All-City recommend that the max 1x chainring is 38t. The 36T MRP chainring was mated to a 11-42t cassette giving you enough gears to climb a wall! This concession to climbing meant that I ran out of gears on the flat. The test bike came with a SRAM NX crankset. To keep enough room for 2.4″ tyres, while keeping the wheelbase short, All City use a 73mm bottom bracket shell rather than the road standard 68mm. You won’t end up with quirky angles for the shifters either. The 44cm Drove bars are superb and offer just enough flare to give you extra off-road hustling control. As you would expect, they made good use of their in-house brands – Genetic and Halo Wheels. Ison import the Gorilla Monsoon as frameset only kits and built up this press bike to UK spec. coated for durability and rust prevention Bike Spec Steerer Tube / Headset 1-1/8″ threadless, EC34 upper & lower, Crown race 30.0Įxtras Rack & fender mounts, E.D. Seatpost Diameter 30.9mm, Seat Collar 33.1 Externally tapered, ovalized, and dimpled chain stays, tapered seat stays, replaceable derailleur hanger.įork 4130 CroMoly tapered fork blades, Mountain lugged crown and 15mm thru-axle dropouts, straight steertube, IS Disc Brake Tabs.īrake Compatibility Disc Only, 160mm Front & Rear Minimum Rotor Size If you don’t like the fork, you’ll struggle to find a carbon fork to fit it if you want to upgrade.įrame 612 Select CroMoly steel. The head tube is skinny straight steerer only. It is a tad heavy but generally the feel is neutral. The biplane fork follows the general retro theme. The max wheel/tyre combo will drop to 27.5 x 48c. Should you need to bolt on some mudguards, clearance will be reduced. Unlike many 650b frames that tend to max out around 2.1” tyres, the Gorilla Monsoon can comfortably accommodate 2.4” – That’s Enduro MTB territory! The seatpost is 30.9 so you can use a dropper post if you like. The geometry is taken from their cyclocross bike, the Macho Man, but tweaked subtly to accommodate 650b wheels. The tubes are ‘612 Select’, All City’s proprietary blend of 4130 double-butted CroMoly tubing. You can compare them to any carbon or hydroformed aluminium bike you like but, nothing beats the classic look of a steel frame. You only have to look at a picture of the bike to see that it looks just “right”. Think of an up to date, retro styled, skinny steel frame and you aren’t going to be far out. Ultimately, I decided it didn’t matter what you call the Monsoon, it looked like it was going to be a lot of fun.

This isn’t a pejorative statement, just an observation. You can call them monster cross if you like but in my opinion, they are drop bar mountain bikes. (Other brands are available!) Is it a man, is it a plane?

At one extreme you can find the carbon Salsa Cutthroat, then there’s the steel Mason ISO. Pushing the performance envelopeĪs riders started to push the performance limits of their gravel bikes, manufacturers finally recognised that there really is demand for a fat tyred, drop bar, mountain bike. Singular’s steel frames were a delight to look at and ride but for one reason or another, the company never fulfilled its potential and along with monster crossers, entered a period of developmental torpor. Talk about a micro niche!įor a while, if you wanted a “proper” monster crosser you had to look to micro firms like Singular with their Peregrine. MTB shifters weren’t really a viable option either so the earliest bikes tended to be single speeders. They never really caught on because there were no decent brakes available and the geometry was a bit out too.

The first proto monster crossers were ghetto conversions of old XC mountain bikes. It never burst onto the scene, it sort of insinuated itself into the collective cycling consciousness in an organic, evolutionary, way. Preferably, the gnarlier the better!īefore exploring the merits of this bike, it is worth reflecting on the development of the genre so you can appreciate where it came from, and what you can expect of a true monster crosser. I was keen to see how capable it would be in a wide range of riding conditions. Translated from ‘Marketing Speak” – the Gorilla Monsoon in All City’s take on a monster cross bike. The All City Gorilla Monsoon “A bike that blends the best of the categories of cross, touring, and MTB into one slam-bang package of goodness”.

Gorilla monsoon