Fun ride on my own today and first test of the Moonlander on this type of trail.    It was a hot one out there today and I was a bit tired from an hour twenty road/trail ride with Heath last night.  As a result I didn't push too hard and felt pretty spent from early on.  I just let my cardiotrainer app run so stats include a few stops.

I am now really seeing this bike as a true fat bike/flotation bike and my Pugsley as what a mountain bike should be.  Regular mountain bikes now seem like those freakishly skinny tired bmx bikes little kids ride.

The good:

• Climbs great.  Feels very efficient like the Pugsley. 
• After an initial mental adjustment it handles plenty fast on tight twitchy down hills. 
• Rolls fast and did not feel sluggish, heavy or like it was robbing energy in any way.
• Has sparkly paint.   

The Bad:

• No Husker Du tires.  Those things made my Pugsley ride way better and I notice the big fat Larry tires not hooking up nearly as well.  Much less confidence inspiring.  
• Unexpectedly I did worse at the obstacles like rock fields and balance bridge things than I did on the Pugsley.   I think this is likely related to being tired and not having the air pressure tweaked yet.  
• Those big tires are more sensitive to the wrong air pressure.  I started with 14 rear 11 front and let it out to about 10 each by the end and could have gone lower.   The too high air pressure contributed to less control, sore wrists and a weird bouncing off of rocks rather than crawling over them experience.  
• Bottom Bracket started making a noise which tells me the shop of origin did not put in the "A washer" when putting it together.  

What to change:

• Me more fit and hot temp acclimated.  
• Surly needs to make a Big Fat Husker Du.  I tried the normal ones on my clown shoe rim.  It rode OK but would only work in a pinch I think.  Made the BB too low also.  
• I need to get better at tweaking the air pressure with this bike.  A few psi either way can make a fat bike ride great or horrible and the big fat tires amplify this need.  
• I need to switch out the swept back bars for my old Azonic Double walls.  
• I need to go out with both the Moonlander and Pugsley on the same trail on the same day to get an even more objective view of what each can do.  I love the idea of making the Pugsley the summer bike and the Moonlander the winter and flotation bike but  tend to think I will only want the Moonlander when I get the problems figured out.