I got news a couple of days ago that my (Ogre) frameset has been delayed from early March delivery to mid-April. Hmm.
Without being overly melodramatic, this makes me really nervous – any further delay and I’d be up the proverbial creek with no paddle or canoe! It also leaves me with little time to get everything dialled in properly and do some decent test rides.
As such, I’ve been looking into alternatives and the strongest contender at the moment is a Surly ECR. It’s a change of approach to a certain extent – with 3″ tyres (as opposed to the 2″ I would have been running on the Ogre), this is very much into Fatbike territory. And therein probably lies my hesitation. Coming from a road background, I was probably trying to hold onto skinny(ish) tyres! This would be something of a leap into the unknown… but then again, isn’t this whole trip?!
The big advantage of the ECR would be off-road, where the fat tyres should ‘float’ over rougher terrains and give much better traction in looser stuff.
It’s interesting how difficult it can be to change your mind once you’ve got your heart set on something though!
Decisions, decisions…