The latestaddition to my stable is a
Borealis Crestone . Carbon frame made by pretty much the original fatbike company. 27.5 wheels with Hope hubs and Mulefut rims and 4.5" Maxxis Colossus tires. Mastodon 120 mm fork, Thudbuster LT post. Answer 20/20 carbon Alt bars. SRAM Hydraulics, 12 speed GX. Coming from a Pugsley, the only similarity would be the bars and seatpost. And that they both have a dark sparkly finish. I had demo'd a Flume from Doug at
Aunt Betty a year or so go, and would have gone back for the Crestone, but I found this one at
BikeBarn in Whitman and could not resist this 'Midnight Beast'!
I love my pugsley too, with zippy 26" wheels. My first impression on the Crestone was that is was sluggish, and heavy up front with the suspension fork. The fork did add 3+ pounds, and I noticed that first. After the first 3 rides, I didn't notice it any more. The ability to bash through rock gardens and roots outweighed the extra weight. The bigger wheels and tires gave me thatt first sluggo impression, but found that once I got the bike in motion, it just wanted to go faster.
The Thudbuster has been on almost every hardtail I've ever owned, but it really excels on this bike. Not sure why, but the sum of all these parts make it into a monster hardtail! This bike is the culmination of all my dreams of having larger volume tires on my bikes. I've never been a fan of any tire under 2.4 ( at least since 1992 ) on any mountainbike. Currently I run a Rekon 2.8 up front my
Transition Smuggler, which won'y accept more than a 2.4 rear. Thats a fun bike.
But I'm really loving the Borealis. It's been my main ride for awile now. I originally thought I'd just ride it in the messy 'shoulder seasons', but I rode it through the summer as much as I could. Now into winter, I'm really looking forward to some snow riding!
