on which to roll. Earlier than lengthy, and after a lot trial and error, the fats bike was born. The primary ones had been heavy, unwieldy, and slow-rolling, which is just about what I anticipated the Mukluk to be. I couldn’t have been extra unsuitable.
After I pedaled out of my storage on my maiden journey, I didn’t suppose the 28-pound bike can be as fast and nimble because it was, like I used to be driving a refined hardtail made for racing. I didn’t anticipate to face on the pedals and really feel the bike sway forwards and backwards beneath me with a lightness that belied its 4.6-inch tires. And I didn’t let my first log roll, the one the place I chickened out, outline my experience; as an alternative I attempted once more and was amazed at how simply the bike cleared the knee-high impediment. It didn’t take lengthy for me to comprehend, after maneuvering tight singletrack and navigating depraved rock gardens, that the Mukluk looks like a steady and forgiving mountain bike. For good motive. It’s been within the works for 10 years.
—5 Salsa Mukluk Particulars Value Noting—
Have It Your Approach
The Mukluk has inner routing for 2x drivetrains and dropper posts.
Load It Up
Salsa’s Kingpin fork has two units of 3-pack mounts on every leg, plus rack mounts.
Alternator Dropouts
Salsa’s Alternator dropout system makes use of totally different plates to regulate wheelbase and match totally different tires.
Weight Home windows
Regardless of the weight-saving cutouts, the SUNringlé Mulefüt rim is tubeless suitable.
Stud Prepared
The 45Nrth tires are able to take as much as 268 studs every.
The primary full manufacturing Mukluk was obtainable in 2010, which implies it’s had a decade of expertise—each driving the fats bike increase and surviving the plateau of a maturing market—from which to profit and develop. That was by design, says product growth engineer Peter Koski, who’s been with the Mukluk since its inception. Early fats bikes, together with the Mukluk, had lengthy rear facilities, steep head angles, and tall head tubes. Over time, the Mukluk has advanced to develop into one thing that doesn’t look too totally different, on paper, from an ordinary mountain bike. Its 73-degree seat tube angle and 69-degree head angle wouldn’t be misplaced on a cross-country bike.
The Mukluk additionally has what Salsa calls the Alternator dropout, a detachable plate that lets the rider set the rear wheel in two positions: quick for hard-packed snow, longer for elevated stability in deep snow or sand. And its low standover—due to a low backside bracket and distinctive kink within the high tube—makes dismounts straightforward.
―Salsa Mukluk Part Particulars―
Body Mukluk Carbon
Fork Kingpin
Rear Derailleur SRAM NX Eagle
Cassette SRAM Eagle 11-5ot
Chain SRAM NX Eagle
Crankset SRAM Eagle DUB 30t
Shifter SRAM NX Eagle
Brakes SRAM Information T
Rotors Centerline 160mm
Headset Cane Creek 40
Stem Salsa Information Path
Handlebar Salsa Salt Flat 750mm XS-S / Rustler 800mm L-XL
Grips Salsa Hearth Tread Lock-On
Seatpost Salsa Information
Saddle WTB Volt Comp
Wheels SUNringlé Mulefüt
Tires 45Nrth Dillinger, tubeless prepared, customized stud-able
With a agency grasp on the Mukluk’s againstory, I used to be capable of admire the way it might without delay cruise alongside technical trails with ease and be simply as adept at bashing off-piste by way of the underbrush. On paper, I wouldn’t be thought-about the fat-bike kind. I want to go quick, and although I wish to discover, I usually keep on roads and established trails. However I’m hooked on the Mukluk’s capacity to blast by way of dust and snow and brush in a method {that a} mountain bike can’t. Take into account me a convert.
