Those of you who are familiar with the breed of dog known as the Kangal might understand why I decided to name this bike after it -- they roam the Anatolian Steppe, often in a feral state, and when I first dreamt about riding a bike like this way back in 2018, I was also living in a feral state, roaming the Anatolian steppe!
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As
@jordanharrisonreader and I rode our bikes across Europe and Central Asia in 2018 in search of India (
@slowlyrollingeast ), we came up against a lot of terrain and surface types that our humble 26'' Long Haul Truckers were just not suited to. Tyres and frames would clog up with mud as the Turkish winter mountain passes turned into fudge-like quagmires. Frame bosses would shear off from the relentless pounding of washboard road on the Pamir Highway and the rocky surfaces of the Kargush pass. These experiences are branded into my memory, so last year when I was trying to decide what show bikes to build for the 2026
@bespoked.cc show, I had the idea to build the Kangal. It is kind of a concept bike of what I think would have been the ideal setup for the trip back in 2018.
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My experiences showed me that certain features of the Long Haul Trucker I rode in 2018 were actually pretty much perfect -- a 3 x 8 speed drivetrain proved to be absolutely solid, with spare parts cheap and readily available even in the more remote parts of the world. But if I wanted to use a 3 x 8 on the Kangal, I would have to get creative, especially since it would be running a boost back end. I had to build the lower section of the seat tube offset to the right by 3mm in to allow this old-fashioned 3x configuration to work with the boost back end. This was also one of the reasons I raised the chainstays, to allow me to build the upper section of the seat tube central to the rest of the bike. The raised chainstays also leave plenty of mud clearance for the chunky 29 x 3.0 inch Maxxis Minions, and these tyres combined with the sprung
@brooksengland Flyer should make any Pamir washboard feel like Sunday jaunt down a canal towpath.
#bikepacking #custombikeframe #framebuilder #stokedforbespoked #touringbike #kangal #handmadebike #medusacycles #pedaltramp #bilkewander
