(Click image for larger view.)KTUU, the most popular television news channel in Anchorage, ran a story this week on how Alaska is becoming “the winter cycling capital of the world.” Becoming? Hell, most of us thought it already was the winter cycling capital of the world.
It wasn’t a bad little piece, as TV news features go, though I’m always a little disappointed when such stories prominently feature bikes made by Outside companies and ignore the fact that fat bikes were pioneered here by guys like Mike Gronewald and John Evingson, and are being advanced today by shops like Speedway and Chain Reaction, both of which are building and marketing their own brands.
Instead of focusing on the local guys, Channel 2’s story highlighted Salsa's new Mukluk, which is named—not coincidentally—after the traditional skin-and-fur winter boot worn by Alaska's Eskimos. It’s a fine bike, from what I hear. And Salsa will be happy to mail you a catalog if you’d like to check it out. As long you reside in the Lower 48, that is.
If you happen to live in the “winter cycling capital of the world” and would like to get a current catalog, you’re just shit outta Mukluk.
