Hey everyone,
I'm looking to build more of an adventure bike that I can ideally take on a few cool routes around Southern California (where I live), namely the SoCal Desert Ramble, Baldy Bruiser, and StageCoach 400, but I'm having some trouble choosing a frame design.
At first I was really interested in the Crust Evasion. I liked that it's basically marketed as an offroad touring bike with clearance for 3" tires. Then I began seeing 2 things:
- People complaining on reddit about Crust frames breaking. I realize this could just be people underbiking and putting their frames through things they aren't designed to handle but if anyone owns an Evasion I'd love to know your thoughts on the durability.
- All of the routes around Southern California that I want to do seem better handled by proper hardtail mountain bikes, which the Evasion is not.
At the end of the day, I think my problem is I want this bike to be fun on the pavement but also capable enough on single track, which I know are two conflicting ideas. As an alternative to the Evasion, I was looking at the Surly Grappler or Ogre. Both come with wide tire clearance and rigid forks but could probably be fine on the routes I'm interested in. I'd love to know your thoughts. Am I delusional?
by TBaginz
2 Comments
La Cabra could be an option.
I was in your same boat about 2 years ago and looked at many different frames. Including the Evasion. I will start this by saying I am a surly hater so I am not going into that. If you are looking for a flat / jones bar bike the Wilde Supertramp is enticing. If you are looking for something that goes with drop bars the Rodeo Labs Flaanimal is an excellent choice but considerably more expensive. If you are not a fan of those I can keep going with frames as this was all I looked at for months.