2021 Salsa Mukluk Bike Check and Review 

Thanks Pastor Steve!

The inevitable is coming! Lol! Hopefully I can ride more in the winter.

@tablatom hey, that’s awesome! I might do the same thing switch the tires to non studded in spring. I recently installed studs on the stock tires and they are extra grippy on snow/ice.

Yes, it’s nice salsa picked that tires for the aluminum mukluk this year. 👍

Yeah, too bad Salsa was not able to up the stock for this bike. A lot were looking for this bike and I was just lucky to get my size. Hopefully in the first quarter next year they will re-stock them. Cheers!

@Dave John that’s a great combo for brakes! I changed mine to 180mm both front-rear and still 2 piston brakes but shimano XTs. Big difference in stopping. Thanks for watching!

Ayus man Rick?

@Chris Faas Hey thanks for taking the time watching the vid. Yeah, you are correct fat bikes are mostly spec’d with 160mm like you said they are meant for cruisin and not really meant for aggressive riding. But this bike though is so fun that it can take some pretty gnarly single track depending on the rider’s skill level. I tried the stock 160mm for a bit thinking if they wear out it should grip better but, still the same though. And also they market this bike for bike packing, with 160mm rotors it will be a challenge if riding this in some techy trail with all the bike packing load. Right Now I replaced my rotors to shimano xt 180 mm and right away stopping is just quick. But then again, 160 mm is just fine if riding the bike in normal trails.

Thank you ser! Winter riding na naman tayo. Cheers!

Thank you!

@stephen piskor Hey thanks man! I think the mukluk is better in terms of being modern, geometry wise mukluk is slightly different due to the alternator drop out that you can adjust the chain stay to fine tune your riding geo but other than, the frame geo is pretty much close with breargrease. With your height though, its a less problematic when it comes to controlling your bike, you can flick it around easy. But if you are looking for modern specs, then I would go for the mukluk. It boils down to budget as well, also you can upgrade components later on for the beargrease. I hope I gave you some insight on that. Thanks!

@Kumag Ka Hey, thanks for giving the time watching my vid! Yup, I’m from Edmonton. Thanks tol!

@Rasmus red fire thanks for taking the time watching! No, I haven’t tried 27.5 fat, but I’m pretty sure they have similar attributes but maybe slightly taller than the 26. The salsa can be modified to 27.5, too. I have tried putting on a 29er plus on my previous fatbike, very nimble due to skinnier tires but I still like the 26er, in total the 26 is tall enough for me. As for my tire at the rear it’s mounted right as per tire rotation. Thanks!

@@p91rider big thanks! What's your experience with fatbikes on gravel, single tracks.... Snow is not normal in the south of Scandinavia.....the rear tire just seem wrong?? but my bad... Have a good one :-)

@Rasmus red fire no worries! The mukluk fat bike is very capable on single tracks, but like I said, i had to make changes in the brake rotors if I will bring this to more aggressive trails, otherwise the brakes are just fine in gravel and normal double track dirt. This. Ike is also be used in bike packing. Yeah snow here is pretty thick and could last longer than normal. Happy trails!

I’m 5’5” as well and the small size fits right. I’m medium on my other bikes but with this one Im glad I got the small, easy to flick around, besides, the drop out can be change to longer position. I think for fat bike, you need to have a comfortable reach. Hop on it in you local bike shop, and feel how the bike’s reach for you. Thanks for watching my vid, I appreciate it!

@@p91rider Are you sure you are only 5'5"? The seatpost looks very high for someone who is 5'5"...???

@@edfrancis165 the mukluk stand over is actually low, which is really nice. Also the PNW dropper has a short housing stack that can be inserted all the way down. The dropper is 170mm but due to low stand over I can use a longer travel dropper. My dropper is a PNW ranier 3rd gen just in case you want to know. Thanks!

@Steve J - yes I changed the stock grips. Stock grips are really hard to the hands. Grips and rotors are the first ones I replaced after a month.

@@p91rider What grips did you end up putting on? And are you still using the grips you put on? ... Thx

@Steve J I replaced it with Funn Hilt MTB grips orange color got it from Amazon and yes still using it, far much better than stock grips.

@ Todd and Suuz R twofishoutofwater. I would assume that they should be available on any major areas, that’s strange that they don’t have one in Ontario. Try reaching out to Salsa, I ask questions in their website about this bike and they were able to answer back in a day

@Dennis Fossey Hey man, thanks! You can see this in Salsa’s website… here’s the link: www.salsacycles.com/bikes/2021_mukluk_deore_11_green

@@p91rider Thanks big guy..

Hi, Yes you are correct. That’s error on my part, it should be 11-51 not 10-51... it’s shimano’s M5100 series, it is still 11speed with the wide range to 51 teeth. I was shy one tooth. I got too excited during review and was thinking too much about 12 speed. Thanks.

@Arwin Ruiz Salamat ser! Mukluk performs really well, geometry wise pretty much the same with norco and trek. Only difference is the adjustable drop out with mukluk, norco is set in one place but honestly you won’t need adjusting all the time. I like the way the mukluk was made it fits me right. But for money value looks like the bigfoot is better kasi it comes with a dropper and a couple hundred cheaper than mukluk. Mukluk deore 11 no dropper comes with it. It all comes to preference ser, overall i love the mukluk and no regrets in my part. Thanks for taking the time to watch!thanks!

Right. The dropper post is the only diff. Between the two. I don't know if the mukluk comes with all cables routed internally coz the big foot 2 does. And how about the price diff. how much the mukluk deore 11 there? Right now when I inquire here SK the price of norco 2022 big foot 2 is around $2365 cad. including tax. Thank u po.

Wow! They have 2022 already? I only saw 2021 the last time I went to the bike shops. Bike brands can change drastically specially this time the supply is less than the demand, they are taking advantage of it. Mukluk is about 2300 cad not including tax, and yes it has internal routing for dropper. If you watch closely in my review I’m using a PNW dropper with internal routing. I think for 2365 with tax that is still pretty good value if comes with a dropper.

2021 big foot 2 are sold out through out sask bike shop. The 2022 model is just only pre-order by reservation which arrive this October. Mahal din po pala mukluk. Hehe ganda rin naman po kasi brand ng Salsa. Trek Farley 5 is hard to find too. Maybe I'll choose big foot 2, it's a little bit cheap compare mukluk deore 11 and trek farley 5 and it comes with dropper post. Salamat po sa info at advise nyo. More power po boss.

You’re welcome brother! And thanks for watching. Hopefully you’ll get your fat bike soon. Ride safe!

@Andrew Yi the frame size is small. Thanks!

@JJUN JJ PAPA i think small if you want it nimble I recommend small. Medium is ok for you but size small for your height is more optimized. get a test ride in the bike shop try both sizes

@@p91rider Thank you for your answer. Have a nice day

No problem!

It’s around $2300 CAD, but it might be different in other places. Thanks buddy!

Walang ano man

Touché... zombie apocalypse might happen after the vid vaccine. 😬😂. Lol!

@Mike Coglione - Hey thanks for taking sometime watching my review. Thanks for the added knowledge, my comments are based on my experience and personal opinion. But I appreciate your knowledge. for my years of riding I always get at least 180mm rotors for all my bikes, ever since my braking has been really good, well that pairs with better brakes though like shimano XT or XTR. I’ve been a shimano person although i do have experience in sram brakes as well. About the mukluk, I eventually change the rotors to Shimano XT 180mm, it does gave me a good braking power just before the big dump of snow hits the ground this fall. I wanted to try more but it’s slippery anywhere you go now, but you are correct in your explanation, I ride this fatbike in some good downhill spots in our area, they are not that long but it accumulates with all the steep and switch back hills we got here and that’s true the brake fades after an hour or so, but after switching to 180 mm, it maintains the braking power. Also I’m so used to XT or XTR, I’m looking for that better braking modulation and from what comes stock with the Mukluk which is a tektro... maybe that made me felt in my head stopping power is not enough, but now though it felt better with 180 mm XT. Eventually I will upgrade the brakes itself to something better, for now I’ll use and abuse this tektro so I can have a long term review on this bike. You are correct with tire pressure as well, the more I tweak my tire pressure it gives me a better traction especially I converted it to tubeless, I was able to get better traction paired with 180mm. I will not do much upgrade until I tested everything. Thanks for the insights, much appreciated!

@@p91rider I want to state that I know very little about bicycles and even less about MTB/Fat and trail/offroad cycling. My experience comes from the car world I used to do high performance driving and track days. People would clamor for "better brakes" all the time and the instructors, even vendors for all that stupid tuning stuff would be the first to tell you that if you floored the brakes on a straightaway, got the ABS to go off and heard the tires screech that was impending locking which meant the traction was the limiting factor, not the braking power. People confuse brake feel all the time. I have a friend who isnt' very bright who thinks his brake upgrades helped his car brake better. The truth is he also did a tire upgrade (which probably accounts for a lot) and he did his "testing" on two different days. Even the temperature, the wind direction, asphalt or road surface can affect this. For this reason car testing is done on the same day, in the same place, on the same asphalt, on the same temps/atmospheric conditions and even then they do the runs in both directions because even the wind or a slight incline that is not detectable by other means can be pushing you one way or the other. Then they take the average of the two 180' opposite runs or at least state the two. As far as tire temps, to show my own lack of MTB/Fat knowledge I have a Salsa Rangefinder. I took it out a few times in the woods in the spring and hated it. I fell a bunch of times, had to keep getting off the bike, it would always be spinning the rear tire uphill or in puddles. In short it SUCKED. I thought MTB sucked and it wasn't for me. I was looking for lessons or just to sell it. Then the guy at my local bike shop recommended not only lowering the pressure, but if snow or mud was in my riding repertoire not only keep the pressure at the lower end of what is recommended for those tires, but lower the rear pressure more. What I mean is instead of having the rear tire, which normally seats more weight due to the position of the rider, having more psi the logic being to carry the extra weight. That way you have the same psi in front/rear or if you're slipping in mud/snow uphill even lower the rear tire pressure slightly vs the front. Just like in high performance driving everyone wants to stiffen things up mistaking the instant response you get from stiffer suspension, springs or sway bars from that is "more grip". The truth is that a 50% difference drop pressure is a 50% INCREASE, yes INCREASE in grip. More compliance is more grip, not stiffness. So the more slippery the surface you plan to ride on, the more articulation and compliance you want in your tires/suspension. That is why the fat bike is so great for the mushy stuff because the tires are HUGE and soft. I was thinking of a Mukluk due to my bad experience with the rangefinder but dropping the PSI from 25 front/30 rear to 18-18 f/r was enough to make this thing feel like a mountain goat. I am a very timid rider but man just that change alone makes me feel like I could do wheelies catching lots of air so I really don't want to spend nearly 2 grand on another bike I will use 3 months a year when the Rangefinder is just so damn good! Big difference just dropping a few psi. On road maybe high pressures are more efficient and better. On trails not so; less is more. But yes even on your Mukluk try dropping your tire pressures slightly even by 1-2psi from like 8 to 5 or 5 down to 3-4 and don't feel like the back needs to be more. Try making the back the same as the front especially in snow to keep the back end from slipping uphill or going out on you. It's free but worth trying this "mod" or "hack" and see how it feels. Like I said you know more about bike than I do but this car stuff definitely crosses over and the biggest lesson one can learn from any hobby where there are tons of vendors that want to profit from your ignorance is DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Lastly yes it sounds like the bigger brakes are worth it for you. Not to slow down better on any one braking or stop but due to your long longer rides needing a bigger heat sink and endurance for repeating long term braking one turn or downhill after the next.

@Mike Coglione that’s very true about the hype... oh man, bike industry is just pretty much the same marketing to get the sales up. Thanks to people that are testing them in the real world. Yeah, you are right about tire pressures, since mtb/cycling discovered tubeless set up, it opened a new better traction in riding. Kudos to you, great knowledge about brakes. Happy riding!

@Sham Rock - That’s true pricing is a little higher on salsa’s side... no doubt the trek farley is the bang for the buck. Sadly though, we can’t find availability for the farley here in my home town. Farley is one hard to beat in terms of value. My local bike shop gave the salsa for a test ride and I love how it rides, I end up buying it. If only other shops have the farley, I could have tried and probably bought one.

@@p91rider I like Salsa bikes I have a Fargo - I want a mukluk But value wise it’s really hard to justify.

And by the way the new Mukluk this year has deore 11 speed 11-51, thankfully they didn’t put the nx on this year. But you are right, when it comes to value there’s a few that can beat salsa. Also, you might want to look at norco bigfoot 2021 model, $2000 Canadian with dropper too. I think it’s also bang for the back fat bike that you can get.