The kids are getting big enough for real mountain bikes. The 9-year-old boy is somewhere between 145-150 cm long and at 44 kg should be strong enough to ride a fatbike.
His one year older brother is a little shorter and lighter and will have to wait until next year for his turn. The fatbike itself is probably even a little lighter than the previous Kona Hula, but the massive wheels and tires take some amount of power to get up to speed. Still, I don't think this will be a problem, though we will take it easy in the beginning. The 9-year-old has orders from the doctor not to jump and hurt himself yet, after this thigh bone broke into two pieces in February. At least the first test ride went well.
The bike is a Salsa Mukluk XS 2014, which I purchased as a frameset with a crankset from my LBS. The rest of the components are mainly stuff from previous bikes I've had.
The only color option of the frameset seemed difficult at first, since I had a wheelset with white rims from my own Mukluk. The only option as I saw it, was to have more white components, mainly the saddle and handlebar. complemented with white pedals, stem and some spacers. The end result was a pleasant surprise. In my eyes it is actually quite good looking.
Rear derailleur from an old bike. I also had front derailleur from an old bike, but it was made for three chainrings up front and looked rather clumsy. My LBS suggested a new one, which was a good idea.
The SRAM X.5 is a reasonably priced and decent crankset for fatbikes.
A framebag is under construction, though it is not of much use with this small a front triangle. There is also very little space for a saddle bag, so when we go bikepacking next week (hopefully), most of the stuff will be transported by me.
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