My WIDLE Supertramp.

Even though it’s designed for 29″ wheels, I built it with 27.5″.

Therefore, wider tires. Bulky 2.6″ (6.6cm)!!!

It’s MASSIVE! I bet you are thinking that it’ll ride like an thumping elephant. I also thought the same.

I really liked how it look right after it was built, but I also didn’t make huge expectations. Was hoping it’ll be just slightly more useful than my MTB who I haven’t been able to find its purpose in this urban jungle…

I don’t do touring or off-road fun rides in the middle of Tokyo, you see?

But, damn! It rides so quick and I can’t figure out why! (As I’ve written on my previous blogs, I keep telling you guys how stunned I am about this bike.)

So today I’m gonna calm myself down and understand what’s the secret behind it.

So I’ll first break down my most recent riding experience.

Went to Hokkaido, 120km in 3 days, no flats, continuous ups and downs, on a fully loaded bike. But because of the immense rigidity and stability of the front end, I didn’t feel that much tired whilst riding.

It’s quite usual that you load so much gear on the front area of your bike, and after riding some miles you feel sick of the handling that swings everywhere. This bike however, got no problem with that.

I didn’t even realize that even happening until half way.

There also weren’t any circumstances where the handlebar suddenly tilts heavily after a certain point. That brilliant head angle, 44mm head tube diameter, and the bulky segment fork all doing their jobs.

For my commutes before this camp ride, uphills are surprisingly easy and it gets up to speed very well. Even though it’s a colossal bike, I enjoy stand pedaling literally forever, so much fun!!

My first finding during my commute was how rigid the front area of the bike felt. “So solid, so quick!”, what I was feeling at my commute rides basically became even more meaningful in camp rides.

It all makes sense now. Fully loaded, riding on gravel, and still the brake was all perfectly functional without a single squeak, in a hydraulic brakes and metal brake pads set up. This actually made me worried “wait, does that means a lot of loads is concentrated to the head set…?”, hopefully not!

 

A lot of on-chest-GoPro type photos, oops! Well, I hope there aren’t so many problems with that…

Okay, that’s it for this review.

Next time maybe I can write about how it attacks on gravel without no cargo on.

 

My respect to Jeff-san keeps on growing as I ride this bike.

True bike rider, building bikes. How can that go wrong!!!