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Karate Monkey, Commute, touring

5K views 3 replies 4 participants last post by  GFAthens 
#1 ·
Hey there,
Anyone commute with surly Karate Monkey, how does it do for ride longer than 5 miles?
Anyone tried Touring with it? disc brakes and panniers?

Not looking to purchase a slug of a bike for commuting and touring. I thought if i got a KM I could ride trails, commute to work (5-10 miles) and touring possibly off road or on road if i wanted. I had a cross-check, but didn't really enjoy it that well. I should mention that I tend to like to ride more MTB position, as i can sustain this postion better than being in a road position. mainly due to short arms.

Thanks for your commits and helping me through some questions? None of the bike shops around have one to test
 
#2 ·
From their page:

"One more thing: Surly does not recommend the use of racks and disc brakes at the same time on the Karate Monkey. A rack will not clear the disc caliper without jury-rigging the leg outboard, and this will put stress on the mount, potentially breaking it. If you take nothing else from reading this, remember: No rack and disc brakes simultaneously on this frame. Get it? Got it? Good."

So, you could use a Mullet brake system, or dual Vbrakes, but not dual disks. Because you can't mount to the disc brake. If you had dedicated mounts made higher on the stays than the disks, like Singular does on their Peregrine, (there is a pic in there showing the rear disc and just ebove it the rack mount) the leverage issue disappears. I suppose you could use P clamps but their capacity will be lower than a braze-on, so it depends on money, weight and desire, as always.
 
#4 ·
There are two commuter bikes nearby me that are KM's. For a commuter bike, even one that is used on trails some, good V-Brakes will probably work fine. There are some quality V-Brakes out there, and they'll be cheap and light, some you can still use racks.
 
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