Tristram's Drakkar...
Click on the image above if you want to read more about the lovely Rawland Cycles Drakkar you see. For some more Drakkar porn click here to see Dolan’s rig featured on Eco Velo.
Drakkar low trail tidbit – emailing Sean Rawland I found out you can get the Drakkar with a 70mm offset fork that gives you ~33mm of trail with a 42mm wide Grand Bois Hertre on it. That’s a nice option to know about.
Click on the image above to see the Rawland Cycle Drakkar brochure in PDF.
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Yeah, I’ve been lusting after a Drakkar plus their moustache handlebar for some time now…
Knowing about the lower trail fork is nice. I like the handling of my All Road with ~30mm of trail.
yeah, this has been on my short list of frames for a while…
that and the singular peregrine.
still gunning for the 29er hardtail first…
Argh! I had my sights on a IGH build of a Surly Troll for a new commuting bike, but now you’ve planted the element of doubt! And it isn’t the first time. This looks like a nice frame. It is similar to the Troll, but not quite (would 1.5deg of HT and 5mm of rake make a difference?). Interesting thing too is seeing a disk brake mount on a curved fork, I’ve only seen them on straight forkblades till now.
@Laurent – the Drakkar has 1.5 deg steeper HT and between 9.5mm and 29.5mm more fork offset depending which fork you go with. These bikes will all handle quite a bit differently. So it depends what you plan on doing with it. If you want to carry your cargo up front the Drakkar with the 70mm fork would be a good choice. If you want to carry your cargo in the rear the higher trail Troll makes sense. I’m not sure what to say about the Drakkar with the 50mm offset fork….you may want to contact Sean Rawland and ask him how it would compare to the Troll.
Also keep in mind the tires/wheel size you use will have a significant impact on how each bike handles.
Those handlebars look like they dip too low for moustache bars, are they something akin to Salsa Woodchippers?
i think he is talking about the ones that Rawland makes.
those bars shown are dirt drops, i think maybe they are on one gary’s.
darn it Vik! now you have me dusting off my Rawland fantasy build spreadsheet!
They’re Midges. Check out the last photo.
Okay dumb question but we (being downunder) don’t seem to be exposed much to these sorts of bike designs. Our market is more straight forward MTB I would suggest. Anyway my question is what would be the general intended use of such a bike? Off-road touring? Something else?
@Aushiker – I see four build paths for the Drakkar:
1. drop bar dirt/gravel grinder – imagine a mix between a cyclocross bike and a MTB
2. light touring bike – using a front biased loading strategy due to the low trail geometry
3. randonneur bike – get the 70mm offset fork and mount a french style bar bag on a small front rack
4. commuter bike – for someone who wants a 650B ride and lower trail geometry