All-City Gorilla Monsoon steel "monster cross” bike w/ clearance for 27.5 x 2.4 tires
 

Great new All-City Gorilla Monsoon steel "monster cross” bike w/ clearance for 27.5 x 2.4 tires

https://www.allcitycycles.com/bikes/gorilla_monsoon

https://allcitycycles.com/blog/today...orilla_monsoon

https://www.bikerumor.com/2018/02/17...-gravel-build/

I love these specs and geometry. The big head scratcher is why the straight 1-1/8" headtube. QBP announced another new steel bike, the Surly Midnight Special "all-road" bike with a 44mm headtube. The ability to run a tapered fork in the future would have been nice.

https://surlybikes.com/bikes/midnight_special/bike_info

I saw that and liked it...The geometry is a nice compromise...I suppose I'm not surprised tire clearance maxes out at 700x42, given the tube chainstays and the rear-center. NOTE the BB is 73mm MTB standard and not 68mm road standard...so you have to shop for BBs and cranks that work with that spacing. If I were shopping, I'd want something more than a SRAM 1X build kit. I mean seriously--$2,000USD and they're only getting you SRAM Apex?


I suspect they kept a straight-bore 1.125" headtube, because I don't think anyone anywhere complains about a steel fork and steel steer-tube being not stiff enough...and going tapered would only add expense in machining and weight.

Love the color and steel fork with that cool crown!

Because tapered isnt necessary...its a steel frameset road bike. Tapered is trendy and all, but hardly necessary here.

Nothing particularly new or novel, really...
 

A Soma Wolverine, for example, is a long-existing alternative. And it can probably take even wider tires, and it takes QR and 68mm BB.

I like the bike! Is the 1 1/8" headtube possibly an aesthetic decision?

I'm glad the fork legs are curved. It's a good look on that bike.

Soma had a blog post about converting their bikes to 650b and claimed the wolverine doesn’t get much of an increase in clearance going from 700c to 650b (still around 2”). Not sure why that is, but on my 700c AWOL, the chainstays are significantly dimpled to accommodate a wider tire, but that dimple is optimized at the diameter of a 700c rim. You can tell that at a certain smaller diameter, the clearance between the chainstays would probably be the same or even slightly less...the chainstays run almost parallel to each other from the tire until about halfway to the wheel hub.

Both the surly/all city bikes are able to run 2.35s, which is a very common MTB width with tons of options. Now that we are also seeing a lot of wide 27.5 slick/micronob/file tread tires in comparable widths that would do great on road and gravel, I think this makes for a very versatile bike.

very nice bike

It's not a road bike, 73mm BB kicks it out of that category. Frame and fork tubing as well, it's going to be significantly stiffer and heavier than a steel frameset road bike.

Similar bike from Surly, "Midnight Special", but looks slightly more roadie:

https://surlybikes.com/bikes/midnight_special

Yeah...gotta disagree.
At this point of blurred lines, i would still consider a drop bar 'multiuse'/'adventure'/'do it all' bike as a road bike.

73mm bb be damned, it isnt a mountain bike and it uses a drop bar and road compatible setup. Its a road bike. A versatile one meant for unpaved roads, but a road bike nonetheless.

Regardless of category, i dont think a tapered steerer is needed and still think its overkill for this and many othet bikes of similar style.

A tapered head tube helps in the following ways-
- stiffer due to a cone being stiffer than a cylinder. Ok, but a butted 1 1/8 steel steerer is more than stiff enough for most everyone on non-MTB bikes. I am a large guy and even i dont need a tapered steerer for gravel and dirt trails.
- smoother transition for carbon layup. Having the cone shape helps reduce the curve at the lower bearing and makes for a stronger carbon build. Cool, but this is a steel fork so that is moot.


Moving past what to call the bike and how to categorize it- i just dont think its necessary to use a steel tapered steerer to ride pavement, gravel, and dirt roads. Its overkill and i think it is done because it is trendy more than necessary...or even beneficial. Most simply dont need an even stiffer bike. They may think they need it to 'transfer energy', but that too isnt accurate.


I am not knocking all those who ride large tapered steerers on bikes that arent MTBs. To each their own, and there really are benefits to a tapered steerer for some applications. Its just one of many trends that has seemingly gone viral.

C'mon now, you can't very start calling things whatever you want. From the very first sentence of the description:

It's a drop bar mountain bike, it's not called that because that term kills sales. As does the term "monster cross". I'm not being a pedant here, if you walked into any shop and asked for a road bike that could fit 2.4" knobbies and run a 73mm bb the guys or gals there are going to give you a hard time. Bikes are categorized not only for what they're for but what design cues and features they exhibit.

And, tapered headtubes and forks have become more commonplace mainly because it is an added feature for both marketing as well as OEM production houses.

Twenty years ago...
 

...a 26" wheel with a 2.25" tire was considered big in the MTB world. I couldn't afford suspension so that's what I cut my teeth with, rigid. Forearm muscles and wrists took a beating. This one is 27.5" and 2.4" max. As far as rubber on dirt goes, it's a mountain bike. Geometry, gearing and handlebar, it's a different matter. You won't be finessing gnarly trails on a drop-bar, that's for sure. And let's be honest, the industry peddles dropbars for off-road, not because it gives greater control, but rather to segment the market. What business does a bike with 27.5" 2.4" meat have with drop bars?

It's the same tubing they use for all their other non-premium frames.

Toe overlap
It looks like there will be toe overlap. Perhaps it's just the angle of the photo, though.

Toe overlap was never a problem on my road bikes, but the overlap on my gravel bike means I have to be very careful on steeper climbs with loose surfaces. There's a lot more steering input at those times.

I don't like the headtube angle and fork. I prefer the looks of the new Ritchey Outback.

I find drop handlebars more comfortable than straight handlebars even if I ride for 1,5-2 hours so not super long distances. Of course this only applies if the stem is not slammed.

Where I live we don't have proper mountains, only small hills. I would really really like to ride in the mountains on proper trails with a full suspension MTB, but sadly that's not possible here. In mountain bike language the terrain is not gnarly enough. :D

I would buy this bike to completely get off the pavement (no cars) and ride longer distances on dirt roads, trails, singletrack etc. And sometimes I would ride trickier terrain, but again it's too boring with a MTB, but it would be fun with this, because it's more challenging.

I'm doing all this right now on my steel drop bar bike that has 38mm tyres, but I would like more tyre for increased comfort.

My bike, the Raleigh Stuntman, has a similar mission and design. Except, the Stuntman can fit 2.1" 29er tires, has a tapered head tube, comes with Rival 1x and can be had for ~$1,300.

Yes but the overall thickness and the butting profile is going to be vastly different than their other frames. There's no way their designers are going to spec a 650bx60 knobbie bike with the same tubing as a 700cx40 cross bike. The butted sections are most likely going to be shorter and optimized to maintain good ride feel on singletrack and rougher gravel. On smooth roads this translates to a stiff, dead feeling.

Although I suppose it's possible their other frames are so overbuilt that there might be no changes needed for this frame. That would be pretty unusual and indicative of an extremely poor designer.

I love drop bar mountain bikes. They ride so well on really rough stuff and are a vastly different kind of fun than a flat bar bike.

Sure you could. With the right stem and handlebars my drop-bar MTB is 95% of the bike my flat bar MTB is. Most of the time I don't have the fitness or mental focus to miss that last 5% anyway.

It's all about getting the right combo. Stems need to be as close to 0 length as possible and drops need to be flared. The main issue is that there are extremely few riders riding modern drop bar MTBs so no one is talking from a point of experience. It makes sense, a modern drop bar MTB build is going to run at least $700-$1000 over the already high cost of a good MTB. I built mine using second hand and 9 speed parts and it's still very expensive for a bike I only ride a couple dozen times a year. It's a lot of fun and really an under developed niche, IMO.

I wonder the same thing. I use drop bars when I'm going over 20mph - that is when aero makes a big difference. But a 25+ lb bike with 2.4" tires - I'm not going to be doing high speed runs on that type of bike.

The small head scratcher is why it doesn't have dual fork eyelets.

Has there ever been an era where a single spec defined the intended market with respect to cycling?

Yes, our present era where a bike designed to take up to 2.4" (61mm) tires is most definitely not a 'road bike'.

Present and past. :D

For example aero everything, suspension travel, tyre size, geometry. Things like that. At least IMO.

I would agree most 20+Mph-averaging riders are not going to be riding on this bike, but slower riders would still get some aero benefits on fast downhills and, more importantly, anytime they are riding into serious headwinds.

I think main reason for drop bars on this bike is that it is meant to be a long-day/multiple-day adventure rig. Drop bars are great in helping avoid fatigue. Mulitiple hand positions offered by drop bars help prevent finger numbness, and adjust torso/neck position. Also, STI levers are much easier than MTB thumb shifters to be shifting all day long.