New fat-bike stuff, Minooka's e-bike rules, 32-inch wheels, Coffeeneuring, They Might Be Giants and a $9 twelve-pack of beer.

Full Spectrum Cycling #338 is out.

We begin by discovering that 338 isn't an area code anywhere in North America, takes a ridiculously long time to write in Roman numerals, and provides just enough material to delay talking about bicycles for a few minutes.

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Waukesha County Parks recently sent out a reminder about electric-bike use at Minooka Park.

The important part for mountain bikers is that Class 1 e-bikes are permitted, but the faster electric motorcycles and throttle-equipped machines we're increasingly seeing on trails are not.

That kicked off a discussion about what happens when Surron-type machines and similar vehicles start treating mountain-bike singletrack like a motocross course. More speed, more weight and riders using trails in poor conditions can turn corners into wider berms and leave ruts that remain long after things dry out.

We're not anti-e-bike around here. We're pretty firmly in the camp of using the right machine in the right place.

Biketoberfest rolls out from Blackbird Bar at 6:30 PM.

It's long been one of our favorite Milwaukee group rides and, with actual fall weather finally showing up, conditions should be considerably more seasonally appropriate than the near-90-degree weather we've been having.

Speaking of seasonally appropriate clothing, the Milwaukee Tweed Ride is Saturday, October 17 with a 1 PM rollout from Cafe Hollander.

Potential frost in the morning? Perfect Tweed weather.

Milwaukee Tweed Ride event

If Tweed isn't supernatural enough for you, Riverwest Radio has a Ghost Walk and/or Bike Ride coming up as well.

Riverwest Radio Ghost Walk and Bike Ride

We also want to remember Melvin Verhein, who recently passed away. Melvin hosted Mel's Musical Memories on Riverwest Radio and had also spent some time as a WMSE volunteer DJ.

Mel's Musical Memories at Riverwest Radio

This is one we're looking forward to.

State Bicycle has launched the new aluminum Fat-bike V2, and we're expecting to get one in for testing at Fat-bike.com.

State has done inexpensive fat-bikes before, so there's some history here. The new V2 gets an aluminum frame, wide-range Shimano 8-speed drivetrain, dropper-post compatibility and a UDH derailleur hanger.

We spent some time talking about the value of simpler drivetrains on fat-bikes. An 8-speed chain and cassette aren't exotic, they're relatively inexpensive to maintain, and a nice low bailout gear matters a lot more when you're slogging through snow or sand than maintaining the perfect cadence in the peloton.

The stock Kenda Juggernauts are the 30 TPI version, so tires may eventually be one of the obvious upgrades, but that's also pretty typical on an affordable fat-bike.

We'll know a lot more once we actually get one.

Read the State Bicycle Fat-bike V2 story at Fat-bike.com.

We also talked briefly about Ornot, which makes the kind of cycling clothing we tend to appreciate: technical gear that doesn't necessarily make you look like you've escaped from a starting line.

The idea is pretty simple. Ride your bike without having to completely change your identity and wardrobe every time you get on it.

We're expecting some Ornot gear to test, so there should be more on that later.

Tony finally rode a bike with 32-inch wheels at Flannel Fest.

His verdict was considerably more positive than expected. It was a quick ride, but enough for an:

"Okay. I get this."

The bike was drop-bar equipped, which makes sense given how much of the early 32-inch-wheel movement overlaps with gravel and endurance bikes.

That led back into the Bearclaw TŌWMAK we've been looking at.

Here's the interesting part: the outside diameter of a 27.5 x 4.5 fat-bike tire and a 32 x 2.4 tire is surprisingly close.

That means the same basic bike can potentially make sense with either setup without dramatically changing its geometry.

Big fat tires for one kind of riding. Big diameter, narrower tires for another.

We'll have more on that separately at Fat-bike.com.

Apparently we need to talk about rim brakes again.

Discussion in the cycling world about bringing rim brakes back to professional road racing prompted the predictable Full Spectrum response: have you seen how fast professional cyclists descend?

There are arguments for simpler and lighter equipment, and hydraulic rim brakes certainly weren't terrible.

But we're not putting our disc brakes on Marketplace quite yet.

Here's a fall cycling challenge that seems much more our speed.

The Coffeeneuring Challenge combines riding bicycles with going somewhere for coffee.

Between October 10 and November 25, the idea is to get out for a series of bike rides involving different coffee stops.

This turned into a much longer discussion about Turkish coffee, caffeine cutoffs and whether coffee needs anything added to it.

Coffeeneuring Challenge 2026

This one was a missed opportunity.

Tony had just seen They Might Be Giants, while Greg discover afterward that co-founder John Linnell had a pretty significant bicycling connection.

During the band's early years, Linnell worked as a bicycle messenger in Manhattan.

In a 1988 interview, Linnell described crashing his poorly maintained work bike while carrying roughly 40 pounds on his back. He injured his wrist badly enough that They Might Be Giants couldn't perform for around four months.

That forced downtime helped Linnell and John Flansburgh further develop what became their famous Dial-A-Songanswering-machine project.

So a bike crash played a small but very real role in They Might Be Giants history.

Had we known all this before the show, perhaps the appropriate move would have been:

"Hey, you want to go for a ride?"

Missed opportunity.

Bikes on the Bus continues.

If you know a musician, touring crew member, artist or other interesting person who's genuinely into bikes, hit reply and tell us who belongs on the list.

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This episode's beer was Leinenkugel's Barrel Man Ale, an amber ale that somehow showed up as a $8.99 twelve-pack.

Which led to the inevitable comparison with buying one beer at a Milwaukee Brewers game.

Nine dollars for twelve beers versus the price of a beer at the ballpark.

We also learned that Tony has, at various points, portrayed almost all of the Brewers Racing Sausages. Chorizo is the one that still needs doing.

Fat-bike season is coming, or at least we're optimistic enough.

If you're into fat-bikes, winter riding, equipment setups, trail conditions or figuring out what actually works when things get cold, check out the Fat-bike Lab.

Go to:

Fat-bike.com

and hit Community.

It's a place to talk fat-bikes without relying on Facebook groups and disappearing social-media threads.

Things mentioned around the microphones this time include:

Milwaukee Tweed Ride - October 17
Event details

Riverwest Radio Ghost Walk and Bike Ride
Event details

Coffeeneuring Challenge - October 10 through November 25
Challenge details

And we're back on the two-week Full Spectrum Cycling schedule, barring concert tickets, bicycles, beer or other foreseeable scheduling hazards.

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